King's epic draws to a close...... (The Dark Tower v.7 - Stephen King)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	The Dark Tower v.7 - Stephen King
Date:	13/06/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything

Disadvantages: Nothing for me, whatsoever, absolutely nothing

'Will ya come farther with me?' asks Stephen King, posing the question at the end of each of the first 6 volumes of his epic 'The Dark Tower' saga. At the last time of offering, though, I was torn. I didn't want to embark on the 7th and final volume - it signified the beginning of the end....

Let me first point out that, although you may enjoy it in places, it is nigh on impossible to read the 7th book without reading the first 6 and still understand what is going on. Really, it is highly advisable to read the other 6 in order, first, and to take your time doing so. I was introduced to 'The Dark Tower early in 2004, shortly after the birth of my son. I had always been reluctant to read Stephen King, as I wasn't a fan of horror novels. I was assured by the person who was kind enough to lend (and subsequently give) me the first volume, 'The Gunslinger', that this was different, and that it was King's epic saga, and well worth the read. I trusted him, and opened the first page to the words: 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.'

From these words I was hooked! And here, I find myself having given in and going farther with King and his enigmatic hero, Roland of Gilead, on his quest for the Dark Tower. This seventh volume was the hardest to pick up and start, so keen was I to race through it, so eager to read that final page and find out how it all ends......if, indeed, it does.

However, Stephen King himself says that the importance is in the development of the tale, the reading of every word on every page, and I agree. The tale itself has spanned thousands of pages up to this point, and throughout the previous 6 volumes, King has carefully painted his pictures, developed his characters and sucked us in. The 7th volume, aptly named 'The Dark Tower', starts off where the 6th left us, with Roland's ka-tet of heroes split up. As Jake and Father Callahan pursue Susannah with the intention of rescuing her from the vampires and low men threatening her and her baby, Roland and Eddie head towards Maine, seeking a doorway through to Susannah by other means.

I feel that elaborating on the plot too much here could potentially spoil elements for those of you who are as drawn in as I was/am. I read no reviews, no summaries of this 7th volume, would hear nothing about it. In short, I wanted absolutely no prior knowledge of what happened in this book, so I forgive you for wanting the same, and completely understand if you are reading this to find out another's opinion after the fact, rather than reading it to find out what it may be like.

However, for those of you reading to find out more, to understand another's opinion on whether it disappoints or not, you needn't worry about whether he has done the tale justice. 'The Dark Tower', all 7 volumes of it, strives towards one thing, and one thing only: the Tower itself, and Roland's quest to reach it and save it from the evil and (potentially) demonic Crimson King. The Tower is at the centre of all universes, the point at which all of the 'Beams' that maintain creation cross. In Roland's dedication to reach his goal, Stephen King makes things perfectly clear. Firstly, Roland's love for his 'ka-tet' (group of heroes, bonded by 'ka' (fate/destiny)) is a constant topic of elaboration for the author, and he impresses on us, lest we forget, this love on a very regular basis.

Perhaps this is to strengthen the importance of Roland's quest. There are a multitude of occasions throughout the book (indeed the series of books) where the 'ka-tet' resign themselves, happily, to the fact that they must play second fiddle to this strange and mysterious Tower. But King does it in a way that makes the reader think the same thing - that reading the book has importance only in Roland reaching the Dark Tower, and our enjoyment of the book is nothing compared with this goal.

Such is King's power. No matter what you say about the man, his writing style has a knack of drawing you in. It is absolutely ESSENTIAL to not rush things where he is concerned. I consider myself no King expert, as this is my only experience of his writing, but if this is an example of his style, then I know for sure that, not only is there a point to everything, but that it's worth savouring and remembering everything, as it will likely be referenced again later in the book, or the series.

I feel that King has created a whole world, not just with this series, but with others I am aware of, mainly through the media of film. It is as if his literary world is a bit like he is Roland, his 'ka-tet' is his family and other close ones around him, and that the Dark Tower is some literary goal that is seemingly impossible to attain for him by putting pen to paper. Hopefully with the conclusion of this book, he has reached it.....

As for Roland and the Tower, well.......I'm definitely not going to give anything away. For once, King's writing is very flowing and there is a lot less waffling than in his previous volumes. Indeed, Volume IV, Wizard and Glass, while relevant, is an entire book devoted to one of Roland's flashback tales. It is this style of storytelling (my way or the Highway!) that has irked King's readers before in the past, and I regularly see comments about his waffling, and how it annoys people. My advice is to stick with it, take your time, and just enjoy an immensely talented storyteller at work. To a certain extent, the man has let his imagination take him where it wants to, and has merely acted as the go between that holds the pen (or types with the computer!). I found myself taking my time with this book - I read it over the course of several weeks. Indeed, the whole saga has taken me 5 years to read.

Perhaps the greatest strength of King's is his characterisation ability, the knack of creating characters that just seem SO vivid to me, every word like another pencil stroke like an extra addition to an already perfected sketch (say thankya Patrick Danville!), in a world that is packed full of sketches. The main characters have had the luck of being developed over the course of several books, and are now etched firmly into my mind, no doubt pictured differently to other fellow Tower-obsesses! Yet there is a way that King writes that allows us to associate just as easily with characters such as Ted and Dinky, with Morded and with Patrick, and similarly with characters in previous volumes. Their mannerisms are described in more detail than their physical appearance, and it is in this way that we form a picture of them in our minds.

The plot somewhat hurtles towards the end. The buildup features some of the usual drawn out and descriptive chapters, with deliberate pauses at each stage along the journey for Roland, no matter his companions at the time. But the end, once we near it, seems rather rushed. Having said that, there are still a good 100 or so pages to feature it, but it would have come as no shock to me to find there was an 8th volume to document the final stages of the quest. As it is, perhaps the speed I felt was nothing more than my own desperation to reach the final stages and to know the ending as he wrote it. In a bit of a compassionate and pleading sense, he gives us, as the readers, the choice to finish a little early, providing a perfectly acceptable end before then offering us the option, and then continuing.

And indeed, this has been the style of his saga throughout its 7 volumes: the link with the reader. He has constantly given us the feeling that here is a human being writing his life's work, his magnum opus, and he wants as many of us to share in the joy of writing it as much as the joy of reading it. It is rather fitting that he once more flicks to talking to us as readers before approaching his own final literary stage. It must have been immensely sad (as well as an immense relief, if you believe his occasional whinges!) to put the last word on the page, and I have to say, the ending will annoy some, make others shake their heads in amazement, and then it will also make you smile and nod, confirming a sneaking suspicion that something like that would be the end, le fin, das Ende.

As ever, there are nods to some of King's other novels, such as 'Insomnia', 'Salem's Lot', and 'Hearts in Atlantis'. Fans of his other books are likely to find a cross-correlation with characters, places and events, and no doubt will find hidden meanings and in-jokes throughout the 7 volumes. There are also nods to Clint Eastwood's The Man With No Name, on whom Roland is based, as well as the Robert Browning poem, 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came', which was the basis for the whole premise. The poem is included as an Appendix at the back of this 7th volume. And, of course, King makes no secret about the fact that much of his inspiration comes from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which first inspired him as a young adult to write an epic saga. The fact that he waited years before starting is only to ensure he did not just rewrite Lord of the Rings: it had to have been his own work, not that of Tolkien's, reworded.

And so, for me, my own literary journey with Roland and his 'ka-tet' has reached its own ending with the conclusion of the 7th volume. Sorely tempted though I am to start all over again (!!) this is not something feasible for me. No doubt I will muse over the saga on occasion, and will turn to my 7 well-thumbed volumes to refresh my memory on something, but reading them all over again may alter my perception, and this is something I would like to keep a hold of, do it please ya! 'The Dark Tower', the 7th and final volume of Stephen King's magnum opus, retails at £6.99. I obtained it online for about £5. I shall now put it back on the shelf, in its rightful place after the other 6. And what about you? Will you come a little farther? Will ya? Or are you yet to begin the quest with Roland? If that is the case, then I envy you - you really are in for a treat......

Summary: Fantastic final volume to Stephen King's epic 7 volume saga