Dark tower 7 review/spoiler discussion

Stephen King Forum

This thread is if you have already read the book.

Spoilers galore in here, with no warning.

So step off!




Sorry, but do be warned, the book will be discussed in detail.

I might go into detail later, when I'm not so tired, but to sum it up real quick:

I loved this book from start to finish as much as any book I'v ever read, except the last 3 pages.

The last 3 pages made me so angry, I swore off Stephen King for a month or two there.

I hated the man.

I have gotten over it, learned to deal with it, etc.

But I feel the ending was a total cop out, a lazy man's excuse for an ending and it made no sense.

But, over time, I am learning to accept it.

Books 5 and 6 were good for me, not awesome, but good.

Book 7 was pure out awesome beyond words, till the ending.

And I still can't figure out what the tower is, and there are all kinds of loose ends.



The tower was made by men to keep the magic of creation going, but the tower is winding down.

The tower is Gans body. (Gods body)


The two don't seem to gell.

Oh well, whatever, sometimes I miss points till they are shown to me, then I pick them up.

I still love the series, had a lot of fun with it and would recomend it to friends.

The ending was pure flat out cowardis on the part of SK, but no one is perfect I guess.

i feel the same way. i started with book 3 (like you did, i think) and then i went back and read 1 and 2. had trouble with 1 but loved 2. i read the revised book 1 a few months ago and enjoyed it more. i just can't get into book 4. after book 7 was actually in print and i could go to the store to buy it, i went back and reread 1-3, read all the non flashbacks in book 4 and then went on to read 5-7. i think i enjoyed 5 a little more than 6. but man, book 7!!! wow. what a great book except where you get to the part where king actually tells you to keep reading at your own peril.

i really don't know what to say about the end. as i read the last few pages it crept into my mind that what happened was going to happen but i thought "what? that's crazy. that would be the stupidest thing king could do to this masterpiece." but yet he did it anyway. one of the greatest American writer's there has ever been comes up with a fantastic story with one of the greatest characters and spins a tale so massive it gets away from him. he writes himself into the story and then at the end he just has the main character get caught in some star trek-like causality loop where he ends up going from point a to b back to point a to start the cycle anew.

i just don't know what to think. in a way i do understand that no matter what the ending was, most people would have probably wanted something more. we have a massive story and want a massively good ending but king knew he couldn't deliver so he opted for the "mysterious and interpretive" ending that would insanely infuriate all his readers of the present, but maybe in 10 or 15 years he will be labeled a magnificent genious for such an ending. sadly that day is not today and i'm very angry. well, not as angry now as i was a few months ago, but still angry.

i guess i have 1 main question that is kind of a group of similar questions: did roland just not do it right? i mean there at the end there was a question in my mind of the horn of gilead that he was supposed to have with him at the tower. if he does it again and keeps the horn will that break the cycle. if so, that's just dumb. did he err by allowing the quest be the only thing that mattered? if that's the case then isn't all lost? i mean, roland is it. and if he doesn't try and save the tower then who will? or was king really sincere with his "it's the journey and not the destination" point? that's the only thing that really gives me comfort. i really did enjoy the journey.

Okay, I haven't read these books, but your discussion's fascinating me what exactly was wrong with the ending? Did Rowland just wake up or something?
Cause that would've been pretty lame?

Is it an ending you may not have looked into deeply enough? Like the end of Son of Rosemary, where on the surface she woke up from a dream, but in reading deeper you find it was her own personal hell (spooky) or a premonition (spooky too).

Dunno, go back and read the last three pages

okay gaboman, here's the deal. we got to the last few pages of book 7 and we're really into the story. can't wait to see what happens.

so roland spends his entire life (and with everything going wrong with the tower, time is askew and roland could have been wandering for a thousand years) with one goal: to reach the tower and try and restore/save it to bring order and balance back to the universe(s). so roland finally gets to the tower (don't misunderstand, the journey to the tower is one of the best told tales i've ever read). so roland gets to the tower. enters the tower. climbs the steps of the tower. ascends level by level to his level of the tower. along the way, each floor he sees a part of his journey (starting with where we started with him). in book 1 he meets and old recluse with a bird named zoltan. one of the first thing he sees in the tower is this bird. the last thing we see before he enters the tower is the red eyes of the crimson king, and this is the last thing roland sees before reaching his door of the tower. "He took the stairs one by one, walking with his back straight and his head held up. The other rooms had been open to his eye. The final one was closed off, his way blocked by a ghostwood door with a single word carved upon it. That word was "ROLAND."

he opens his door. and then BAM! roland is back in the desert ("the apotheosis of all deserts") at the point where we first meet him in book 1.


"i will reach it, he thought, squinting up at the pitiless sun. I swear on the name of my father that i will.

and perhaps this time if you get there it will be different, a voice whispered--surely the voice of desert delirium, for what other time had there ever been? He was what he was adn where he was, just that, no more than that, no more. He had no sense of humor and little imagination, but he was steadfast. He was a gunslinger. And in his heart, well-hidden, he still felt the bitter romance of the quest.

You're the one who never changes, Cort had told him once, and in his voice Roland could have sworn he heard fear...although why Cort should have been afraid of him--a boy--Roland couldn't tell. It'll be your damnation,boy. You'll wear out a hundred pairs of boots on your walk to hell.

And Vannay: Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.

And his mother: Roland, must you always be so serious? Can you never rest?

Yet the voice whispered it again (different this time mayhap different)

and Roland did seem to smell something other than alkali and devil-grass. He thought it might be flowers.

He thought it might be roses.

He shifted his gunna from one shoulder to the other, then touched the horn that rode on his belt behind the gun on his right hip. The ancient brass horn had once been blown by Arthur Eld himself, or so the story did say. Roland had given it to Cuthbert Allgood at Jericho Hill, and when Cuthbert fell, Roland had paused just long enough to pick it up again, knocking the deathdust of that place from its throat.

This is your sigul, whispered the fading voice that bore with it the dusk-sweet scent of roses, the scent of home on a summer evening--O lost!--a stone, a rose, an unfound door; a stone, a rose, a door.

This is your promise that things may be different, Roland--that there may yet be rest. Even salvation.

A pause, and then:

If you stand. If you are true." - The Dark Tower VII, pp. 828-829

It was like seeing a loved one get in a car crash.

It was just a horrifying ending.

Our hero, the baddest *** in all of book history, the most awesome character to ever exist, the last gunslinger who looks like Clint Eastwood and gives out more butt kickings via his Sandal wood gripped guns than the Man with no name,

well, he is damned.

Damned to repeat the last 1/2 year of his life for eternity.



Actually, even though he is damned, he has the horn now in the desert, so the next trip though, he will probably achieve "salvation".

So what King did was show us the Matrix trilogy, but showed us the 5th version of the matrix, instead of the 6th.

He was too cheap and scared to write the real ending, the ending where Roland entered the tower, which if God's body, or the instrument that mankind made to hold the magic of the universe together, whichever is true,

the ending where Roland reaches the top of the tower and ??????


King don't know, so he copped out.

With an ending that makes no sense. Why would Roland have to repeat the last 1/2 year of his life over and over and over and not remember it, till the last minute when he reaches the tower door?



Ok, I will calm down.

It was the best book I ever read (almost) and had the worst ending of any book ever.

There is a scene where Roland saves King, but Jake dies, and Roland thinks at that moment how much he hates King.

He saw King as a selfish lazy man, too lame to finish the series.

That's how I see King, or did, I am slowly forgiving him.

It was just such a huge letdown.

King knows he messed up, he knows what he did, he chastises the reader before the end, to not read on, that it's about the journey, and not the "orgasm at the end".

Poppycock!

Bull Butter!

Cheeser McDuff!!!

It is about the end.


Still, if I had it to do over, I would read the whole series again. It was a wild ride.

Hey Larke, I know you didn't type out that ending there

i actually DID type it all out. i'm pretty quick on the ole keyboard so i just put the tv remote on the book to hold it open and let her rip.

book 3 is the only one i've ever found online (and to this day don't know i found it free for download. i haven't been able to recreate the feat with any of the other books. i can't even find where i downloaded book 3 from. not that i need it, i saved the file. i'm just curious as to how the whole thing happened. i didn't even need to go into the nether regions of the net for a fishing expedition. it was basically out in the open in plain site.)

Wow, that was a lot of typing.



I would like all 7 books online, with a search function and copy and paste all the times it describes what the tower is.

Gans body, God's body, etc.

You know, all I have done so far is gripe, havn't brought up the good stuff.

I think my favorite scene, other than father Callahan getting his faith back and kicking some vampire butt,

was when Roland was moving in on the tower, and the roses were growing everywhere.

I felt like I was there with him. I could see those roses, those mini universes, and suns, growing in the road, in the field, under trees.

It was so darn awesome.

Oh yeah, I never found out what 19 meant. Was that just another copout on Kings part, or did I miss the explanation?

I thought it might have meant he had been in the loop 19 times, and this was the 19th trip.

that's what i got out of the whole 19 thing. that this was the 19th trip through the loop. at least he's got the horn this time! there's hope!

but i've never compared it to the matrix before. that's interesting. we get to see one of the loops and are left with an open ending that really could go either way depending on how you want to see it. i have faith in roland. he will stand and be true. again.

my favorite part of book 7 has to be the assault on the breakers compound.

i can't believe how many main characters die in the story. i always thought roland would have been the one to die, though.

I bout crapped a brick when Eddie got shot above the eye, and it took him all that time to die.

I never cry with books, just don't do it, but I was crying like a baby more than once in that book.

When Jake bought it, or went to the clearing at the end of the path as I should say, that got to me.

I also liked Ted from Hearts in Atlantis and his storyline, and the boy from Everythings Eventual, the short story.

They had a pretty good setup there, breaking the beam, had holodecks and good food, and got high off the beam.

Sounded like a fun place.

i don't see how any fan who has been emotionally vested in these books for so long couldn't tear up when eddie died. man, that was rough.

Yet it did help that Eddie, Susan, Jake and even the billy bumbler all wound up in New York City all happy and stuff.

Susan being the only one who was really from Rolands when, the others alternates.

Wasn't OY! a dog in the alternate universe?

Another thing I loved was how Modred took out Flagg, aka the Dark Man.

And the background on Flagg, how he was from that village, etc.

So much good about this book, I read it back in Sept, maybe it's time for another read already.

it will be a while before i can sit down and read it again. i'm sure that years from now i will reread them all from beginning to end and will be able to appreciate the ending. yeah, it's kind of poetic that flagg got brought down by roland's son.

I just wish I knew what it was all about.

I'm kind of clueless about the whole thing.

who was Roland? Why was he born to find the tower?

Why is he damned?

Why does he have to have the horn?

What is the tower?

Who is the world was the Crimson King?

Why did he try to climb the tower, what would have happened if he reached the top?

What happens to Roland when he makes the top and doesn't get looped, does he become God?

Each time the tower loops Roland, it puts itself back in danger, and the beams are being broken down, why would it do that?

It said in other worlds, the tower was a white tiger, and in another world it was something else, I need to check that part again,

if it is made by mankind, how could it be a tiger in another world?

If the tower is Gans body, and Gans sings the song that make all worlds exist, and people who write stories and draw pics create or uncreate worlds and situations,

like King did with Roland and the weird kid from Insomia did with the doors,

wait, I had a question there and I lost it, my run on sentence went on too long.

I'm tired, time for bed, I'll come back in here later.

LOL oh man, i can just see this happening to you. i wish sandy had a good video of it.

Wow man, them "roses" was so awesome,

when I sobered up and saw the pic, I was very very letdown.





Plus I was hungover, so there was that.


I might try to re-enact it tomorrow, that is, hit some hard liquer and do some yard work.

"hit some hard liquer and do some yard work." and just how much 'work' will get done?

http://www.inreview.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=575599#post575599

Ugh hangover today... lol went to my friends yesterday for a little bbq and just got trashed. Now I'm off to work

Thanks to Whidden and Spalizand, I began reading the Dark Tower Series.

I think it was last fall when I first began.

I am now on the last book.

The first three books I checked out from my university library (The Gunslinger, Drawing of the Three, The Wastlands)

Then Wolves of the Calla was lost at the library. So I stopped for a while.
Then, when I was dropping my friend off at the Army Recruiter, I decided to wander around. I found a bookstore. I bought the 4th book, Wizard and Glass

it was ka.

Then, when I went on to Wolves of the Calla it was checked out. I was impatient, so I started going to Barnes and Noble to read. I bought coffee while I was there.

After a while, I just started bringing my own coffee and reading the book.

I finally finished it.

I went to check out Songs of Susannah but they had lost that copy too!!

So back to Barnes and Noble.
But then all the copies got sold out.
So I went to the other bookstore (Books-a-Million) near the Recruiting Office where I first bought Wizard and Glass and started drinking coffee and reading there.

Now I am back to Barnes and Noble and am currently reading Dark Tower.

(I spilled a few drops of coffee on the 35 dollar hard-back copy. Don't tell anyone, shh!)

I look forward to your interpetation of the ending, what it meant, stuff like that,

favorite scenes, thoughts, etc.

i think it's cute when Roland tries to pronounce our words.

"astin"
"sanditch"
"can't sir"

I been reading a bunch of stuff over at DT.net and found this gem, it' has a qoute from King on Eastwood.

I find it odd that my favorite movie is the GB&U, and that my favorite Book is the dark tower, and that Roland is Clint Eastwood, my favorite actor.

Fun stuff.

i love gb&u too. i enjoyed reading that. i started the series with book 3 but roland was always clint eastwood in my head. even before i read book1.

lol tooter sanditch. that made me laugh out loud the first time i saw that in the books.

AHH!!! I can't believe Eddie and Jake died!!!

Just... out of nowhere man.

Damn.

man Whidden, you are lucky I finished that book earlier today.

otherwise you would have spoiled EVERYTHING for me


I mean.. even though there is the word "spoiler" in the title.

but still. I would've opened up a can of whoop-ass on ya.

Well now that I've finished the whole series, I am going to read this thread (cuz I didn't read it before posting before.)

I'll post my review tomorruh.

I'll try to answer these questions.

quote:

Whidden said this in post #16 : I just wish I knew what it was all about. I'm kind of clueless about the whole thing. who was Roland? He was Roland Deschain of Gilead, son of Stephen. Duh. Why was he born to find the tower? Ka. Why is he damned? Because he is a gunslinger. Why does he have to have the horn? dunno.[color=darkblue] What is the tower? [color=darkblue]dunno. I can kind of know, but it can't be put into words. Who is the world was the Crimson King? something left over after the Prim receded perhaps? Maybe he's what is known on America-side as Satan. Why did he try to climb the tower, what would have happened if he reached the top? The same thing that happened to Roland, probably. What happens to Roland when he makes the top and doesn't get looped, does he become God? I think he either gets looped or he dies. Each time the tower loops Roland, it puts itself back in danger, and the beams are being broken down, why would it do that? This is too complicated for me to answer here. Maybe I'll start a thread with my theory tomorrow or the next day. It said in other worlds, the tower was a white tiger, and in another world it was something else, I need to check that part again, if it is made by mankind, how could it be a tiger in another world? Idunno. But have you ever read the Chronicles of Narnia? Maybe the Tower is some embodiment of God/Gan. In Chronicles of Narnia Aslan the Lion is God. If the tower is Gans body, and Gans sings the song that make all worlds exist, and people who write stories and draw pics create or uncreate worlds and situations, like King did with Roland and the weird kid from Insomia did with the doors, wait, I had a question there and I lost it, my run on sentence went on too long. I'm tired, time for bed, I'll come back in here later.

Okay, I just poured myself another beer, I'll guess I'll go ahead and type my review of Dark Tower.

First off, the idea of ka and ka-tet is one of the coolest things ever. I think that is my favorite thing from these books. Even though the stories are fiction, ka is not.

Second, Pere Callahan was the man. I was not saddened by his death at all. He died very well, very well indeed.

When he was dying, he thought "this was redemption, and it felt good." (or something along those lines)

Now, like you all, I was very disappointed by the end. I had no idea what reaching the top of the Tower would be like, but I was very looking forward to it. I thought it was going to blow my mind.

When sai King wrote the part about "don't read on" I almost didn't. I kind of wish I hadn't. I wish he just never wrote it.

I mean I'd be complaining about that if he hadn't, but this was far more of a letdown.

What a stupid way to end it.

As Roland was climbing the Tower, and his life was "flashing before his eyes" so to speak, I saw what was going to happen. I was praying to Gan/God "please no don't let it end like this."

But it did.

I mean, even sai King thought the ending was disappointing. Shoot, even Roland thought it was disappointing.

But at least he had Cutherbert's horn. So maybe there wasa some redemption for sai King in that.





2 years ago, I took two semesters of Freshmen English (it is required for all college majors.) I was so happy to leave that piece of crap subject behind forever, all the essays and whatnot. Most of the time, you have to write 7-8 pagers of complete BS because you don't have any actual ideas.

But I could write on and on about the theme of damnation/redemption in the Dark Tower series.

Like the Matrix, the ending was a letdown. But, perhaps, as I ponder through the months and years, also like the Matrix, the ending will settle itself in my mind as a good ending.




if not, I'll ****ing kill Stephen King. that lazy rat-bastard.

Yeah, I read the Narnia stuff, and remember ASLAN.


I'm reading book two now, and also skimming book 7 for highlights.

I just read where the CK's second hand man, when he was pretending to be the 3 Kings,

well the other old dude that was kings id said that the Crimson King was "the crazy side of Gan (God)".

I missed that before.

I also picked up a lot of stuff I had missed before. I think the first time I read the book,

I was blowing through it, trying to get to the end, I wanted to get to the tower,

this time around, I'm slowing down and picking up more things.

Like I had missed that the tower itself was what drove the CK mad. He was living near it all that time, wanting to destroy it, but also wanting to go to the top.

When he saw Roland take out the town trying to hurt the beam, he went crazy and killed himself and cruised on to the tower.


I also missed it, when Flagg got killed, he said his plan was to climb the tower and become the ruler of everything, which was also the ck's plan.

Flagg also said something about becoming God, so that's where I got that idea from.

The tower controls all whens and all universe's, so whoever reaches the top, they thought would control everything.

(BE GOD)

However, they may have been wrong, because it says that the CK had ripped to shreds the baby garments of Roland before he went out on the balcony,

so when He entered the tower, he was seeing Rolands life as well, not his own or anyone elses.

Which tells me, that the tower is for Roland alone, it's his, it's God's body,

and someday when he does make his way out of the loop, he will control the tower and become something else,

what, I don't know.

Not God perhaps, but something powerful.

I think that Roland is not God (although, good point, the Tower was meant for him and him alone.)

I think he is simply an agent of ka.

The Tower is the pillar of all Time and all the Universes, and if the Universe exists at all, then it must have always existed, and will always exist.

Which makes Roland the damned victim of ka. He has the honor of being the one to preserve the Tower, but is doomed to repeat it.




or something like that. It's too late to think of these things right now.

Oh and by the way:

don't try to make too much out of 19.

I know exactly where it came from.

Stephen King was 19 when he wrote the first lines of The Gunslinger.

for some asinine reason, he decided to incorporate that into the later books.

It's just a thing, the number 19 itself means nothing.

i reread the coda a few days ago. i finished book 7 last december so i've had a lot of time to get over my initial shock of the ending the first time i read it.

it's kind of ironic actually. i really wish i had stopped when king said to stop. i would have been happy with that ending. with roland going into the tower and the door closing behind him. i would have been content knowing roland reached the top and that would have been that. but i had underestimated how devious king is. do you realize what he has done to us? he did to us what roland did to eddie susannah and jake. i didn't include oy because he would have tagged along anywhere they went. but roland filled their heads with the tower. they were saturated with a yearning to reach the tower and what lay within (just like us). they stopped the breakers and they saved the rose. mission accomplished. tower saved. they (we) could have all lived happily ever after yadda yadda yadda. but roland went on to the tower and so did those of us that read the coda. and we both (us and roland) got exactly what we deserved. and now what's left? just like roland all we can do is begin anew. "the man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." king wrote himself into the books, the story kept going as long as king kept writing. so we have doomed roland to his fate because we kept reading i guess. maybe it will be different for him this time because he has the horn. but we'll probably never know.

yeah, if he'd have cried off after he saved the beams and went with Susannah through the unfound door he could have lived happily ever after and the Tower would still be safe.

Maybe that's what he does in the final loop.

but we'll probably never know.

unless...

A masterpiece. Nova award material.

I have found my way here.

All things serve ka.

we are well-met, Whidden of Tulsa.

Aye, say true.



***Whidden leaves to make tooter fish sandich***

Toot N Tatter not happy with Whidden making Tooter fish sandwhich ... what are mateas too good for you or something

i found this on limewire. just thought i'd share. i'd give credit if i knew who to give credit to. i found it interesting. i completely overlooked the part in the coda where the voice of gan [ka? the tower?] tells roland "This is your sigul...
...This is your promise that things may be different, Roland—that there may yet be rest. Even salvation.

If you stand. If you are true."

well, i didn't overlook it per se. i guess i just thought this part had more to do with the horn being the key. but perhaps the key to ending the loop isn't the horn as much as it is the reason he has the horn.

it's a very short read. i'll post the text and i'll post the original .doc file as an attachment. it's virus-free, but you should always check for yourself.

Hey, that says S.K. at the end, old Stephen King didn't write that did he?

ah...

good work lawdog. i guess law does go 'round here, savy?

I savvy! I like that ending, that Roland will see all his friends and loved ones.

Hey, you talk about a mind job, I'm reading book two, and book 7 at the same time, switching back and forth. Me poor brain is going into DARK TOWER overload.

well the good news is (if you switch off evenly) that you should finish 2 long before you get midway through 7.

i think 2 is one of the best of the series.

Like you, I read 3 first, then went back and read one and two.


I had little desire to read two, I had read the "argument" in 3, and thought I had the gist of it.

Didn't look that interesting a plot, but I'm glad I did, cause it was awesome.

7 is my favorite, 3 is a close second, then maybe Wizard and Glass.

I think you mentioned that you had a hard time getting into the back story of w&G, I think it was you that said that,

and I felt the same way at first, but then after I got used to all the new names, it was some of the best writing I have ever read.

Roland vs Rhea of the coos and all that other cowboy stuff going on, it was a true western.

Then I would go with one and two.

and the bottom of my list would be 5 and 6, which they were still good, don't get me wrong, they are good,

they just had a lot of filler.

I might feel different when I re-read them, as I kinda rushed it the first time,

I wanted to get to the tower, and Susanna and Mordred and all this stuff, I got impatient.

I will add that I love all 7 books, even though I put 5 and 6 at the bottom, they was still very good reading.

yeah, i kind of rushed 5 and 6 as well. i'm looking forward to going back through them all. maybe even give 4 the attention it deserves.

4 has a lot of stuff in it about the future, Roland gets that vison in the Pink grapefruit, and see's some stuff, like Oy getting nailed to the tree,

I havn't read that in years, I need to get to it soon and see how it gells with what happened in Book 7.

wow. can't believe i missed out on that. i'm sure i'll see lots of things i missed. i've got 1-3 pretty well fleshed out. i've read them many times. time to get crackin' on the final quar-tet.

i'm watching tombstone again right now. i have never been a fan of kurt russell. but what a performance. him and val really step up and shine in that movie.

Tombstone is awesome.

Aight, I unpacked boxes all this weekend, and got to the book box, and unpacked the Talisman.

I am going to type out the ending, when Jack touches the thing, which is probably "Black 13", the ball under Callahan's church in book 5, but not 100% of that.

Used to, before books 4 to 7 cames out, I would imagine that this was the end of the Dark Tower series, cause it fits with Roland and what he would find at the tower top just as well as it fits with Jack.

It's gonna take me about an hour to type this out, but I can't find it online, so here goes. Just pretend it says Roland instead of Jack, and it fits pretty good I would say.

Sorry in advance for the typo's, I am what I am. Edit: I did about an 8th of it, got tired and had Sandy June finish the rest, while I did house chores.

Oh, I forgot the best short story in other books, if you get the Book "Everythings Eventual",

there is a short story in there called "the little sister of Eluria".

It's Roland right after he first started out for the tower, and runs into some vampires in a medical tent and some weird bugs.

AWESOME story. Really cool.

Just for the record*, I think Little Sisters of Eluria should have made into book seven, it' was awesome and would have made a great flashback.





*Ka is a wheel.

hmm, its sorta interesting, in the end of book one, Roland thinks about how he's going to sound his horn *which he had already stated he lost* and enter the tower. sorta foreshadowed from the very start

i'm currently dealing with Blaine the Mono. Sadistic computerized freak. and it knows it insane too. creepy and cool all at once. And its interesting to see how he (King) drew off of other works too, like how Roland stands up to Blaine, sorta like Gandalf and the Balrog, or the whole riddle contest idea. very cool.

Blaine is a pain, say true, thankee sai.

I found it weird that Blain, the male train was pink, while Patricia, the female train was Blue.


Also, Blain thought Edith Bunker was a HOT CHICK.

man i don't even know who Edith Bunker is. and yeah, i found that odd about Blaine as well. Pink...rather...unmanly if you ask me. if i were an evil freak like Blaine, i'd be ashamed.

I love how Eddie beat Blaine at riddling, nice twist.

http://www.allinthefamilysit.com/images/archieedith/press_photo1a05242000.gif

she was Archie Bunkers woman, on ALL IN THE FAMILY. Which was a 70's sitcom.


She had a shrill peircing voice, but was a nice lady. But from the pic, you can tell, BLAIN was a fool to think her HOT.


His logic faults were overwhelming his circuits.

hmm, well i finally made it to the last book. just read the bit where Randal Flagg/Walter o' dim comes to the path at the end of the clearing. what a let down, do ya ken? i mean really. mordred is such a useless character. i recall it saying that roland would have to have a showdown with Flagg to get through Thunderclap, and was rather looking forward to it. But nooo, little spider boy wonder has to go and eat him. i sorta expected more from the character who virtually reduced the world of The Stand to nothing but rotting corpses to be, oh i dunno, a bit more powerful.

A lot of people found that part a let down. I guess it was supposed to show how powerful Mordred was, that even as a new born baby, he could take out one of the most powerful men in the universes.

I liked it myself, but even for the Dark Man, it was a brutal way to go out. I would have liked to have seen a little less eye and tongue eating, and more remorse or regret or an expectation of dying and meeting his maker than we got.

Still, I liked the scene. But over at Dark Tower.net, they have whole threads on it, people griping that he went out in such a cheesy way, by Mordred. Lots of people, I would say the majority who read it, think that part is too fast and too forced. We spent way more time on the dudes who ran the Beam town, El Enchilada or whatever it was called.

I think King was trying to have Mordred kill the Dark Man, then the powerful figures he kills later, that you havn't read yet, more members of the Crimsons Kings team, to make you feel like he is the biggest badass in the universe, and make you fear for Roland.

But, I never really felt the fear, cause it's known from Book One that Roland will reach the Dark Tower. There really is no suspense in that regard. The suspense is finding out what the dark tower is, and what will happen to him.


I actually felt sorry for Walter in that scene, even though he was an evil dude, he was the main bad guy of the series, and lost his ranking right towards the end, to be replaced by Rolands spider boy.

In hindsight, I would rather have left book the way it was, except for the Dark Man dying, leave his encounter with Mordred, but let him escape at the last minute, then let him and Roland have one last Pavaler before the Dark Tower, and let Roland kill him, that would have been a lot cooler.

King had so much to cram in the last 3 books. I wish he would have left out all the self insertion crappola and spent more time on Flagg and others.


Having said that, even with my gripes, I'm very happy with book seven, and after I re read the series, I even accepted the end.

It really is a well told story for the most part.

yeah, i got the sense that in those last pages with the Walter, he was more de-powering the Dark Man than he was giving Mordred any extra credibility, but ah well.

stories good, you say true.

oh and that Prentiss fellow (who runs the prison that holds the Breakers) is an interesting fellow

yeah, those were bad guys, but he wrote them to be lovable. Or likeable. They had a good deal going in that town, other than breaking the beam.

true that, i wouldn't mind living there if i knew the world was going to end one way or another.