wmansir

Just finished SoS moments ago. Well an hour maybe. My thoughts:

Definitely stronger than tWoC, which did tend to drag. I wish a bit more of the story had been told. The entire book only covers about 24 hours. Considering the previous 2 books each covered several weeks, if not months, it's a stark contrast in pacing. If the next book keeps up this pace the ending will feel very very rushed.

I didn't think that, but only because I've blocked out all memories of King as actor. His dialog (and the journal entries too) felt as phoney as $5 bill with Andrew Jackson on them. Although I would never say dialog was king's strong point to begin with.

Overall, it was handled better than I thought it would be, at least until the last 20 pages. I didn't like the 'journal' ending, especially with such a damn cliffhanger ending on 2 of the three threads of the book. But what really bothers me about the whole idea is that it removes me from the fantasy when reading. It's hard to live in Roland's world when King keeps reminding you it's only a book.


What did you guys think about his inclusion of the World Trade Center? To me it seemed rather crass and awkwardly handled, especially when Jake asks "What if the building collapses?".

Abob Teff

Agreed and agreed . . . while this isn't the first time that King has dealt with characters or stories "coming to life" I think that the twist undoes much of what he was striving for (creating the new Lord of the Rings if you will). Building up this whole mythology (which he has done very well) only to scrap it for a stereotypical King ending is not seting well (so far, I guess we have one last shot at finding out exactly how it all wraps together).

The World Trade Center reference was a bit lame, but I suppose it was an effort to tie up a loose end without spending much time on it (assuming that Black 13 was still there). Or the other interpretation I guess is that Black 13 caused the WTC attacks, but I didn't read it that way.

Of course, I seem to be the only person who was thouroughly enthralled by "The Gunslinger" and thinks that it is the best of the series (With "Wizard and Glass" a close second).

Off beat question about the journal part though . . . I visited Conway, NH just a few months ago so my interest was piqued . . . does anybody know if the bit about the walk-ins around North Conway are really an urban legend up there, or is it just something he made up for the book. A web search only turns up a story in North Conway about a UFO encounter.

ceeece

But what really bothers me about the whole idea is that it removes me from the fantasy when reading. It's hard to live in Roland's world when King keeps reminding you it's only a book.

I concur COMPLETELY with this statement! It cheapens the whole Dark Tower story.

Josh-da-man

Quint has a review of Book 7 "The Dark Tower" up at AICN.

Minor spoilers...

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=18268

Generally positivie, but this part of the review, in particular, makes me horribly nervous:

[NO SPECIFIC SPOILERS, ONLY A VAGUE REACTION TO THE FINAL PAGES OF THE BOOK]
This is going to be driving me batshit nuts over the next week or two.

RaraFemina

18 more days

Michael Corvin

But that is the whole point. It isn't Roland's world, it is King's.

Tscott

You missed being super-cool by a day. You should've posted this at 19 days.

kcbrett5

This is my feeling exactly. The whole enjoyment of this for me was the escape from reality. I have always enjoyed Roland's world a lot more than the portions that take place in the real world.

Plus, the way King has added so many of his other books to the Dark Tower universe screams of shameless self promotion to me. It just seems like a way to sell more copies of his older books.

I am a huge fan and I will read the last book but I will never read King again after that. I really think he sold out his fans with the cheapening of this series.

Cusm

I just finished The Gunslinger. Do I jump right into The Drawing of Three or, as mentioned from another thread, read Eyes of the Dragon before TDoT?

Mordred

I've never read EotD but it's my understanding the events are very loosely related to the Dark Tower.

According to the road map at thedarktower.net: http://www.thedarktower.net/connections/roadmap.php it looks like one line in TDotT references EotD but thats it. I think there are other connections in similar names (i.e. a Roland in EotD) but the characters are different.

I haven't read all of King's books, but this is the order I'd recommend:

Gunslinger
Drawing of the Three
Wastelands
The Stand
Wizard and Glass
Salem's Lot
Wolves of the Calla
Insomnia
Hearts In Atlantis
Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower

It sounds like Talisman-Black House features prominently somewhere around Wolves and Susannah, but I'm starting the Talisman today and hope to be done with Black House around the time #7 comes out, so I can't say for sure where I'd put it.

ceeece

I would say start on DotT. It has been awhile since I read EotD but all I know is that the baddy in it is one of the baddies in DT. I don't think it really has that much bearing on the DT books. But then again it has been awhile since I read it. And I loved it too.

Tom Banjo

My personal order would be something like this:
DT1
EOTD
The Talisman
DT2
It
Insomnia
DT3
The Stand
DT4
Hearts in Atlantis
Little Sisters of Eluria (short story, available in Everything's Eventual)
Black House
Salem's Lot
DT5
DT6
Everything's Eventual (short story available in book of the same name)
DT7

EDIT: I went ahead and included Eyes of the Dragon and Everything's Eventual because of the possibility of seeing some of the characters from these stories in DT7.

RaraFemina

Yeah....I wasn't thinking. I'm always a day late and a dollar short

silentbob007

I loved Eyes of the Dragon as a fun, easy story, but I really don't think it is worth reading just for continuity sake in Drawing of the Three. The EotD reference is literally only a sentence or two.

Abob Teff

Personally, NONE of the books are needed for any kind of continuity. I feel that this is really just a shameless plug for King to try and draw all of his books together (and tie up loose ends and errors that readers caught 20+ years ago).

The relations between the books are absolutely nothing to do with the stories themselves. The ties only come in the form of passing references to names/characters/places/concepts. Regulators and (crap, what is the other one?) are listed as connections . . . but only because they deal with the whole "alternate universe" concept.

Abob Teff

Oh yeah, 9 days!

Tscott

Desperation.

I don't see it as a shameless plug. Stephen King isn't saying you HAVE to read The Regulators and Desperation to enjoy the Dark Tower series. All that's been done is point out that they're somehow related.

Other people are making the "guides" and putting them "in order", but the truth is all the books stand on their own (well, with the exception of the Dark Tower books themselves which should be read in order). Plus it's really not that uncommon for an author of many books eventually have characters that crossover from one book to another (PD James and Tom Clancy come to my mind, there are others). It's the fans that notice that then try to piece together the 'mythology' that's been created and make sense out of it all.

And speaking of make sense of it all... One thing I was wondering about when looking over the booklists in the recent Tower books, was what determined if a book was related to the Dark Tower. Dreamcatcher (which I just recently read) is not related, according to the bolded listings in the most recent Tower books, but that takes place in part in Derry and some events of 'It' are referred to, and 'It' is related to the Tower. Also the question is brought up "What is the significance of 19, other than a prime number?" - in Dreamcatcher it refers to a baseball jersey, but that's a question Stephen King fans really want to know the answer to, and the occurance of that question in the book can't be a coincidence. So it is sort of connected, even though it's not officially listed as being so. I'm sure if I went back and reread some of the other 'unrelated' works I could find similar connections, making most just a leap away from the Tower books.

jmj713

Well, I got my copy from Grant today, and this book is NIIICE... this is probably the heaviest volume of them all. great artwork, I especially like the very last one (hopefully we could be able to download a hi-res version online somewhere later, I'd love that). I did a bad thing and read the afterword right away, I couldn't help it. No real spoilers in it. Then I got braver and peek at the end of the novel. MY GOD is it awesome. I felt actual goosebumps. Well now to read...

Xander

It just seems weird that in 5 days (!!!) the series will be all over. I've been reading these books for like 15 years. Crazy. Anyway, only 5 days to go. Woo-hoo!

X

auto

Does anyone know hao many pages DT7 is?

movielib

864

Abob Teff

Ouch!

Tscott -- you actually made my point. What exactly signifies a book as "related" to the Dark Tower? Does it have to be a significant charcter or place, a specifically mentioned person or area? Or could we just say that ALL books are related to the Dark Tower because they have a Page 19 (which is where we are leaning toward)?

wmansir

If you plan on reading Salem's Lot definitely do it before The Wolves of Calla. A major character from SL becomes a major character in the WoC and his entire back story is give, including what happens to him in SL and a major spoiler for one of the most climatic moments from the book.

jmj713

There are many lists out there that compile King works that are explicitly connected to the Dark Tower series. For example, according to TheDarkTower.net, only three novels actually add to the mythology of the series, and they're Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, and The Black House. I would also definitely add 'Salem's Lot here, and of course, Little Sisters of Eluria. The other books, like The Stand, have lesser ties to the Dark Tower. Here's a good page: http://thedarktower.net/connections/index.php

auto

So, um, what's everybody reading tomorrow?