I read on. How can you not? King obviously doesn't think that the book ends with Roland just entering the tower...otherwise it would actually have ended there.
Read it. You'll love it or hate it, but at least you'll know.
I would still rather wait until I hear from Luci and Wayfriend as I'm curious if the decision would be unaminous. But, I'll probably break down and continue on once my guys are out of the house for the day...
Uhm...wasn't The Matrix Reloaded, with it's story arc of The Architect and Neo's choice of rebooting the Matrix time and again, released just prior to DT:VII?
...time to make Fist happy...onward to Earthsea!!!
I loved the idea of Roland beginning the journey over and over again, I hated....hated the alternate timeline in which everyone was reunited. To me, that just shat all over everything that had gone before.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
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"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
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"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
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I loved the idea of Roland beginning the journey over and over again, I hated....hated the alternate timeline in which everyone was reunited. To me, that just shat all over everything that had gone before.
Spoiler
but...go, then, there are other worlds than these...
And who's to say Roland will meet the same people in his Quest each time? Perhaps he meets slight variations, or maybe completely different folks or some combination? We don't know. But hopefully this time he'll learn enough not to enter the Tower, perhaps not even to approach it once he has saved it. Recall, that was his original desire--to heal what was sick at the Tower, not simply to attain its highest room. Methinks another name for Roland's tower might be BABEL.
"O let my name be in the Book of Love!
It be there, I care not of the other great book Above.
Strike it out! Or, write it in anew. But
Let my name be in the Book of Love!" --Omar Khayam
Is it also possible that Roland is wrong, and that there is more than one Tower, each located on a different world? That perhaps his childhood in Gilead, and his time in Mejis, not to mention all else that occurs prior to chasing after Marten/Walter/Flagg on the edge of the desert, occurs in the only world it could, but that all other journeys from this point foward occurs on different core worlds that contain a Tower?
Susannah felt her memories slipping, after going through her final door. Obviously, the same happens to Roland. For there to be only one Tower in all of Gan's creation, perhaps that's a misconception we all have made?
Yes, I remember that quote, but it was sooooooooo unsatisfying.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
Roland had to go to the Tower alone. Would you have preferred Susannah to also die? Obviously there has to be other Eddies, Jakes, and probably Odettas on other worlds. Why not give Susannah, who may have been the only version of Odetta to have a Detta within, some sort of satisfaction, if not happiness, after all she had suffered?
Perhaps for those who do not need to learn whatever it is that causes Roland to repeat his journey again and again, Gan offers a measure of kindness for a job well done.
Honestly, I'd have been much, much happier had Suze died as well. There were clearly other worlds out there, and I would have preferred the ambiguity of either letting Suze live and not knowing her fate, or having her die and assuming that some form of her continued on in another world.
Roland's fate is perfect, and that part of the Coda is phenomenal. That was really the only ending that the book could have had that I would have been satisfied with.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
Without going into details, I don't think it possible to write the ending of a long work--especially an epic--that every single reader will like. Even the readers who enjoy the work as a whole and admire it.
Cail--your opinion is as valid as my own and Menolly's. And ours are as valid as yours. King wrote the story that was in his mind's eye and here it is. Myself, I accept that since I'm not the only audience my own views are not the ultimate arbiter. Nor should they be.
Mind you, watch how that sentiment flies out the window once I find something which I don't like. <g>
"O let my name be in the Book of Love!
It be there, I care not of the other great book Above.
Strike it out! Or, write it in anew. But
Let my name be in the Book of Love!" --Omar Khayam
Honestly, I'd have been much, much happier had Suze died as well. There were clearly other worlds out there, and I would have preferred the ambiguity of either letting Suze live and not knowing her fate, or having her die and assuming that some form of her continued on in another world.
