Just finished The Dark Tower

[JoeSherry]

I just finished my first journey down this epic and am still a bit in shock. Pages read, battles won, friends lost. I really didn't think it would be my cup of tea. I've flirted with trying to read fantasy fiction in my youth and really have no love for the genre. I mistakenly assumed(and we all know what Eddie says about assuming!) that this was a fantasy epic spread over 7 books, and what I found was much more than an genre label could convey. I'm saddened by leaving the world behind and yet I'm really satisfied. The ending didn't come as a shock as "Ka is a wheel" concept seemed present throughout, and there was no other line that could end the book. It is Steve's best first line, and best last. I could go on for days, but I don't want to beat a dead horse, I'm sure I'll have a chance to discuss much in the threads now that I don't have to worry about spoilers. Long days and Pleasant nights!

[kisun]

When I first read the ending I didn't know whether to feel upset or stupid. I now admire the ending, seeing as how any other would not seem worthy of the rest of the epic.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Yes, it leaves you in shock, Joe, I agree.

Apart from the plethora of threads devoted to it, there's a Social Group called The Dogan devoted to all matters Towerish to which you're more than welcome to join.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Trailmix]

Indeed it is a wonderful, epic, glorious masterpiece. I can't say enough about this series. Glad you got the chance to read it. I've read the series twice myself.

[bopropadop]

Congratulations! Glad you enjoyed it. Check out The Dogan in the social groups to discuss all things DT.

[PurpleAnn]

Hi! I'm new here. I stumbled across this site while trying to find out if Stephen King was possibly influenced by Bill Stoneham's paintings (haunted Ebay painting-The Hands Resist Him) when writing Duma Key. I love the book! I think it is his best work since Green Mile & Lisey's Story. I am only about half way through the book, but I can't help thinking about the paralells between Edgar Freemantle & the real-life Bill Stoneham.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi! I'm new here. I stumbled across this site while trying to find out if Stephen King was possibly influenced by Bill Stoneham's paintings (haunted Ebay painting-The Hands Resist Him) when writing Duma Key. I love the book! I think it is his best work since Green Mile & Lisey's Story. I am only about half way through the book, but I can't help thinking about the paralells between Edgar Freemantle & the real-life Bill Stoneham.

Hi,

Welcome to the MB, and keep posting!

Boy, do you have a treat in store in the 2nd half of Duma Key!

Long days and pleasant nights

[Spideyman]

Am pleased you took your first journey with the Dark Tower series. It is awesome. In time, may I suggest you have a re read and take your second journey. I think you will be surprised at the results.

[poisonbat]

I must say that my first reaction to the ending was not positive. However, after much discussion with other SK fans I feel it was perfect. The only thing I wish would have happened was an epic battle with the CK. The journey will always stay with me and I plan on revisiting this world (worlds) soon. :bat:

[bopropadop]

Hi! I'm new here. I stumbled across this site while trying to find out if Stephen King was possibly influenced by Bill Stoneham's paintings (haunted Ebay painting-The Hands Resist Him) when writing Duma Key. I love the book! I think it is his best work since Green Mile & Lisey's Story. I am only about half way through the book, but I can't help thinking about the paralells between Edgar Freemantle & the real-life Bill Stoneham.

Hello and welcome! Duma Key is a good one. Glad you are enjoying it. I don't have an answer to your question though, sorry...

[interplanetjanet]

I honestly don't think DT could have ended any other way. I wanted it to but when I sat back I realized that it just couldn't.

[Trailmix]

In my humble opinion, The Dark Tower is the best fantasy series ever written. That's just me though.

[JohnDalglish]

In my humble opinion, The Dark Tower is the best fantasy series ever written. That's just me though.

Hi,

No it isn't LOL

Personally, I believe it the greatest piece of writing ever. Full stop.

Long days and pleasant nights

[JoeSherry]

I agree that it's not the best fantasy series ever written. It transcends any genre labeling imo.

[Ubasti]

Hi! I'm new here. I stumbled across this site while trying to find out if Stephen King was possibly influenced by Bill Stoneham's paintings (haunted Ebay painting-The Hands Resist Him) when writing Duma Key. I love the book! I think it is his best work since Green Mile & Lisey's Story. I am only about half way through the book, but I can't help thinking about the paralells between Edgar Freemantle & the real-life Bill Stoneham.


Hi and welcome :smile2:

[sena]

How did you feel when you finished the dark tower 7.

[plb6977]

The Dark Tower series was a great story. If you liked it you should read the comic books. They pick up after the fourth novel and are very interesting.

[Tayholdem]

Yah, I loved it so much i will read it again to make sure i didn't miss anything. Plus with LSOE it adds more to the epic story. :oo:

[michal]

It has been quite a journey for me reading the books: Learning to accept that hardheaded Roland, meeting characters from other books, realizing that the journey is much more important than the Dark Tower at its end, it is, in fact, the only true purpose of it all.

[Jack Frost]

When I first read the DT series, I read it as they came out, so I ended up waiting a LONG time between books. I am currently re-reading from start to finish without stop for the first time and have reached book V. I am loving being back in Roland's world!!!

I remember voraciously reading book VII, getting to the end, and very loudly exclaiming, "HOLY $#!+!!!". The ending just blew me away. I wasn't mad, or unhappy, just shocked! At the same time I contend, like so many of you, that it could not have ended ANY other way. Any other ending would have just been incomplete. Almost like an ending that was just thrown in so it could end. The end as it is opens so many different doors (pun definitely intended) as to the future.

What I love about SK's writing is how I hate him for what he does to his characters. No fairy tale, not necessarily a happy ending--it's real. Life doesn't always have happy endings to the individual tales of our lives. If SK wanted to provide that with DT, the story would have ended before it really began and Roland would be happily married to Susan with lots of little miniature Rolands and Susans running around in Gilead.

The DT is a story of love, passion, emotion, obsession, and sacrifice. It is a tragedy.

Ka is a wheel; a cruel, cruel, wheel.

[patson]

I just finished the series, too, except for The Gunslinger, but I will read that soon. I'm new here, but wanted to add that I, also, loved the DT series and was also shocked :wow: at the ending, but knew it couldn't have ended any other way. Ka . I also read The Little Sisters of Eluria with Roland in it, a short story from Everything's Eventual.
I'm so glad that I found this site.

Long days and pleasant nights!:)

[patson]

Hi, thankee, sai, for the welcome, JohnDalglish. :)

[Vic Vega]

I read the DT series one after the other, and to be honest, there were things along the way that bothered me. The ending though wasn't one, I was fine with it. When I was finished reading I felt kinda sad, I spent a couple months reading these books straight through and when I finished the last page I realized I wasn't going to be "visiting" these "people" anymore.

[Jack Frost]

I read the DT series one after the other, and to be honest, there were things along the way that bothered me. The ending though wasn't one, I was fine with it. When I was finished reading I felt kinda sad, I spent a couple months reading these books straight through and when I finished the last page I realized I wasn't going to be "visiting" these "people" anymore.

I definitely agree with you!!! Now that I'm re-reading the series, I get to fall in love (or hate) with the DT characters all over again!

I'm also the same way with what bothered me. Little things along the journey, but certainly not the story overall!

[JohnDalglish]

When I was finished reading I felt kinda sad, I spent a couple months reading these books straight through and when I finished the last page I realized I wasn't going to be "visiting" these "people" anymore.

Hi,

But one consolation is that you're never quite finished DT IMO, it benefits from re-reading.

I've read it straight through four times (plus countless re-reads between publication) and I've just got more and more out of it each time and I'm looking forward to 'visiting these people' again.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Insomniak]

I may of skipped and bounced through a few chapters out of sequence, but It's time to take it all in now, every drop of Stephen King's epic. I remember King saying something like the Tower is in the end what the Roland character will find.

[Bryan James]

I didn't like The Ending, but I accepted it as A Beginning. (I read 'The Gunslinger' one afternoon immediately after finishing the series.)

What else did I want after the Last Door, a bouquet of plastic roses, a glass of milk, and an oven-fresh chocolate chip cookie?

What a struggle writing the (whole) thing must have been.

Aside: the whole "Door" thing has always reminded me of Sierra's early "King's Quest" computer game.

BJS

[FETiD]

Even though I adored the ending, when I went to sleep that night (after staying up to about midnight reading) I dreamed about Roland. Inserted myself in Roland's path and helped him finally do everything and not forget anything important but, sadly, it wasn't one of the dreams I remember details about. If he entered the top floor of the Dark Tower in my dream, I don't remember, and especially don't know what he found there. :down: Maybe, subconsciously, I really wanted true closure, and to know what was up there. And maybe it was just so incomprehensible to my human brain to stand to remember it and hold onto that knowledge. :oh:

[Big Matt]

I, fairly recently, finshed the DT series and was left numb by the ending...at least initially. I couldn't decide whether it was the only ending that could have been, or a cheap cop out. Since then I have settled firmly in the former camp, it is definitley the only ending that could have happened.
I have since wondered what the one thing Roland could change in the story that would break the cycle, for me its the scene where he lets Jake fall, if at that point he saves him, the cycle breaks and Roland is free.

I am now re reading the series as I left some large time gaps when I first read it and have just finished the Waste Lands. Very much enjoying the journey the second time.

[Jack Frost]

The whole thing definitely ended up with a kind of Groundhog Day feel. Although, assuming it wasn't Roland's first time through, the difference would be that in Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character remembered everything as he repeated the day over again.

I think there are many points in time where the cycle could have been broken. What if he hadn't challenged Cort when he did. What if he and Susan (and the rest of the tet) had run off instead of staying to finish the fight. Stepping back from that, what if he would have killed Rhea when he first confronted her?!? Of course not dropping Jake. Or simply, at any point, if he had just given up his quest for the Tower!

I think Linoge said it best...Hell is repetition!