Scan barcode
boyd94's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bigpatcampbell's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
jsw501's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
sonice's review against another edition
4.0
4.0 stars. This was just a cool little story from Roland's past, and who doesn't like that?
lezreadalot's review against another edition
2.0
I liked this novella more than I thought I would, though it made me roll my eyes many and many a time.
donnaadouglas's review against another edition
2.0
An OK story from King, although miles from his best!
wakejald's review against another edition
4.0
I'm currently working my way through the Everything's Evential collection, and The Little Sisters of Eluria is the entire reason why, as I'm in the midst of a very thorough read-through of The Dark Tower and its related works. Unlike most of these tangential Dark Tower stories, however, this novella is very explicitly a part of the larger Dark Tower universe. It centers on the series' protagonist, Roland, and an interesting experience that he had shortly before the events of the first book in the series, The Gunslinger.
First I'd like to say that I'm just generally excited to be reading a story that takes place in Mid-World again (as I finished Wizard and Glass several months ago at this point), and this story very much delivers on the vivid strangeness that comes with the setting. As a matter of fact, the entire story is kind of bizarre in a way that is really only possible in a Dark Tower story. Roland stumbles into the deserted town of Eluria, finds a freshly dead body laying near a water trough, and is almost immediately ambushed by these strange green-colored humanoid creatures (who we come to find out are the slow mutants from The Gunslinger). They outnumber him, and despite his efforts, they manage to knock him unconscious. When he comes-to however, he finds he's in a sort of makeshift hospital that appears to be run by these nun-like women. At first you think they're there to help him. It turns out they control these masses of apparently sentient bug-creatures who they call "little doctors" who have the power to heal people and it seems like that might be the reason he's in the hospital thing in the first place. But he comes to find out that they are actually these blood-thirsty vampire like creatures who are drugging him to take away his strength (presumably so they can, ya know, feast on him). Luckily, one of the little sisters, Jenna, is on his side, and the crux of the story is Roland plotting his escape with the good sister.
It's honestly almost a King trope at this point to have the main character of the story incapacitated / stuck in one location the entire time and trying to escape, but it is interesting to see it happen to Roland who, as we know, is an extremely skilled fighter and Gunslinger who is leagues more physically savvy than most King protagonists. Through some trickery they end up escaping, but in order to avoid just plainly summarizing what happens, I'm instead going to list some things about this story that I thought were really cool or that I just generally enjoyed.
Number one, I love the ambiguity as to what the sisters actually are. They sort of behave like vampires i.e., they drink blood, don't age normally, don't cast shadows, don't like Roland's cross medallion he found etc., but at the end it's alluded to that the little sisters might actually be made up out of thousands of the little doctor bugs I mentioned earlier? At the end, Roland wakes up to find Jenna (who he was with) missing, despite all her clothes being on the ground. Then, he see's a huge swarm of the little bugs make "C" symbol, which he takes to be Jenna sending him a message (as Roland frequently mentioned how much he liked her "C" shaped curl of hair that always stuck out of her headress). Like what the fuck? That idea could not exist outside of the Dark Tower universe. Vampire nun doctors made up of thousands of small bugs, what a concept.
Second, I like seeing sneaky Roland. He kind of teams up with this boy who is in the bed next to him (the brother of the boy he found dead in the beginning) and he pretends to be his brother in order to trick the sisters. Compared to many early depictions of Roland as this stoic, callous, emotionless cowboy, I just like seeing him be a little devious (and I think his character development in Wizard and Glass informs a lot of that).
Third, I just love the aesthetics of this universe. Everything is so colorful and vivid and unique, and it always just feels like you're in another universe. Parallel to our own, but just enough shades of different to be noticeable. And of course, the many callbacks to other events in the larger story. In this case, I really enjoyed the many references to Wizard and Glass which further just solidifies my opinion that you should just read these things in the chronological order in which they were released. So yeah, just a good little story. Not necessarily as mind-bending as some of the full length novels in the series, but it's more good Dark Tower content, what more do you want!
First I'd like to say that I'm just generally excited to be reading a story that takes place in Mid-World again (as I finished Wizard and Glass several months ago at this point), and this story very much delivers on the vivid strangeness that comes with the setting. As a matter of fact, the entire story is kind of bizarre in a way that is really only possible in a Dark Tower story. Roland stumbles into the deserted town of Eluria, finds a freshly dead body laying near a water trough, and is almost immediately ambushed by these strange green-colored humanoid creatures (who we come to find out are the slow mutants from The Gunslinger). They outnumber him, and despite his efforts, they manage to knock him unconscious. When he comes-to however, he finds he's in a sort of makeshift hospital that appears to be run by these nun-like women. At first you think they're there to help him. It turns out they control these masses of apparently sentient bug-creatures who they call "little doctors" who have the power to heal people and it seems like that might be the reason he's in the hospital thing in the first place. But he comes to find out that they are actually these blood-thirsty vampire like creatures who are drugging him to take away his strength (presumably so they can, ya know, feast on him). Luckily, one of the little sisters, Jenna, is on his side, and the crux of the story is Roland plotting his escape with the good sister.
It's honestly almost a King trope at this point to have the main character of the story incapacitated / stuck in one location the entire time and trying to escape, but it is interesting to see it happen to Roland who, as we know, is an extremely skilled fighter and Gunslinger who is leagues more physically savvy than most King protagonists. Through some trickery they end up escaping, but in order to avoid just plainly summarizing what happens, I'm instead going to list some things about this story that I thought were really cool or that I just generally enjoyed.
Number one, I love the ambiguity as to what the sisters actually are. They sort of behave like vampires i.e., they drink blood, don't age normally, don't cast shadows, don't like Roland's cross medallion he found etc., but at the end it's alluded to that the little sisters might actually be made up out of thousands of the little doctor bugs I mentioned earlier? At the end, Roland wakes up to find Jenna (who he was with) missing, despite all her clothes being on the ground. Then, he see's a huge swarm of the little bugs make "C" symbol, which he takes to be Jenna sending him a message (as Roland frequently mentioned how much he liked her "C" shaped curl of hair that always stuck out of her headress). Like what the fuck? That idea could not exist outside of the Dark Tower universe. Vampire nun doctors made up of thousands of small bugs, what a concept.
Second, I like seeing sneaky Roland. He kind of teams up with this boy who is in the bed next to him (the brother of the boy he found dead in the beginning) and he pretends to be his brother in order to trick the sisters. Compared to many early depictions of Roland as this stoic, callous, emotionless cowboy, I just like seeing him be a little devious (and I think his character development in Wizard and Glass informs a lot of that).
Third, I just love the aesthetics of this universe. Everything is so colorful and vivid and unique, and it always just feels like you're in another universe. Parallel to our own, but just enough shades of different to be noticeable. And of course, the many callbacks to other events in the larger story. In this case, I really enjoyed the many references to Wizard and Glass which further just solidifies my opinion that you should just read these things in the chronological order in which they were released. So yeah, just a good little story. Not necessarily as mind-bending as some of the full length novels in the series, but it's more good Dark Tower content, what more do you want!
shack70's review against another edition
2.0
Just filler for The Dark Tower series. Nothing really added by this story