Kevin's Watch

I'm about 100 pages in. This is much better than DT1. It's like night and day, hardly even the same story. I'd read this book decades ago, but forgotten how good it is. The interplay between the two worlds/characters (Roland/Eddie) is some crazy shit! Page-turning fun.

I didn't continue Dark Tower after this book... which is strange, because as you note, this is one of King's strongest books with some of the best writing, plot, and action.

A good book, but not one of my favourites of the series.

Spoiler

Detta/Odetta

--A

Just finished today. I have to say this is the first King book for which I have no complaints. Nothing. The pacing was perfect. The characters and their dilemmas were awesome. I love how everything builds to a climax from several different directions. I love Roland's final adventure/shootout in our world. And the serial killer who connects all this was fascinating.

I'm not saying this is the best King book I've read (that would Insomnia, so far), but it's up there in the top 3. Maybe top 2. It's not nearly as epic as The Stand or It, but that might actually be its strength. I had no complaints because there was no filler. This thing moved and moved, keeping me up too late at night, making me unwilling to put it down.

These are characters I want to spend some time with. By the end of this, I feel like they've gone through transformations that takes Donaldson three or four books to achieve. In fact, it feels very 'Donaldsonian.'

I don't remember much from my first time reading this (must have been late 80s). A beach, some doors, and Roland thinking that some guy handled himself well in a fight--especially given the fact that he was naked, which Roland thought was difficult to pull off. That's it. I don't know why I didn't remember more, or why it didn't come back to me as I read this time, but most of this was a big surprise. It did feel familiar, however, which was cool. In fact, I think some of this seeped into my subconsciousness and affected my own writing to an extent. Very familiar.

I think I may actually prefer the next book to this one, but it may have been that I read II so many times that I got tired of it.

--A

I never liked this one, can't really remember why. Guess I'll have to re-read it.

The next book is awesome; the one after that is one of King's best.

I really liked the narrative technique of the doors. Roland was not only going into an alien world (well, alien to him), but into the minds of the Three. So you get the freaky interaction that is almost like possession (strange how that the moral quandary of possession never comes up), but also Roland's perspective of our world, our times, our technology. His insights were at times quite profound. So we're seeing our world through Roland's eyes while he's inside someone else's eyes! Not only is the complexity of that view amazing, but how King tells a coherent, engaging story while juggling these perspectives is evidence of a powerful imagination of a masterful story-teller.

I've started the next book, and it's already great, too.

Yeah, the next two are probably my favourites of the whole series.

--A

According to the chart you're following, Z, where does 'Salem's Lot fit in? I'm pretty sure you want to read it right before DT5.

Menolly, I read SL decades ago, and then again last year.

Thanks for looking out for me!

Narratively it doesn't matter when you read it, as long as it is before DT5, since stuff from there appears in DT5.

--A