auto

Well, I just finished Song of Susannah and I can't believe we will have the final chapter of the Dark Tower saga in a month and a half.

I know there are a few King threads out there that discuss the books but I thought we could have just one thread where ideas, thoughts, feelings, are discussed as we await the final story.

Also, lets just assume that everybody reading this thread is current through DT6:SoS. If you haven't read the sixth book yet do not keep reading!!! This way we don't have to put spoiler tags on everything. Only use spoiler tags if you are discussing book 7 (for those who may have had the chance to see/read any of it).

So, what does everybody think? Is King crazy throwing himself in the middle of his book? Did people like/dislike this plot twist? Is the series living up to your expectations? Will King screw it up with the last chapter?

I loved SoS. I thought it was stronger than Wolves which seemed like an awful lot of build-up for the payoff at the end. I also felt like it was a story that didn't really further their quest for the tower. You could almost take that whole chapter out of the story and it would not be missed. Aside from Susannah's growing "predicament". And I hated the references to Harry Potter. King can be a cheese-ball sometimes.

What does everyone else think?

Tsar Chasm

Six topics on King on the first page of Book Talk. Here I thought he was a hack that couldn't write his way out of a paper bag. Or so Mr. Columbia English Professor would lead us to believe.

I started reading the Dark Tower as soon as Gunslinger came out in an affordable version. This was more than 20 years ago. I read each as they came out and re-read the first 4 in the revised paperbacks just before Wolves of Calla came out. I benefited from the refresh.

I read a lot. Typically a new book every other day. I don't save fiction books, I pass them on to others but I feel compelled to get the rare first editions of the Dark Tower for display.



side note: my mother was born in Ypsi and I recently decided to drive through while I was on a business trip. Yuck.

zutroy

I also loved SoS - liked it much more than WoTC, which was lackluster IMO. I was initially terrified of the idea of King being in the book.. I feared in this book he would be revealed to be the Crimson King, but the way he featured himself, wasn't bad. I never imagined the story going in this direction but... it's not my story. The chapter with the low-men (I think it was them) in the Dixie Pig was awesome! I even liked the art, which I've heard people didn't like.

My fav is still Wizard and Glass, but this one is up there. Really looking forward to the final chapter in the sagea... and I hope it's long and with thinner pages... Was it me or were the pages thicker than normal?

Geofferson

They were because it was a shorter installment than the last two and the next one which will be about twice as long.

Anyway, I loved SoS (more so than WotC, but I liked that one quite a bit as well). I felt the way King included himself in the story was nothing short of pure brilliance. The talk of the walk-ins and the low-men...great stuff!

Michael Corvin

I'm not sure if I read it here or elsewhere, but long before WotC came out there was speculation that these were characters in Kings mind. I wish I hadn't read that because the climax in SoS would have been much cooler. It was well done. Felt it could have gone another 100 pages or so.

So, if King is dead, then the characters haven't crossed into the real world like they thought. Since we all know King lived from the incident.

PalmerJoss

FWIW, I don't believe that King is dead in the story; I say he just pasted a cutout of a story that proclaimed him dead in his journal. If I remember correctly when he had his accident back in '99 multiple sources reported that he had died, so it wouldn't surprise me if the story we see at the end of SoS is just that.

Michael Corvin

Palmer, true. I forgot all about that. Good thinking. As I said in another thread, I took it as a metaphor as the "wordslinger" is dead, not the man himself. Since King has basically said he hasn't been able to write the same since the accident.

auto

Good call. I hadn't thought of that. This seems like a likely plot twist for book 7.

BTW, Tsar Chasm, next time your in Ypsi drop me a line and I'll give you a real tour. Ypsilanti has a lot of nice parts they're just hidden.

Tom Banjo

Looks like I'm in the minority, but SoS was probably my least favorite so far. I just don't get into the story as much if it's not in Roland's world. Plus, all the other books take place a much longer time span than this one. Wasn't SoS just a couple of days? I felt like I was reading the DT equivalent of one of the later Left Behind novels, when they started to milk it and drag out the story.
Having said that, I was very hesitant about King's intentions when I'd heard he'd be a character, but it worked really well for me. The chapter when SK and Roland meet is just priceless. It's easily the highlight of the book for me.
Can't wait for DT7.

btw- I read somewhere (maybe here but I doubt it) that King has started writing a new book.

auto

Heard the same thing.

Geofferson

Yeah, it was mentioned in a small EW article recently. Awesome news!

Ginwen

Who says this is the real world?

Michael Corvin

<---- swallows red pill...

Geofferson

O/T, but this might be the new book...

www.stephenking.com

cultshock

I never thought of that either, but it's certainly possible. Good point.

I thought that King putting himself in the book was a cool idea, and he handled it well, IMO. I love the fact that King disliked Roland.

Me too. I can't believe that I have been reading this one story for so long. And it's actually almost over.

auto

I hope this isn't the book they are talking about. I was hoping for some old school, spine-tinglin', page-turnin', lights-out, up-all-night readin' King.

Michael Corvin

What I really want to have cleared up in book seven is the whole 19 thing. What is the significance? Why did the lady(name?) at the way station go insane just at the mention of it?

Tom Banjo

I just thought of something... Black House left off with a lot of unresolved issues that King and Straub promised would be taken care of in the third book. Assuming they still plan to write that and not merge it the plotlines into DT7, we're still not gonna have the entire story once DT7 has been read.

RaraFemina

I think that once DT7 comes out there will be a lot of things resolved that were in Black House and a lot of other stories. They have that list of Dark Tower related books at the beginning of the last two books, so I think all that might come into play in the final installment.

I just can't wait to get my hands on it and finish this story.

silentbob007

It was interested to read King's new preface to the older volumes "On being nineteen" ....

auto

I read in another thread that he is planning this book as well as a new fiction book.

They also posted a link to an excerpt from the last book. I'm not going to read it but here it is:

prologue

44 days to go...

ceeece

I think SK was hit by the van on June 19, 1999. Father's Day. The Coda at the end of SoS has the newspaper entry of King's death written June 20, 1999, the day after the accident.

I really like SoS. I read it quicker than any of the DT books so far. I just ate it up. Very fast paced. Wolves was so slow. "Telling Tales" chapters just made the thing drag. And then of course in typical King style, spend 600 pages on character development and 100 pages or less on actual action. I think the actual fight with the wolves might have been like 25 pages.

It intrigued me that King put himself in the story but also bugged me. First thing I thought of when he comes around the corner of his house and says "Tabby is that you darlin'?" was "Man, King is even a bad 'actor' in his own story".

Michael Corvin

I bet he really talks like that though.

As for WotC. Definitely slow. About 200 pages too long. Song of Susannah on the other hand, was too short. I could have gone another couple hundred on that one.

33 days!

as for King being in the story,


Just an idea anyway.

auto

Saw this in another thread

Spoiler for book 7:


26 Days and Counting...

Abob Teff

Well, I just finished SoS, so I'll wander about these threads a little aimlessly . . .

. . . I am still ambivalent about King putting himself in the book (although I saw it coming from a mile away) . . . at least we now know that the opening of the Tower won't reveal him inside writing away . . . maybe . . . (Could it be Richard Bachman up there instead?)

. . . one thing that I have immensely enjoyed through the series is the subtext that has given a look into the mind of a writer. I haven't written anything in a good many years, but I always maintained that my writing style was what King describes: I would almost never map anything out, instead I brought the characters to life and allowed the events to unfold, including the death of a character that I never saw coming. In fact, this has kind of inspired me to go back and pick up the old pen and paper . . .

. . . so think back to when you first read "It." And the whole thing with the turtle popped up and you (at least I) said "What the fuck is he talking about and where did this come from?" (As I have with several of his novels.) Was this planned or merely a convenience (to inspire us to go back and read his older novels)?