The Dark Tower Vii 7 (The Dark Tower

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From each end comes a new beginning as we join Roland the Gunslinger in his tireless pursuit of the man in black, all over the desert. The Dark Tower is a series of seven novels from the mind of Stephen King that would be best described as a cross amid The Lord of the Rings and a Spaghetti Western. Although, I would contend that The Dark Tower is much more bizarre and graphic. There has been recent news when it comes to a trio of movies and mini-series that are to be made with regards to this epic adventure. In anticipation of these productions, I have decisive to revisit the quest that I embarked upon years ago when I read The Dark Tower for the basi time. I use the word “read” loosely, because you don’t genuinely read The Dark Tower, you live it. Roland Deschain along with Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean, Susannah, and Oy the billy-bumbler are calling me back to once again be a percentage of their ka-tet, or group of destiny. The strange encounters, lethal adversaries, and the a great deal of destinations are vague in my mind, like memories from a former life.

Although my memory of The Dark Tower is vague, I do recall that my bestloved book was the third in the series, “The Waste Lands”. Who may forget the haunting city of Lud and the villainous Tick-Tock Man. For me, the creepiest encounter in the whole Dark Tower series took place with an intelligent, yet suicidal train named Blain the Mono. This intense episode pits The Gunslinger and his companions versus Blain and his infinite amount of computerized noesis in a game of riddles, to the death. What sticks in my mind is how Blain the Mono was connected to a fictional childhood book with regards to a train called Charlie the Choo-Choo. The word “Char” meaning death and Jake Chambers marveling if the children riding the train were laughing or screaming to get off. I always think of this when I see the real life children’s book Thomas the Train. This is just one of the innumerable disturbing images I’ve come away with while on my basi run through of The Dark Tower series.

How will scenes like this translate into a Dark Tower movie? I recognise that there are persons on both sides of the aisle when it comes to making movies when it comes to a outstanding series of novels. There are those that are dead set versus it because they fear the story, as sensed in their mind, will be ruined. I’m of the camp, however, that is for the making of a Dark Tower movie. If it is done right, it could turn out just as fantastic, or even more so, than The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films. Those series of movies, according to an overpowering number of fans, portrayed the characters and settings from the source creative writing of recognized artisti value in an precise and agreeably diverting manner.

Fortunately, The Dark Tower movies and mini-series have a outstanding chance of being a success because the project is being put in the hands of a veteran conductor with decades of experience in the film industry, Ron Howard. The most primary ingredient, though, is the actor who will play the lead role of Roland Deschain. Before I firstborn read The Dark Tower and had it briefly described to me, I pictured The Gunslinger as Clint Eastwood. Obviously, he is too old to play the part. It has been not long back reported, however, that the role of Roland has been offered to Javier Bardem who won an Academy Award for his share in the movie “No Country for Old Men”. Bardem’s gruff demeanor and familiarity with movies in barren western landscapes makes him a nice fit. The only problem is Bardem has brown eyes and Roland Deschain, as described in the books, has hauntingly blue eyes. This is where progressed day special effects or simple contact lenses may have to play a part. Other than that, Javier Bardem assuming the role of The Gunslinger has outstanding potential.

I look forward to re-reading The Dark Tower as a lead up to the movies and mini-series. Even if the The Dark Tower movies don’t live up to the expectations, I get the almost pleasurable sensation of fright of living through the whole series of books once again. I highly commend this Stephen King masterwork to those who haven’t experienced it yet because this is one adventure that shouldn’t be missed.

The Dark Tower Vii 7 The Dark Tower

Creating “true narrative magic” (The Washington Post) at each revelatory turn, Stephen King outperforms all expectation in the stunning final volume of his seven-part epic masterwork. Entwining stories and worlds from a tremendous and complex canvas, here is the conclusion readers have long awaited — breath-takingly imaginative, boldly visionary, and totally entertaining.

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet have journeyed together and apart, scattered far and wide throughout multilayered worlds of wheres and whens. The destinies of Roland, Susannah, Jake, Father Callahan, Oy, and Eddie are bound in the Dark Tower itself, which now pulls them ever closer to their own endings and beginnings . . . and into a maelstrom of emotion, violence, and discovery.

ReviewAt one point in this final book of the Dark Tower series, the reputation Stephen King (added to the plot in Song of Susannah) looks back at the preceding pages and says “when this last book is published, the readers are going to be just wild.” And he’s not kidding.

After a journeying through seven books and over 20 years, King’s Constant Readers at last have the conclusion they’ve been both eagerly awaiting and silently dreading. The tension in the Dark Tower series has built steadily from the beginning and, like in the best of King’s novels, explodes into a violent, heart-tugging climax as Roland and his ka-tet at last near their goal. The body count in The Dark Tower is high. The gunslingers come out shooting and face a host of enemies, including low men, mutants, vampires, Roland’s hideous quasi-offspring Mordred, and the fearsome Crimson King himself. King pushes the gross-out factor at times–Roland’s lesson on tanning (no, not sun tanning) is brutal–but the magic of the series remains strong and readers will feel the pull of the Tower as strongly as ever as the story draws to a close. During this sentimental journey, King ties up loose ends left hanging from the 15 non-series novels and stories that are deeply entwined in the fabric of Mid-World through characters like Randall Flagg (The Stand and others) or Father Callahan (‘Salem’s Lot). When it ultimately arrives, the long awaited conclusion will leave King’s myriad fans satisfied but wishing there were still more to come.

In King’s essay On Writing, he tells of an old woman who wrote him after reading the early books in the Dark Tower series. She was dying, she said, and didn’t suppose to see the end of Roland’s quest. Could King tell her? Does he reach the Tower? Does he save it? Sadly, King said he did not know himself, that the story was creating itself as it went along. Wherever that woman is now (the clearing at the end of the path, perhaps?), let’s hope she has a copy of The Dark Tower. Surely she would agree it’s been worth the wait. –Benjamin Reese

From Publishers WeeklyA pilgrimage that begun with one lone man’s quest to save multiple worlds from chaos and destruction unfolds into a tale of epic proportions. While King saw a great deal of criticism for the slow pace of 1982′s The Gunslinger, the book that launched this series, The Drawing of the Three (Book II, 1987), reeled in readers with it is fantastical allure. And those who have in a faithful manner journeyed alongside Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy ever since will find their commitment toward the series’ creator richly rewarded.The tangled web of the tower’s multiple worlds has manifested itself in numerous of King’s other works— The Stand (1978), Insomnia (1994) and Hearts in Atlantis (1999), to name a few. As one reputation explains here, “From the spring of 1970, when he typed the line The man in black fled all over the desert, and the gunslinger followed… very few of the things Stephen King wrote were ‘just stories.’ He may not believe that; we do.” King, in fact, intertwines his own life story deeper and deeper into the tale of Roland and his surrogate family of gunslingers, and, in this final installment, playfully and seductively proposes that it might not be the author who drives the story, but rather the fictional characters that control the author.This philosophical exploration of free will and fate may surprise those who have viewed King as a prolific pop-fiction dispenser. But a closer look at the brilliant complexity of his Dark Tower world ought to explain why this bestselling author has at long last been recognized for his contribution to the contemporary literary canon. With the conclusion of this tale, ostensibly the last published work of his career, King has surely reached the top of his game. And as for who or what resides at the top of the tower… The a heap of readers dying to recognise will have to get started at the beginning and work their way up. 12 color illus. by Michael Whelan.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine“I’ve told my tale all the way to the end,” King writes in the coda, “and am satisfied.” Most readers will be, too. Satisfied, but likewise sad that after 22 years, closely 4,000 pages, and seven installments, this archetypal fantasy quest series has ended. As in Song of Susannah, Dark Tower’s predecessor, King pens stunning set pieces, invents cataclysmic battles, and touches on intimate themes of good vs. evil. His writing is as powerful as ever—just imagine a demonic Mordred devouring his mother. But if there’s unanimous wonderment for King’s genius, there’s no consensus with regards to Dark Tower. Some critics argue that each piece of the convoluted plot fits into King’s larger vision. Others call the work imperfect for this lofty ambition of a dandier whole. Some view King’s insertion of himself as a reputation as brilliant while others fault it as pretentious. But King fans and novices similar will find Dark Tower a “fitting capstone to a in a unique manner American epic” (Washington Post). Just don’t get started in the middle.

Most helpful customer reviews

362 of 468 people found the following review helpful.
Let’s be honest here folks…
By Ethan D Van Vorst
I hate to admit this but the angry Constant Reader that King references in the last pages of his book, the one who doesn’t like what he finds at the end of the quest and not to bother him with it…well, i guess that would be me.

76 of 96 people found the following review helpful.
Like an icepick to the temple…
By Jonathan C. Pike
…this book will make you want to slam your fingers in a car door just to stop the pain in your head. After I finished this book I just sat and stared dumbly at a wall for 10 minutes thinking, “Arrr?” How could this be a Steven King book? And after the previous books in the series were so good! What happened? A few things that particularly bothered me (and probably you too (Spoiler warning):

112 of 143 people found the following review helpful.
One ‘Constant Reader’ to another… NO SPOILERS
By Roger FitzAlan
Technically this book is not low quality enough to merit one star, but if you’ve been with this series since Day One, and believe as I do that this book carries more with it than just itself as a story, to give it anything more than one star would understate the magnitude of its failure.
All of the problems with book six are extended and compounded here in book seven: the reliance on New York and Maine as settings for an adventure story that’s supposed to be grander than any one time or place, the prominence of annoying and unwelcome new characters, King’s overuse of unbelievable internal dialogue to cram exposition down our throats, his narcissistic inclusion of himself as an important element, (more on that later) and his lack of focus on any one element worth caring about. The bottom line is this: “The Dark Tower 7″ is King at his laziest and least original, which is hard enough to sit through in his lower-quality stand-alone output, but shockingly unforgivable in what is supposed to be the center of all his literary creation (his words, not mine) and his bid for greatness in the eyes of posterity.
Perhaps writing the Dark Tower had become a burden not unlike the Tower quest itself. Unlike his character Roland, however, King jumps ship rather than stick it out. Consider the evidence: the books inexplicably marginalize Roland and the Quest the further they go. By contrast, pointless distractions and King himself (with a profound dislike for the burden of being author) appear and assume importance. Roland is relieved of many of his soul-testing responsibilities (sacrificing his friends, dealing with his foes) by cheap plot devices that cause them to disappear outside of any action of his– even the Tower itself is made practically irrelevant by a series of contrived events and unimportant characters. Forgive me, but wasn’t the great central tragedy of this series that he’d give up anything for the Quest, and has in the past? King spent quite a bit of books one, three, and almost all of four dealing with this– why throw it out the window in the closing 300 pages?
In “Dark Tower 7″ Roland sacrifices nothing– he is LEFT BEHIND and made irrelevant; this is perhaps symbolic of what has happened to the Series on the whole. The final three books in this series have a lurching, breakneck pace and reach their end with all the subtlety of a dump truck hitting a brick wall. Is it coincidental that they were penned all at once, contrasting with the twenty or so years it took King to write the first four? Consider also the growing preoccupation with the Tower in his other works over the last few years. The overwhelming presence in the first four books was the slow decay of a many layered world, one like and yet unlike our own, with complex characters that were all just a little bit crazy from their own mental decay. In the final three books, this world gives way to the familiar rushing and business-like atmosphere of omnipresent New York. The characters we knew fade and are replaced by cardboard heroes or villains, doing what they have to do to bring the story to an end.
The Quest (and possibly King’s concern for his own mortality) probably proved too much to bear and King wanted out. If so, that is his prerogative. I do not feel he owes me any duty to “finish the series right,” although I can offer my opinion that it would have been better to leave it unfinished than to drop it off a literary skyscraper like he has. In a self-serving note at the end, King remarks that the problem with Constant Readers is that they never want to acknowledge that sooner or later they’ll have to let go– whether there’s real closure or not, and that it’s a tragic thing to be insistent on some kind of neatly resolved ‘ending.’ I would answer that he should have taken some of his own advice: in the rush to close and end this series he’s given up its soul. Tragic, indeed, as the once-great “Dark Tower” books deserved better treatment than this. If you are (like I was) an enthusiastic reader of the series and began to smell a rat in places during Book Five, I advise you to stop and leave your impression of the books as intact as it can be. If you’ve already read book six and enjoyed it without any problems, you might want to continue. For everyone else: it only gets worse.

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