mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
This was a fairly fast read. But it didn't need to be no 700 pages to setup a combat that was done in 10. And the Harry Potter and Star Wars and even Stephen King references fell fairly flat. As a non-Stephen King fan, this book also being a sequel for Salem's Lot, really didn't do anything for me. I did like the dish throwing. Actually I didn't even buy the Wolves part. The characters did come through better and certainly Ka and Ka Tet holds true. Ah well only two more to go.
mattmatt3409's review against another edition
4.0
The tale of Roland and his ka-tet's quest for the Dark Tower continues. I loved the pop culture references in this book and that Father Callahan from Salem's Lot is a central character in this book. There is also references to Sherlock Holmes, Star Wars, Marvel Comics and Harry Potter. Just shows you the melting of Roland's world and our world together. Also was very happy to see that Roland isn't just a badass in this book but Eddie, Susannah and Jake also show what Roland has trained them to do as gunslingers.
nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Body horror, Death, Blood, and Child death
deddiemunster's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
rashthedoctor's review against another edition
2.0
As always , a somewhat more detailed and better presented version of my review can be found at :
A Blog About Book
Stephen King is a world renowned name , even If you haven't read his work , you must have seen his movies , or even if you haven't done that you have at least heard of his name*. Compared to what he has achieved I'm absolutely insignificant in this planet and here I'm ready to write a blog that's gonna tell you how much of a snooze-fest and overrated this book of his was.
* and if even that hasn't happened to you , well come back to civilization man , stop hiding under that rock of yours .
Although I have already stated my feelings about this book on the intro to this blog post , There is no denying the fact that the basic premise of the whole series remains absolutely intriguing and the first 100-150 pages were completely focused on that and it raised stakes in terms of this premise .
Meanwhile the final 100 pages were filled with some gripping action sequences and some real cliff-hanger in terms of the 'Dark Tower' .
There were plenty of 4th wall broken , many real life character brought into the story , many shared universes and many easter eggs for fans of various Kings Novels ,that really made for some amusing time
OK , this will sound like , "I think too highly of myself" or I'm simply too arrogant to say this ,but I was absolutely unimpressed with the writing . There were plenty of paragraphs , that were just filled with unnecessarily written words.
The exposition was so filled with rubbish details that it really dulled me off , in fact , I saw one whole page where King went on and on about people in the city of Calla , who played absolutely no role in the whole book . There was another page with couple of paragraphs of King going on about the rice field and it wasn't descriptive , it felt repetitive.
I'm no editor , but If i was I would have trimmed nearly 400-500 pages of this book . At one point it felt like King was trying to force this book into the realms of Epic Fantasy without making any effort to create a detailed world or any magic system or focusing on character or wars , both present ones and the past ones .
Talking of magic system , there's still absolutely no clue , after five books , on how the magic system works , or what it's limitations are , or what it can do . It's just there and for plot convenience it keeps doing shit , which again for plot convenience keeps helping the protagonist and his team. I in fact have never before read a book where the Plot and the scenario helps the protagonists so much , usually it's the other way around , help for antagonists is always there and these antagonist usually pile more misery for the protagonist, in here the antagonists actually seem to be helping the protagonists.
As I stated before the first 100 and the final 200 pages were entertaining but the rest 600 pages or so were just a unnecessarily dragged dull affair , the biggest culprit in this was the introduction of Father Callahan*, the character in itself was bland and irritating , but learning of His back story , for 5 long chapters amounting to nearly 150+ pages, was arduous to say the least .
*Readers of the Salem Lot series may know of him.
And remember that action sequence I previously wrote about in the "WHAT I LIKED" section ... yeah .. about that. The book is over 900 pages , the action is around 50 pages , and the preparation for that action lasts around 50 more pages . So what were the other pages about? I DON'T HAVE A CLUE!
The book in whole felt like a filler book ,having deviating really far away from the main plot of the journey towards Dark Tower , in a way one can successfully argue that there was absolutely no need for this book to be written and maybe King could have just gone on to write the next one . The unnecessary introduction of a side quest , an absolutely uninspiring new world creation , another dull Character addition with an even duller back story and long unnecessary exposition filled this book and at more than one time I was worried this may turn out to be my first DNF. Overall I don't care how big an author King maybe , I absolutely hated this book.
A Blog About Book
Stephen King is a world renowned name , even If you haven't read his work , you must have seen his movies , or even if you haven't done that you have at least heard of his name*. Compared to what he has achieved I'm absolutely insignificant in this planet and here I'm ready to write a blog that's gonna tell you how much of a snooze-fest and overrated this book of his was.
* and if even that hasn't happened to you , well come back to civilization man , stop hiding under that rock of yours .
What I Liked :
Although I have already stated my feelings about this book on the intro to this blog post , There is no denying the fact that the basic premise of the whole series remains absolutely intriguing and the first 100-150 pages were completely focused on that and it raised stakes in terms of this premise .
Meanwhile the final 100 pages were filled with some gripping action sequences and some real cliff-hanger in terms of the 'Dark Tower' .
There were plenty of 4th wall broken , many real life character brought into the story , many shared universes and many easter eggs for fans of various Kings Novels ,that really made for some amusing time
What I Didn't Like:
OK , this will sound like , "I think too highly of myself" or I'm simply too arrogant to say this ,but I was absolutely unimpressed with the writing . There were plenty of paragraphs , that were just filled with unnecessarily written words.
The exposition was so filled with rubbish details that it really dulled me off , in fact , I saw one whole page where King went on and on about people in the city of Calla , who played absolutely no role in the whole book . There was another page with couple of paragraphs of King going on about the rice field and it wasn't descriptive , it felt repetitive.
I'm no editor , but If i was I would have trimmed nearly 400-500 pages of this book . At one point it felt like King was trying to force this book into the realms of Epic Fantasy without making any effort to create a detailed world or any magic system or focusing on character or wars , both present ones and the past ones .
Talking of magic system , there's still absolutely no clue , after five books , on how the magic system works , or what it's limitations are , or what it can do . It's just there and for plot convenience it keeps doing shit , which again for plot convenience keeps helping the protagonist and his team. I in fact have never before read a book where the Plot and the scenario helps the protagonists so much , usually it's the other way around , help for antagonists is always there and these antagonist usually pile more misery for the protagonist, in here the antagonists actually seem to be helping the protagonists.
As I stated before the first 100 and the final 200 pages were entertaining but the rest 600 pages or so were just a unnecessarily dragged dull affair , the biggest culprit in this was the introduction of Father Callahan*, the character in itself was bland and irritating , but learning of His back story , for 5 long chapters amounting to nearly 150+ pages, was arduous to say the least .
*Readers of the Salem Lot series may know of him.
And remember that action sequence I previously wrote about in the "WHAT I LIKED" section ... yeah .. about that. The book is over 900 pages , the action is around 50 pages , and the preparation for that action lasts around 50 more pages . So what were the other pages about? I DON'T HAVE A CLUE!
Conclusions:
The book in whole felt like a filler book ,having deviating really far away from the main plot of the journey towards Dark Tower , in a way one can successfully argue that there was absolutely no need for this book to be written and maybe King could have just gone on to write the next one . The unnecessary introduction of a side quest , an absolutely uninspiring new world creation , another dull Character addition with an even duller back story and long unnecessary exposition filled this book and at more than one time I was worried this may turn out to be my first DNF. Overall I don't care how big an author King maybe , I absolutely hated this book.
My Review of the other Dark Tower books -
heckle6's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
somebunny23's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
karlycay's review against another edition
4.0
It took me a while to get through it, since every time I started the audiobook I'd fall asleep but once I started reading the book I was sucked in. Has to be in my top three of the series.
nolasgem's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5