when Susannah told Patrick she wanted him to create something, that she'd ask him to add legs on to her picture? That would have been a perfect thing to add to the ending, IMHO.

I think this was intentional, and was used to illustrate Susannah's grief at discovering that Eddie had been shot.

I have some mixed feelings about it. It's certainly not what I expected, but after letting it soak in I'm starting to think it's pretty cool. King actually set it up pretty well with the mentions of deja vu and the constant references to ka being a wheel and to 19. But it still caught me off guard. I believe that this is Roland's 19th trip up the tower. (hence the 19) King calls it a "curse" I'd like to know why he's cursed to do this, and what could break it... but I sort of think he's doomed to repeat the search for the tower until he doesn't let the quest totally consume him and he's able to attain the tower while still holding on to his humanity (and he came damn close this time) The fact that Roland has the horn when he starts out across the desert this time gives me hope that this is the time he'll make it. I actually think that maybe Browning's poem that inspired this story "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is the story of Roland's 20th and final trip to the tower. (read it, you'll see) So all in all... I don't hate the ending. I think it has it's own merits... but I really question if this is the ending that King had in mind when he wrote that infamous first line, if he had one in mind that is.

The "Dues Ex Machina" moment made me cringe

I was satisfied with the ending in the Tower and I would have been pissed if King had left it out. And believe me I was when I though he might have. It's true that the meat is in the journey, but King has been dangling the carrot of Roland reaching the tower for 20 years. To abandon the story there would be criminal.

The deaths were sad and hard to get thru. Eddie's was obscenely drawn out. Jake's was diminished because it came so close on Eddie's shadow, and partly because of the whole King as character plotline which overshadowed it too.

I still don't like how King made himself a character. I think it destroyed a hell of a lot of the atmosphere by being distracting and unnecessary. It also stunk of ego, even though he denies it in the afterward. (He also comes off as a bit of an ass in the afterward when he talks about keeping his life private, don't call me and I won't call you etc.)

On the subject of King as character I'm reminded of the Buffy:TVS line "The subtext is rapidly becoming...um, text." Only King goes ten steps beyond this and grabs hold of the reader with a funnel, a push rod, and a bucket full of text.

Not having read Insomnia I thought I may have missed some subtext or even potential plot. Does Roland ditching the book have any significance? Could it have derailed him from his endless task? Which leads to...

The introduction of Patrick felt forced and an obvious deus ex machina. King seems to think that he can excuse that with a wink at the reader. Maybe reading Insomnia first would have softened the blow. Regardless, it made the confrontation with the Crimson King a letdown, as was the CK himself. I was much more disappointed with this aspect of the story than anything inside the Tower itself.

Susan's ending was also disappointing. Not that she left the quest, or even how she left the quest (although slightly that too), but the epilogue. It seemed to remove much of the sorrow from Jake and Eddie's deaths. In a way I wanted the relief, but more so I didn't want that. The magical fairytale quality of it wasn't very satisfying. Again, I think King knew he was blowing it by saying "I would like to say the lived happily ever after, but..." He knows that's exactly what he is giving us, but thinks by saying it's not, it won't be so.

It seems to me on many front's King knew the story was weak, and so he tries to excuse them. "I don't like endings, but they are traditional so here's one you probably won't like...", "He's a note that says Deus Ex Machina. See it's so obvious that I admit it so we can move on..." "I know I said that death was final for Eddie and Jake, but guess what...THERE BACK!, oh and this isn't a fairy tale ending."

As a result of stuff like this, I really felt the story was just King's ramblings. As much as his character was suppose to be relaying a real world, I felt much of the plot was a paper thin story, spun in whatever direction King felt like going. King's character/afterward just reaffirmed that feeling of a wandering storyline. Which is kind of sad because there is an awful lot of meat there in terms of character and atmosphere. I just don't think it was focused well.

I know some of you might be thinking "but it is just his story/ramblings" and I know that, but I shouldn't think that when I'm reading. Not if the story is good. And I didn't get that feeling all the time, just much more often than I should have.

Mordred. I was expecting him to be more of a challenge and a threat. SK made such a big deal about Susannah and Mia's "chap" and his White Daddy and Red Daddy, that I thought he was going to play a much bigger part. There were only two things that I can think of that even made him a relevant character...he killed Walter (RF) and Oy. Everything else was just him following Roland and Susannah, thinking of how great it was going to be to kill his White Daddy...but then he was killed with a billybumbler bite and a few bullets. I always assumed he was going to die, but I thought he would put up more of a fight.

Just finished this morning. I loved book 7 and thought it was a fitting conclusion to the series. Bittesweet, but satisfying.

That being said, I agree with some of the other points made here:

Mordred & CK seemed like were due more epic battles and grandiose deaths. Mordred basically just spent his entire life (literally) chasing Roland until Roland turned around and killed him.) CK's death was not the grand battle we were due.

Jake's death taking place so soon after Eddies made it seem like an afterthought. Roland seemed more upset over Eddie than Jake, his "true son". Did Jake really need to die again. He should have accompanied Roland to the Tower.

Cool to have Patrick from Insomnia but he should have been introduced earlier in the story. Perhaps an earlier book. It seemed odd that he walk the final miles with Roland after his entire ka-tet who had been with him forever were gone.

Damn, Oy dying and losing Jake were sad.

The "happy ending" in NY with Susannah was bittersweet. After all, even if she grows old with this Eddie and Jake, they ARE NOT the real Eddie and Jake. This is basically her just finding happiness with a new man that looks like her former love.

But all in all, I loved DT7. I can forgive the small things. Even King himself as a character. I really think just could have used another 500 pages.

I loved the ending. Roland will always be searching for his Dark Tower. But he is one step closer.

Oh yeah, good call to whoever above pointed out that this was perhaps Roland's 19th shot at the tower. Very interesting answer to the 19 question.

that the Crimson King turned out to be so lame. That there was no duel between Flagg and Roland (same way I was pissed because there was no fight between Bruce Lee and Bolo in Enter The Dragon). That Mordred went out lamely. I mean WTF?!!
Since I didn't read Insomnia, I didn't know Patrick Danville and couldn't give two fucks about him. He erases the Crimson King('cept for his eyes)? That's it, that's all it took? Man, Ck was like a boss in the first level of a game.

The ending I didn't mind. Maybe(or, mayhaps) Roland will get it right the next time and just save the beams and forget about going into the Tower. Although someone in another thread theorised(sp?) that the poem the books were based on IS the actual ending.

Very emotinal when Eddie, and Oy were killed. Wasn't too teary eyed when Jake bought it.

I wonder how the books would have turned out if King didn't get run over?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Your not alone there. I doubt very much that he would have made himself a character if that were the case, but I'm not sure how much it would have effected the other aspects of the story. Based on the forshadowing of the pre-accident books I think the results would have been much the same, with Roland approaching the Tower without his Ka-tet, but beyond that I couldn't guess.

Of course, without the accident I don't know if we would have ever seen the end of the series. Surely it wouldn't be finished this soon.

And there's the rub. People say that King rushed the books because the accident made him hyper aware of his mortality. He had to finish the books before he died, and, that his demise just might be around the corner.

Maybe he already had the ending thought out. I mean, it's a good ending. But, to build up Flagg, and the Crimson King as the BIG BAD's and then have one taken down by a were-spider, and the other taken down by a character that King just sort of threw in there as if to point out that he just really, honestly did not know how the fuck Roland would kill the Crimson King and just came up with something on the fly.What's it called again?Deus Ex Machina?

A thought just occured to me.Why didn't Patrick just draw his tongue back in his head, or give Detta her legs back, or Roland his fingers back? I mean he had the gift. Man, if I had that gift, I'd draw me a bigger....

Well, enough of that, I'm sure I'll get over the disappointment. Truly it was a good series, but, I think that I was so pumped up for big battles with the big bads that it has dampened my enthusiasm.

Let's just hope that George R R Martin doen't get run over.Hear me George?Take your damn sweet time!

On the subject of Mordred, didn't he kill Walter by paralyzing him with some control of his mind? That's what I thought anyway. If so, why couldn't he do any of that against Roland?

I definitely think the series was cheapened by the introduction of King to the story and the introduction of Patrick Danville right at the end to save the day.

Also, too many times I felt like King was just trying to increase sales in his other books by talking about them as being important. Desparation and Insomnia in particular. This is really cheap. How rich is he already? If the back story of characters from those stories is going to be important, just summarize it here or introduce them sooner.

Finally, I loved the ending. I think there was no better way to end it than Roland having to begin again but the reader having a glimmer of hope that it would be different next time. The last 200 pages or so were mostly heartbreaking. I had to put it down several times, especially with Oy's demise.

I enjoyed the ending very much. For me that was beautiful irony that the line that opens the series, in fact, ends it - sweet! The death of Oy truly broke me up. More so than any of the others. Everyone Roland loves must eventually die.

When we are reading the story, Roland doesn't have his horn from Gericho Hill, but when he restarts his journey at the end of Book 7 he does have it. To me that means every time he has been to the Tower, he has realized something he has done wrong and somehow fixes it. He says something about it only would have taken a few seconds to have picked up the horn, and then he has it when he restarts.