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A review by bradland
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
3.0
I started this series nine years ago and was amazed at the fantastic world Stephen King had made. Before reading Gunslinger and Drawing of the Three I had only read one King book before that (Christine) but wasn’t that much of a horror fan at the time however loved King’s style of writing, so when I saw these Dark Tower fantasy books with his name on it I thought ‘Why not?’ and was glad I did….
Now I have finished the last book I can’t help but feel disappointed at it. King has shown quite a few signs of laziness throughout the last 3 books (especially the *nudge*nudge*wink*wink* dialogue in parts) but that hasn’t stopped it from being readable and the world itself a dull place.
I don’t mind King put himself in the book, not at all. The series has been about ‘Ka’ after all, and the many worlds he has created in other novels, so it only seemed logical that using his accident in conjunction with the danger of the Dark Tower falling made sense. In fact, I thought the first half was good. My problem lies in the way King wraps up many of the story points, in particular the last part of the journey.
Firstly, every single main villain was done away cheaply. Incredibly cheaply! Okay, sure, maybe Randall Flagg wasn’t a main bad guy in this but come on! That was a pathetic way to conclude him. Better he was in charge of the Breaker town before the invasion and been responsible for Eddie’s demise instead of a pair of bumbling idiots in those ‘who cares’ guards. Crimson King? Wow! I mean, he’s been this mystical being for so long, invading many other of King’s books and yet he turns out to be a Santa Claus imitation who screams a lot…. And we still know very little of him! Then there is Mordred. For fuck’s sake. How can any writer spend three whole books building up a character only for him to die a pointless death while shitting his pants. I don’t think I have ever read a story with a character written in such detail only to be so utterly pointless to the whole story. How does that happen??!! King wastes so many words in the last three books on pointless detail and yet neglects those areas that should have been his main focus.
And no I didn’t like the ending. Crimson King verses Roland was like Donkey Kong verses Mario in the Nintendo game. How tragic it is comparing the finale of a seven book fantasy epic to an old 1980s 8-bit video game… ugh, just the thought of it…
After seven books and thousands of pages, the very ending just does not work in one of these stories. That ending is fit for a short story or one stand alone novel. Not a massive epic whose audience has been hanging on to for 22 years, especially when it contradicts all that talk of a Keystone world. It still leaves the question of what is at the top of the Tower. Ursula Le Guin didn’t pull that shit with The Other Wind, she gave a wonderful explanation for the existence of the Dry Land…
I know King was trying to finish quickly, fearing he never would, but surely he could have wrote it all, stuck it in his draw and kept to his five year publishing window. That seemed to work with the other DT books. I’m sure he would have been able to solve many of the problems plaguing what he finally gave us with more time to think and going back to the finished manuscript every now and then to make alterations. I mean, he started out not knowing much of Susan and that backstory in Gunslinger only to come out with this great epic in the 4th book.
A truly wasted opportunity.
Now I have finished the last book I can’t help but feel disappointed at it. King has shown quite a few signs of laziness throughout the last 3 books (especially the *nudge*nudge*wink*wink* dialogue in parts) but that hasn’t stopped it from being readable and the world itself a dull place.
I don’t mind King put himself in the book, not at all. The series has been about ‘Ka’ after all, and the many worlds he has created in other novels, so it only seemed logical that using his accident in conjunction with the danger of the Dark Tower falling made sense. In fact, I thought the first half was good. My problem lies in the way King wraps up many of the story points, in particular the last part of the journey.
Firstly, every single main villain was done away cheaply. Incredibly cheaply! Okay, sure, maybe Randall Flagg wasn’t a main bad guy in this but come on! That was a pathetic way to conclude him. Better he was in charge of the Breaker town before the invasion and been responsible for Eddie’s demise instead of a pair of bumbling idiots in those ‘who cares’ guards. Crimson King? Wow! I mean, he’s been this mystical being for so long, invading many other of King’s books and yet he turns out to be a Santa Claus imitation who screams a lot…. And we still know very little of him! Then there is Mordred. For fuck’s sake. How can any writer spend three whole books building up a character only for him to die a pointless death while shitting his pants. I don’t think I have ever read a story with a character written in such detail only to be so utterly pointless to the whole story. How does that happen??!! King wastes so many words in the last three books on pointless detail and yet neglects those areas that should have been his main focus.
And no I didn’t like the ending. Crimson King verses Roland was like Donkey Kong verses Mario in the Nintendo game. How tragic it is comparing the finale of a seven book fantasy epic to an old 1980s 8-bit video game… ugh, just the thought of it…
After seven books and thousands of pages, the very ending just does not work in one of these stories. That ending is fit for a short story or one stand alone novel. Not a massive epic whose audience has been hanging on to for 22 years, especially when it contradicts all that talk of a Keystone world. It still leaves the question of what is at the top of the Tower. Ursula Le Guin didn’t pull that shit with The Other Wind, she gave a wonderful explanation for the existence of the Dry Land…
I know King was trying to finish quickly, fearing he never would, but surely he could have wrote it all, stuck it in his draw and kept to his five year publishing window. That seemed to work with the other DT books. I’m sure he would have been able to solve many of the problems plaguing what he finally gave us with more time to think and going back to the finished manuscript every now and then to make alterations. I mean, he started out not knowing much of Susan and that backstory in Gunslinger only to come out with this great epic in the 4th book.
A truly wasted opportunity.