The Dark Tower
I’ve been a long time Stephen King fan. At one point in time, I owned around 30 books that he had written (I am counting those he wrote as Richard Bachman as well). Of course, this was before book worms decided that I had to many books and ate quite a few of them. When they finished their food, I had fewer than 10 left.
All that apart, I hated the first King book that I read. Technically, it wasn’t a King book, it was one of the Bachman books - Thinner. I was cribbing about the book to a friend and he dumped a copy of The Dark Tower II - The Drawing of the Three in my hand.
So, I took his recommendation that the book was good, and gave King a go with a clear mind. And boy, was the book great. The characters, the interactions and the plot were amazingly good. Of course, once I finished book 2, how could I not go after book 3 (The Waste Lands)?
Of course, a few things did not make sense in book 2 as I had not read book 1. Long story short, bought books 1 - 3 and re-read them in order. Book 3 ended in a cliff hanger - and I hated King for that. Of course, all this reading also introduced me to the other books that he wrote. If you are reading the Dark Tower series, it makes a lot of sense to read his other books - trust me on this.
After a long wait, Book 4 (Wizard and Glass) finally came out. The problem(?) with this book was that it dealt a lot with Roland’s past. It does a good job of providing the back story and the motivation of Roland’s quest, but at that time I was a lot more interested in knowing when Roland was going to get to the damn tower of his. Now that I have finished the series, I think I will give it another go.
The gap between books 4 and 5 (Wolves of the Calla) was longer than I anticipated. Also, by that time, I had moved on to other authors and different genres. When I finally got my hands on the book, I was disappointed. To be honest, of all the books in the series, this is (according to me) the weakest one. Why? Simple - it does not move the story forward. Well, not too much in any case. It felt like the entire novel was just to set up the ending. I did not enjoy slogging (yes, it wasn’t that good) through the book just to have the last 10 pages move the story forward.
Once that book was done, I gave up on the series. Well, gave up is a little strong - I just stopped bothering about it. For around 2 years. The other day, when I went to the local library, I saw the last two books in the series (The Song of Susannah and (duh) The Dark Tower) next to each other. After a lot of internal debate, I took them home - and fell in love with the series all over again.
The Song of Susannah had all the made the series great in the first place. Characters, plot lines, interactions - the works. And the story was moving forward - hurtling forward in fact. And the book was small - well, small compared to the other books in the series. It was so good that I finished it in a day.
That left only one book to go. The one where Roland achieves his goal (or does he?). Was it going to be the culmination of King’s work - or was it going to make me hate him forever? Let’s just say he ended it the only way he could. As he says, the ending just wrote itself - and I am not disappointed/upset by it. In the light of the end, quite a few things that happen in the book make sense.
Yes, there is nothing about the story, the characters or the plot in the post above. It’s simple. If anyone is inspired to read the series because they had the patience to read this article, I don’t them to have any preconceived ideas. Approach it with a fresh mind. Those who have read other King books will enjoy the series a little more. Here are some of the books you should try while/before reading the series : The Stand, Salem’s Lot, Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, and It.
In many ways, this series is King’s Magnum Opus. It almost feels like all the other books that he wrote were simply window dressing for this epic. This is his Grand Unified theory, bringing all his works under one umbrella. As an avid fan, I will not be disappointed if he bows out now and never writes another work. Book 7 - The Dark Tower is gift enough.
Khef, Ka and Ka-Tet.
Say thankya.
