The Dark Tower VII

Glad to finally finish this series!

Stephen King is one of the greatest writers of all time, and overall I’ve loved this series. However, it ticks me off to no end that Stephen King wrote himself as a major character in the last two books. If he wanted a brief cameo, that would be fine, but King has literally written himself as a god-like figure and a major plot point in the novel. For gods sake, if you want a book about you, write an autobiography!

A superb and extremely bittersweet conclusion to a series. Every Stephen King fan has to read the Dark Tower books in their entirety. "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came" indeed. 🤓

Really first class series , loved it all .....Except, Why does SK think inserting himself into the story did Anything to help. A literary screw up of epic proportions... The rest was fabulous ......Thanks...

Read the whole series in 2 months..awesome read-been raised on the "King style" of writing and currently 58 years old. Thanks for your hard work Steve-you are an inspiration. Sincerely, Bill

I absolutely loved how it all ended, and it made the journey, and the mystery intertwined, all worthwhile. Very cool series. My first, but not final, journey, say thank ya.

Spoilers, and an untrained analysis. Trying to use Occam’s razor (in its true sense, not the pop-culture, dumbed-down version)…Since we know for a fact Mr. King has included himself (fictionalized or no) in the story, and assigns himself the bearer of the beam of ‘Gan’...I believe Stephen King's beams are representations of King's sense(s) of self (be they his stories, idea sources, love of life, or what have you): All with King’s objectifying of his own creativity and by being represented by the Tower itself. Whether they be six, 19, or 1999 in real number - the breaking of these beams symbolize his own ‘breaking’ of existing lines of stories and degradation of (insert personally held value here); all with his own creativity being represented by the Tower. We can readily see from what is actually put to paper, if the beam of ‘Gan’ (King, the creator) breaks (dies) the tower (his creativity) will not only fall, it will cease to ever be again. And, as this last ‘beam’ and the ’Tower' are the final ‘balance': If ether one of these two last pieces goes, it all goes from the perspective of further productions of works. Furthermore, time slows down on these other worlds as Stephen King’s mind-works(?) slow down. Not that he’s any slower mentally, or has any fewer faculties (I have no idea). But, if the beams bend (his various story ‘sources’ or lines of creativity are reduced in some way) the time between ‘events’ in them are greater or cease to move forward altogether Hence, things are perhaps winding down and time is slipping to a slower pace when compared to the ‘real world’ in those story lines still active, and things having 'moved on’ with regard to those mental warehouses King draws his stories from having ‘emptied’ or the stories themselves having been fully told. No one can say if these objective warehouses will ever be refilled or new ones created to house new ideas in real life or if he even wants them to, but for now - almost all have ‘moved on’. Climbing the tower? Roland overcomes his main adversary, the Crimson King (alcoholism?, some other self admitted failing?) but we know not what lies at the top of the tower. Much like Roland, we get to be ‘reset’ by whatever the 'top floor' creates next. His resetting of Roland’s path at the end of the Dark Tower’s final book seems to indicate anything is possible with regard to King’s future creations from this point forward, but none of what ‘was’ as it would be considered before this quest was put to paper will ever be again. Anyway…is there a renewal? Of a sort, I think. Roland's character gets reset - but that’s really as much as we know following the story. We go no further back into his history, we know not what novalties this new trip down a seemingly well worn path may produce, we know not even if it continues much past the point of it being reset. We only know that there are beams, and breakers, a Tower, and at least a hint of possibilities ahead. Perhaps we, the ‘constant reader’ are Roland, perhaps not. In any case, what more could we ask? Perhaps only, does he still dream?

The wrong one of the ka-tet lived. That just sucked.

This was the best book series i have read. I was hooked since the first book The Gunslinger. I felt like i was part of roland and his ka-tet the whole story, like i was on this journey with to End-World.

I thought that the series overall is good but this is the worst epic ending ever. Probably because it wasn't an ending at all. If Roland's next trip through might be the last then why didn't we read that one? Stop at the first ending and make up your own final one. You will like it better.