The Dark Tower Stephen KIng 7 Hardcover Book Series 1-7 (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
Last evening I finally finished a journey I began about more than twenty years ago. I read the first volume of the Dark Tower series when I was in high school, sometime in the late eighties. I made it through the first four books rather quickly, and then King decided to take a bit of a break from writing them. At the same time I kind of took a break from reading Stephen King. I had read pretty much everything he wrote up to that point.And oddly enough the fourth novel, Wizard and Glass, is one of my favorite novels ever. It is by far my favorite in the series, but it was a self-contained story that takes place in the main character's past. (I'm rather thrilled that King plans to write more novels from that part of the story's history.) My desire to continue the main story kind of waned even when King started writing again. I suspect it was probably for the same reason King took time away from this incredibly large and brilliant piece of work. I didn't like the main character. This is not a bad thing. It's unusual and it is also disconcerting. Even as I eventually grew to respect and even love the man, much like his companions, I never really liked him. The only time I really enjoyed his character was during his recollections of being a young man in Wizard & Glass. I actually recommend Wizard & Glass as a single story if you don't want to read the whole series. It's because Roland is so unlikeable that I felt the end of this story was very appropriate. Some penance is not easily paid out, but some hope should always be given. And it made sense. As King wrote in the little epilogue at the end, "It isn't a good ending, but it's the right ending." And he was also right about what's really important. People are too concerned about endings. Endings suck. The journey should be what matters most. And the other characters, and you will fall in love with them, make that journey so very meaningful.The Dark Tower series is one hell of a journey. You will get caught up in ka's whirlwind as it pushes the players toward the goal of their journey. You will laugh and you will hurt. And you will be surprised where it takes you. I cried more than once.I cannot fully recommend it though. This series is partially a love story to the author's loyal readers. While it isn't required that you have read all of King's novels, just know that a lot of them spill into this world. As King himself said, everything he had ever written before he finished the Dark Tower is in some way connected to it. In many ways it is about himself. It's a story that began almost forty years ago and weaved its way into everything. And it took him so long because I believe (well, he pretty much says it in the book) that he disliked Roland as well. Feared him. His own creation. We don't always like what we create, and that can be hard to swallow.The other thing that it is about, and one of the reasons I really loved it, is art. Any kind of art. Writing, painting, singing...it's about inspiration. It's about that moment when you're creating and you don't know where it's coming from. That somehow something is working through you or with you. It's about where ideas come from. While King provides an answer for that, this is fiction, and it's really the idea that is wonderful. That there are other worlds, and other you's, and that what holds all of it together can work through you for some greater good. Call it God or Gan or just the ethereal muse, I like to believe I've felt its touch in those unconscious moments when I've created something and not known where it came from or why I made certain choices in the act of creating it. Some kind of outside influence...from where, I don't know.This series of books can be many things to whoever may read it. It can be, and is, just an epic adventure mixing many genres together into a wonderful cacophany of color. It has horror, and science fiction, and romance, and more than a hint of the western. It is huge, but not cumbersome. King is loved by many for that simple reason. The man knows how to tell a good story, and if it is long, it is only as long as it needs to be. And I'd say that this is one of his best.So read on. I use to be a voracious reader, reading at least 5 books a week. I started this series as soon as they came out, it drug out so long for the first 3 to be out. Then the long wait for the next book finally came out. I loved how they started, but where king started to go with the series and the length of time actually stop my will to read. I actually felt that he had a ghost writer take over who didn't read the previous books.
What do You think about The Dark Tower Stephen KIng 7 Hardcover Book Series 1-7 (2000)?
The reading was a lot of fun.... the ending was a let down and disappointment.
—Vicky
Read but the last books language made it very long and hard to complete.
—mjackson039
Recommended by Novi Public Library (Novi, Michigan).
—aisha
