The Dark Tower (Book 7)

Title: The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower series, Book 7) [amazon]
Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (November 1, 2005)
Pages: 864
Book Number: 4

What’s this 52 Books in 52 Weeks thing about?

Note: This entry contains a load of spoilers about this book, right down to how the book ends. If you’ve not finished the series yet, I highly recommend that you skip this entry.

Well, it’s done. I’ve finally finished reading The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It’s been one hell of a ride. Before reading this series, I never really gave King much of a chance. I read Bag of Bones, which I found to be so-so, but nothing wonderful. After finishing the Tower series, it would be safe to say that I’m an avid Stephen King fan. I’m already 150 pages into Insomnia, and I just started reading it yesterday.

First, I’m going to write a bit about the ending, something which I’ve talked about with a few people already (a good friend of mine, Chantal, and my mom. I was also able to get a brief opinion from someone who works at the library, which was “I hated it.”) The ending is, paradoxically, the beginning. As Roland is pulled through the door at the top of the tower, he is thrown back in time, back into the desert he was in when chasing Walter. The very last line of the book is:

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

I’m sure any Dark Tower fan will instantly recognize this as the first line in the first book, The Gunslinger. When Roland finds himself in the desert, he doesn’t remember all he’s been through: he doesn’t remember Jake, Susannah, Eddie; he doesn’t remember Calla Bryn Sturgis; he doesn’t remember anything beyond where (and when) he is right then. I’m not sure how I knew, or when it clicked exactly (somewhere within the last 50 pages or so, though), but I actually knew this was how the book was going to end. I reached a point where I was seeking out that line above, knowing it was going to be there. I’m inclined to think that I knew it because King was always writing about ka being a wheel, and all it knew how to do was turn; i.e., a circular motion. Get to the end, go back to the beginning (do not collect $200). I also think that my interest in Buddhism led me to figure it out. I don’t recall where (or when), but I know I read something about some Buddhist traditions believe that everything is going in an endless loop.

I actually loved the ending of the book because it felt right. It worked, in short. I believe in a way, King had written himself into a corner. What with the tower being at the center of creation, it clearly had religious implications. Reaching the top of the tower, finding what was there, would be like finding real ‘Truth’, the meaning of everything, I suppose, and I don’t think King wanted to (or could) write that. Who would want to (or be able to) write that? It would have been more typical for the tower, or its inhabitant (Gan?) to congratulate Roland on his accomplishment, and that be the end of it. However, that just sounds too damn cliche-ish to me. It also sounds too clean of an ending for King.

My friend Chantal said she initially hated it, felt that it was a cop-out ending. After letting it stew for a while, she’s okay with it. My mom, like me, loved it from the moment she read it.

While I liked the ending (and that’s a bit of an oddity, let me tell you: most amazon.com reviewers hated it), I’d be lying if I said I liked the whole book. A few things pop out, in particular, that I didn’t like or found downright silly. The first thing that irked me was Mordred, the half human, half spider monster that Mia (mother of one) birthed. My feelings about Mordred can be summarized in a single question: “What was the point?” Besides providing some mild tension for Roland and Susannah as they worked on the last leg of their journey, he served no purpose at all. There was damn near a whole book devoted to his coming about (Song of Susannah); half of The Dark Tower was filled with him following them around; and then, he dies in three paragraphs, having done nothing more than made a nuisance of himself, and killing Oy. The character Mordred gave me the impression that King had created him, and then found that he had no idea what to do with him.

My last gripe is with Patrick, the tongueless artist who could draw things into (and out of) existence. Patrick felt like King had pulled a plot-fixer-upper out of his ass, quite honestly. “I’ve got the Crimson King set up on the Tower. Roland will never make it to the Tower before the King kills him. How do I deal with the King? Aha! I’ll have a random character draw him out of existence. While I’m at it, he can draw a door to get Susannah back to a where and when where she can meet up with Eddie and Jake again.” We didn’t even find anything else out about Patrick; King wrapped the chapter up with “I don’t know anymore about him, so we’ll have to let him go, now.” Now that was a cop-out.

Chantal mentioned something that I’m wondering about. She said that she thought King was perhaps afraid he was going to die before finishing his project. Apparently after the van accident, he’s had problems with his health. Perhaps he did get to a point where he felt that if he didn’t wrap it up soon (with bad plot-fixer-uppers or not), he might never finish it. I don’t know. At any rate, some of the stuff in the book, namely Mordred and Patrick, just felt wrong. All in all I enjoyed the book, but I would’ve liked a better solution to the Crimson King than Patrick. And Mordred.. well, Mordred was just pointless.