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nearside's review against another edition
1.0
Unreadable in Kindle format
Almost all punctuation has been stripped out as well as the odd space between words. This is a huge disappointment.
Almost all punctuation has been stripped out as well as the odd space between words. This is a huge disappointment.
shells's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.0
This book was a moderately interesting read. Having read through all of the Dark Tower books, I did enjoy revisiting them. That being said, I felt like this book was less of an exploration and more of an outline of each book. There was some exploration in the end, but I was hoping for more; a deeper dive into the characters, the settings, the plot, and the connections throughout the King universe of books, and I was expecting that to be present throughout the entirety of the book. There were a lot of quotes and comments pulled from other sources, but what would have greatly benefited this book would be a discussion between Stephen King and the author of this book, Bev Vincent. Basically, I enjoyed the read and it has made me want to reread the Dark Tower series (this time I'm opting for audio versions.) But, I don't feel like I would have missed anything by not reading it. If you aren't a reader of Stephen King's books, you might find more value in this than I did. If you struggled with understanding some of the themes and character arcs, then this might also help you comprehend a little more. I did find the little bit of history regarding the writing and publishing of the series to be interesting. (If the internet has shown us one thing, it's that fans of anything can be toxic AF. I'm looking at you, Star Wars fans.) I'll be passing this book onto my aunt who brought it to my attention to begin with and I won't miss it in my collection.
vaderbird's review against another edition
4.0
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
matteo_of_eld's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
slapshottechnology's review against another edition
4.0
A great summary not only of each of the 7 books and other novels about the tower, but a nice complement to the series as a whole. Vincent provides his summary, but then also reflects on ka and King's committment to the story as a whole and as his magnum opus.
annarien's review against another edition
4.0
The fact that this book is mostly synopsis (and very useful in that respect) and only a little bit actual nerdy, scholarly stuff only serves to prove one thing: The Dark Tower series can't be mapped, set in time-frames, categorized, studied closely or even explained too thoroughly. The guide is best read after finishing the books, to fix all the main events firmly in one's mind and revisit the entire picture one last time. But as far as trying to pry the world(s) of the Dark Tower at the seams to see what is made of what and how, I think it's best not to try very hard and just accept things as they are told in the actually narrative. To ride the aven kal, as it were... and not ask too many questions.
drtlovesbooks's review against another edition
2.0
What it's about: This book provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of Stephen King's Dark Tower series and related works.
What I thought: I had hoped to read this and come away with some new insights or understandings about King's work. I have enjoyed reading the Dark Tower books over the years, and I am always interested in getting some additional "inside information" about things I enjoy. This review didn't really do that. This may be because it was written at the same time the final books of the series were being prepared for release, so there was not a chance for the author to marinate and ruminate.
Mostly, this is a book that summarizes. There are summaries of each book of the series. There are summaries of the main characters. There are timelines that summarize the real and fictional order of events surrounding these books. There are summaries of other books and stories that are connected to the central series. But the analysis feels very superficial.
Also, there is a lot of repetition of phrases and sentences throughout this work. It feels more like it's meant to be referenced like a dictionary. It feels like the author did not expect people to read from beginning to end, but rather to access certain portions on an as-needed basis. But I'm not sure what the need is.
Why I rated it like I did: In addition to not providing much insight into the titular series, the writing could have been polished a bit. There was a LOT of pronoun ambiguity that had me re-reading sentences and paragraphs to try to unravel who, exactly, was being discussed at the end of the bit, 'cause it was often not the same person mentioned at the beginning.
What I thought: I had hoped to read this and come away with some new insights or understandings about King's work. I have enjoyed reading the Dark Tower books over the years, and I am always interested in getting some additional "inside information" about things I enjoy. This review didn't really do that. This may be because it was written at the same time the final books of the series were being prepared for release, so there was not a chance for the author to marinate and ruminate.
Mostly, this is a book that summarizes. There are summaries of each book of the series. There are summaries of the main characters. There are timelines that summarize the real and fictional order of events surrounding these books. There are summaries of other books and stories that are connected to the central series. But the analysis feels very superficial.
Also, there is a lot of repetition of phrases and sentences throughout this work. It feels more like it's meant to be referenced like a dictionary. It feels like the author did not expect people to read from beginning to end, but rather to access certain portions on an as-needed basis. But I'm not sure what the need is.
Why I rated it like I did: In addition to not providing much insight into the titular series, the writing could have been polished a bit. There was a LOT of pronoun ambiguity that had me re-reading sentences and paragraphs to try to unravel who, exactly, was being discussed at the end of the bit, 'cause it was often not the same person mentioned at the beginning.