Stephen King's DarkTower series

[Brian G Turner]

Anyone reading this?

My girlfriend has been reading through it dilligently - she isn't a horror fan, but likes the sometimes eclectic mixture of styles - fantasy, westerns, psychological - are wrapped together.

How does it fit in with King's general work though? A complete departure? Or familiar themes in unfamiliar settings?

 

[McMurphy]

I have read the first four installments, but I have fallen behind on the rest of the series due to money restraints. I know, I know---it is time to get a library card in this city.

Dark Tower is certainly Stephen King's unique take on fantasy. It is far from perfect, but that is more due to the fact of how much time was between each of the early volumes. In a sense, they make neat bookmarks in King's writing ability.

I defidently plan to read the rest of the series at some point.

 

[LadyFel]

I read the short story King wrote for the 'Legends' boks recently...and two days later managed to get my hands on the first three books on special offer...for some reason they were packed together and came extremely cheap...So I'm just starting out...so far I've been busy and read only the introduction, but I'm interested...

 

[tonic]

Ok this is the only work of Kings that I've ever read, well I got halfway through The Stand but the book was so huge I couldn't stand lugging it around everywhere. Anyways The Dark Tower series is one of my favourite series, I'm not a big horror fan, I know nothing about Westerns and I was jsut attracted to this because of a reccomendation. After 30 years King has finally completed it, the last book (The Dark Tower) came out about two weeks ago and Im three quarters of the way through. It's just so good. I suggest this to everyone, I know it may not pique everyone's taste though it will some, with it's mentions of such great books as The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of The Rings and some of Clint Eastwoods greatest movies. Anyone want any more info, just ask.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I bought Song of Sussanah and Dark Tower for my girlfriend for her birthday a few weeks back.

 

[Morning Star]

I have read the first 3, I loved them, I plan to finish the whole series...however, I feel as King has readily admitted, that he may be setting himself up for a fall. The final Dark Tower may be a hard novel to conquer as I am expecting something really jawdropping...but maybe I am expecting too much.

A stunning combination of horror, sci fi and fantasy, with a serious spaghetti western feel to it. In my opinion at least.

 

[Nightwing]

I've just started 'Wizard and Glass'......thouroughly enjoyed the ka-tet's encounter with Blaine......better not read too fast though, cos I haven't got the next book yet!

 

[hodor]

i have just finished the fourth Wizard and Glass but as i live in france i cant get ahold of anything but the hb fifth book and the sixth and seventh are not available on amazon.fr

i have thoroughly enjoyed what i have read though and i dont think its like his other stuff. the only other book of his i might compare the style to is the talisman. i think however that it is not so much horror as fantasy and that there is a whole audience for this series out there that havent read it because it has the name King on it. this audience be those fantasy lovers who do not love horror.

 

[Ashen Shugar]

Just bought the 1st one because you guys spoke well of it - expecting good things now.

 

[Preston]

I've read the entire series. I loved the first books so much that I spent nearly a year straight reading nothing but the Dark Tower series. I must admit I did not enjoy the last 3 books of the series. They are written very differently and seem to lose touch with the themes that made the first 4 books so great.

I own books 1-4, but I do not plan on buying books 5-7.

 

[Maddy]

All I can say is that these stories have been written over two or three decades. That is one massive undertaking. People think authors have the entire story in their heads and are merely toying with us but I can't imagine tackling something as AWESOME as this series. When I read the letters in Song of Suze I really felt bad for King because it would be a real hassle to receive hate mail or pester mail about something that im sure he loves. I was absorbed in his inclusion of himself as a character. That was really enjoyable.

Ive not read the 7th book but cant wait!

 

[nixie]

I was going up the wall waiting for the final installment,this series had become larger than life to me,I read the first 3 back in the eighties ,when King had his accident I honestly didn't believe the series would be finished.so was pleasently surprised when he announced he was completing it.When I first read VII I was initally dissapointed with the ending but the more I thought about it the more I csme to like the ending.

 

[bendoran]

i really love this set of books. Its an awesome story of grand scale, with some of the strongest and most well rounded characters ever put to page. the way king makes this series the epicentre of his entire collection is pure brilliance. i have to admit the first time i read through seven i didnt like the ending, but it fit so well that i couldnt help but love the book. There is such emotion and pain in kings words, it isnt horror and it isnt fantasy, but a sort of amalgamation of kings life. You can really see a growth of talent and ambition as each novel is written, and its an oddly successful chronicle of one of the worlds most renowned authors.

i would love to talk about different parts of the book, but i would feel so bad if i spoiled the novels for someone else. all i will say is that for king, convention is out the window.

 

[weaveworld]

Hey all, I read all of the Dark Tower books, dare I say-religiously! and I was really disappointed with the ending. The book were all well written and great to read but I just felt that good ol Mr King sort of ran out of steam at the end, let me know what you think ww

 

[Allanon]

this is my favorite set of books of all time!!!!

in my opinion there is no better books written, i dont want to start a debate on this because i am sure everyone would disagree with me but i finished reading dark tower and just turned round and re-read them. i Love these books.

 

[weaveworld]

Even though I complained about the last book (sorry DT fans), I loved these books, I have them all and I won't loan them to anyone, I am ashamed to say, if I ever get another tattoo, it will have a DT theme, but what could I get?


All ideas gratefully accepted!

WW

 

[Allanon]

you could maybe have the tower with a rose behind it or something to that effect.

 

[SPA_KING]

Hi all, new here.

I've read mostly all of Steven Kings book, I epecially love the short story series. I've read the long ones too.

The Dark Tower series never did it for me. I read the first two, but like The Stand, it didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular and nothing seemed to advance.

Just 2 cents from a n00b.

 

[smegMATIC]

Hi all, new here.



The Dark Tower series never did it for me. I read the first two, but like The Stand, it didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular and nothing seemed to advance.

Hi Spanking, greetins from another n00b here.

I agree about the Dark Tower series, it's almost like some teenager ghostwrote them.

I loved The Stand though, how can you say it doesn't go anywhere? The Stand is truly one of his finest works IMHO -a good story told with vivid literary illustration. Maybe you've been playing too much D&D?

 

[SPA_KING]

Well hello fellow n00b, and it's SPA_KING not Spanking. Oh well brush that off.

The Stand was in itself a plausible current day scenario with WMDs and everything else like that. However, it started to follow a Tom Clancy type scenario, by that I mean, the first 1/2 or 1/4 of the book was introducing characters. Jesus Christ, I think I had a flowchart to keep track of them all.

Then it took a meandering path into a wishy-washy good vs. evil, jewish like Exodus through the country, picking people up along the way. I never really grasped the deal about Las Vegas being the headquarters of the bad folk.

But I would say it was a typical rambling lost story track that is quite similair to all of Steven Kings works. I like to call his type of writing "Chewing Gum for the brain".

But I can say I have read pretty much all of his stuff since I am a mad reader.

What did you think was so great about it? It's been quite a few years since I read it so I might be a little rusty.