Acts of a writer who just needs to finish?

[Wanderer From Ys]

SK left some huge, unresolved questions for me:

• The tiny little subplot about the superflu. Was that mentioned in another novel? I was very, very interesed in finding out what happened there.
• What in the world did the Old People do? Nuke themselves? I'm figuring so with all the muties running around, but nukes don't create crevice monsters and such.
• Who started North Central Positronics? Who can we blame for the world falling apart? Oh, how we long for a villain

[/LIST]
Say thankya big-big for responses.

Come-commala, come-commala, come drink a nozz-a-la....

The superflu elements were most definately the stand. Along with beware of the walkin dude, there was also the mentioning of going to Nebraska to see the old woman. But I think Roland or the narrator says that it's not their tale. But to fans of the Stand this was very obvious.

[terrain]

I finished the last book for the first time yesterday and today i've rushed on to the forum to find out what other people thought.

I too struggle to make sense of certain parts of the tale and felt that other parts weren't explained properly.

The sections that Stephen wrote himself into don't make any sense to me and i think if you took that whole story line out it wouldn't make much difference.

For me the back story of Roland was distorted. Far too much time was spent on the part in Mejis and not enough on his journey or what happened at Jericho Hill.

I agree about North Central Positronics. The establishment of the Tet Corporation and what it achieved would have been fascinating.

I'm afraid i was under whelmed by the DT journey It didn't flow and left too many questions unanswered.

I think SK constantly asks us to just accept. I think it takes a brave writer to deliver what he sees without feeling a great need to explain every detail of the past. Just accept, don't always expect answers. The Old People, robot bears, glass balls, all that stuff...it is what it is, it's how our world has ended up. The story isn't really about how it got that way, it's about survival in a world as he writes it.
As for SK appearing in his own novel, I always felt this was a master stroke. Talk about ballsy writing. A huge risk, and for me it paid off. Not to overuse a DT phrase, but he is part of their ka. And when SK recognises his own characters and runs away, I just about wet myself.
But that's just me

[Electricman707]

Oh you think this is the last book think again! Won't be a 7 book series but I think another book.

[Connie Reader]

The first time that I read through the series I wasn't sure about the W&G book, it was sad and I was so anxious to get back to the meat of the story, that I didn't realize how important it was to the series as a whole. Sheemie's return to the plot in DT7, because of Roland's need to unload this burden of all that happened and how it relates to their ka-tet, and also the way they use the same kind of attack on the Wolves as they did on Farsons men, the book mad more sense than I realized at the time. The part with the thinny in eyebolt canyon was terrifying and awesome! Roland needed them to know everything to not only cement their ka-tet going forward ( as if he were saying "here is a big chunk of what I did wrong and right and can you accept me as your dinh in spite of it?") but to help plan the battle that lay ahead. It was almost as if somewhere in his head he knew he had lived this before and telling them that story was one of the things he had to do differently in this journey.
just my thoughts

[Ranger_Strider]

The superflu elements were most definately the stand. Along with beware of the walkin dude, there was also the mentioning of going to Nebraska to see the old woman. But I think Roland or the narrator says that it's not their tale. But to fans of the Stand this was very obvious.

It turns out that WE are the Old People, that's pretty obvious, I think. The crazy twist is that it is the Old People from Derry that forge the undoing of the Crimson King by saving a young boy from a premature death. I see some wicked poetic justice kind of twist in that. Read Insomnia.

[blunthead]

I did not have any of the above problems with DT, including a sense of the climax and ending being rushed. I was a little surprised that Mordred, as cunning as he/it was, was disposed of as he was, but I also was so glad when he/it got it.

[Jaydean]

Some good point here, I must say tho I read the stand after the DT series and its hard to pick a fav, Wizard & Glass was probably my fav of the DT series, mainly because of Rolands Ka-tet and The Big Coffin Hunters, and Cuthberts aim with a slingshot. I suppose everyone is gunna have their opinion, for instance, alot of people said Wolves Of Calla was boring, I loved it, mainly due to the language used. The DT series would be top of my list tho, just for the fact that if i didnt read it, I wouldve picked up Low Men in Yellow Coats and not known an awful lot about Ted Brautigan. The ties make reading other King Novels more appealing, Salems Lot, The Stand, etc. There are many I havent read, but thank my brother dearly for putting me onto DT series. When he told me, he was reading Songs Of Sussanah, Within 3 weeks Id read 1-6 and half of DT7 - thats how ingrossed I was, captivating reading.

[garygak]

I hear you. I could use another ten DT novels. What happened to Roland's belt? I want to see the Tick Tock Man again. I can't believe that Flag died so easily after all that build up. I believe he survived on another level of The Tower in the same way that Jake did way back in DT1. What happened to the Wizard's Glass, deposited so safely in a lock-up? And Now that Eddie and gang are happy and complete, are they too stuck in this infernal cycle of Roland's? I hope not, but where does that leave Roland?

[bluesology]

It's not an easy ending to digest but I think that it felt more realistic and true. My favorite stories are the ones in which the characters are more morally ambiguous - as opposed to really good or really evil. Throughout the books, Roland has some incredible heroic moments but he also has moments of cold blooded disregard for those he cares about. I agree that it is the mark of a good writer when we feel sympathetic towards such a complex character who has sacrificed so many people in the courst of his obsession.

I can sympathize with the feeling that the last books in the series felt rushed and thrown together. However, I just finished my second complete read through the series - and I found that on the second read the narrative made a lot more sense to me. Now that I knew roughly what was coming, little details made more sense to me and I felt stronger the incredible intricacies of the story. Because the last three books were written so much closer together, I thought the continuity blended together amazingly well. Are there issues that will go un-adressed? Probably so. But again I think that this is true to life - sometimes we don't get the answers we want, frustrating as that may be, say thank ya.

Throughout the saga, I think the key is to think of all Stephen King's books as individual universes in a larger macro-verse. Roland and his comrades frequently find themselves thrown into different and alternate realities so his other books become part of this story as well. Case in point - in the fourth book they end up in the universe created in the Stand for a brief period of time (the Superflu subplot). If it interested you, I would definately suggest reading it - go for the later published longer edition. If I had to make a list of "must-read" King novels, this would definately be on the list. I would not reccomend the movie version. I was extremely let down by their portrayal of Randall Flagg. Besides, there's no way to do justice to such a complex book even in an 8 hour miniseries.

In terms of the Old People, I think it was a result of a nuclear war - modern, mechanized society was wiped out and from the ashes grew the society we see in the books, with occasional reminders of the old people, gas pumps and such. Early on, when only three books had been published, I was convinced that Roland was living in our world, in the future.

North Central Positronics as well as the Sombre corporation I think are just meant as faceless entities working to destroy the beams and the dark tower, which I think is always under attack from one quarter or another.

Say sorry for such a long winded response. As I said, I'm almost finished with book seven as we speak so I'm pretty jazzed about the books at the moment.