Kevin's Watch

Man, I've been M.I.A. for a bit now. I got book four finished and broke down and bought the last three ( I'm addicted.)I'm spending my income tax apparently making sure Stephen King has plenty of money...in just under 8 days I managed to acquire all 7 books...

I'm starting book 7 today. I've never read much King, I've always been a fan of his movie adaptations and so on...I must say, I LOVE this story every bit of it, even the boring parts.lol !

I know a lot of people were upset at the ending, and I even read the spoilers way back when the book came out and have since forgotten...

I think you gotta just accept what the writer gives ya even if it does stink, but I'll be heartbroken if Roland doesn't make it to the tower...

*crosses fingers for the crumbling ka-tet , and heads for DT7*

For what it's worth Luke I think the ending was brilliant. I'd be happy to discuss the reasons why once you've reached it. (Whatever ending that may be!! Muahhaaahahaa) <ahem>!

Yeah, come back and tell us about it Luke. We'll be here.

--A

Great ending, the best novel of a great series. ENJOY!!!!!

Well, Sunday Night I finished DT7...and fo course I didn't stop reading after King suggested to...

Man, I love that series, I was captured by every novel and in the end....I neither liked nor hated the ending either way.

Losing Eddie and Jake so close together was something I wasn't ready for, honestly, I kept hoping Susannah would be one of the unlucky ones
(she was such a high maintenance friend, or I believe Roland supposed so too)...but I guess had it been Jake or Eddie survive, perhaps they wouldn't have drawn the door and left Roland before he reaches the tower.

Eddie was a real tough loss for me, I liked him too much to see him die...Ka I s'pose.

Now onto Roland and the room at the top of the Dark Tower...
Man I'm just heartbroken for him. In that last instant when he's crying: Please, Have mercy, Not again ! ....

I thought I was gonna lose it.. and then his mind already starts to cloud when Ka pulls him through....I hurt for Roland.

Although I must admit, I'm not sure what he needs salvation from, I mean death happens and killing happens and it's impossible for someone to control Ka....so why is it that Roland needs to keep searching ? What lesson did he not learn ?

My guess is when one of you tells me, it'll be something so easy I've totally overlooked the possibility..lol

Bottom Line: I love this series and can't wait to read it again, but SOIAF comes before the re-read.

The death of Eddie was the most painful for me, too. I bawled like a baby, both when he was shot, and during his final death scene.

I think King intended the reader to see many different things that Roland could have done differently on his quest. For me, Roland must learn to control his obsession. He bases every decision on it, both good and bad, through the entire series.

And ultimately, he saves the Tower when he saves the Breakers - he could have cried off right there, but obsession drives him onwards.

The irony, and the tragedy to me, is that without obsession, can he succeed at all? So is he doomed to repeat his experience forever?

Eddie's hurt, Oy's killed me. I felt so stupid about that, but losing Oy was just the worst.

I was honestly amazed that Oy lived as long as he did. Right from the first when he went after the Tick-Tock Man I was so sure that Oy was a goner, and just about every confrontation afterword I figured he'd get killed...thank god he didn't, I don't think I ever read something where I liked a certain animal so well...except of course The Ranyhyn...

Maybe I missed it, but I don't think Roland ever said what/who made/caused him swear to reach the Tower, he says he's sworn and he's asked why, but I could be wrong but I don't remember King ever going into much detail over that vow...a weird kind of shadow cast upon the origin of Roland's obssession I think..

And another thing, ya know how Roland seems to have these feelings about things or even Eddie, Jake and Susannah....I mean, if Roland has been endlessly reliving his search for the Dark Tower, does than mean that Jake ,Eddie, Susannah, and Oy do too ? Is that why they seem to just <i>know</i> something ? Residual memories that flash across their memories like Deja Vu for instance ? funny thing King had Roland kind of putting some stock in Deja Vu towards the end huh ?

After a few days to think about it...King was definitely getting everyone ready for Roland's outcome in the last three books...

And I seem to agree with the majority that it was kind of a bummer that Jake and Eddie were in a different "when" and weren't the 100% Jake and Eddie that we all loved...but something is better than nothing I guess...

just some things to think about...

Personally, I would have preferred it if they'd "stayed dead" as it were. The alternative was just too easy, too nice, too...I dunno...happy ending-like.

A good point about the rest of the tet though, if Roland carries on, (and how many times has he done it already?), then surely he must once again draw his tet from our world.

Eddies death was indeed a rough one, although I'd been expecting it from about book 5. And the way that Jake died was pretty sad too.

Good question about the origin of Rolands oath too. We're still missing too much of his back-story. Perhaps it was simply that the fact that the White wasn't prevailing that set him on his quest, although the tower should not care for the White in itself...

--A

Jake's death was almost as painful as Eddie's, and I cried yet again. Oy's demise was also tear-wrenching, although it was almost inevitable at that point in the story.

Paradoxically, with Jake's death, it looked fifty-fifty to me, because that scene was so well-written and riveting, Jake or Roland, and I was so happy that it wasn't Roland who was killed . . . so even while fighting tears, I was elated, too, that Roland would continue to the Tower. That may not make a lot of sense, but that's how I felt.

That was a paticularly well-written segment, because I felt it really could have gone either way.

Could have indeed. And I'd been half-expecting Roland to die since the end of Book 2. Jakes burial was pretty touching too.

--A

**MAJOR SPOILERS*** (just in case)



Well..."It is finished", as the man says. I didn't see the ending coming, and personally I think it would have been more to my taste without the Coda. It would have pissed off readers even more, but still...7 books and then just the sound of a closing door as Roland finally enters the tower. Imagine that.

I guess SK had something like that in mind, but felt it necessary to give some kind of closure. Unfortunately it does not really make sense to me. The thing about the horn felt contrived and out of the blue. ('The thing' being what? I'm not sure. What is the cause, what is the reason (as the Merovingian would say) for the loop Roland's in? Is he stuck in a Brannon Braga script?)

What didn't help is that my all-time favourite graphic novel series, written by Alejandro Jodorowsky and drawn by French master artist Moebius, ends exactly the same! That's the first thing that popped into my mind when reading the coda.

Still...I liked the book very much. The deaths were not unexpected, and especially Jake's was very well handled. The fact that - again - Roland has more important business on his mind is harsh. Eddie's death felt too drawn out for dramatic effect, for someone being shot in the head.
King's presence in the first part of the book (addressing the reader) felt intrusive and I'm glad that later on he went to the background and just let the story happen. There's some classic SK in there, with descriptions you can visualise in a film (the corridor under Castle Discordia, with lamps lighting the way before you and turning off behind you...monsters in the dark).

I may reread the whole thing some time in the future, but I'm a bit afraid of his rewriting of the earlier parts. The reason I liked the first books so much (years ago), was the way they were different from all his other work. I think The Gunslinger and Wizard and Glass are my favourites (the latter because of the long backstory - I like that kind of character-building. The last 3 books, however, felt more like 'standard' Stephen King to me.

Those two that you mention are my favourites too, for probably the same reason. And yes, it did seem contrived at the end.

My GF is of the opinion that the opening line of The Gunslinger was the best thing King ever wrote. And because he couldn't top it, he cheated and used it again.

--A

I can't agree that the last three books felt different from the rest of the series. In fact, as a long-time reader who waited years between books, that was my biggest fear . . . that King would not be able to return after such long absences (and often deep personal life-changes) and still be able to capture the style and essence of the Dark Tower world.

But everytime he hooked me in with no trouble at all, and all seven novels are fantasy of the highest caliber.