Stephen King: The Dark Tower

I don't think we're told how Stephen Deschain dies.. one can assume perhaps in a battle with John Farson, or in the destruction of Gilead.

And Walter = the man in black = Randall Flagg but != marten.. he posed as one of Marten's advisors but controlled Marten from behind the scenes (cf. "The Gunslinger", the bit where they talk in the place of bones).

 

I belive Rolands dad was poisend or stabed with a poisend blade.......

And yea, Flaggs demise was what pissed me off the most...... I don't even want to talk about that.

As far as it goes, Flagg= Walter/ the Man in Black= Marten = Richard Fannin = Many more vile characters.
He was also the Main baddie in the Stand, and Eyes of the Dragon, and he played little parts in other storys as well.

Any time you read a King story and there is a shady character with the initials R.F. well my friends, thats Flagg in one of his many disguises.

 

Nono, he wasn't poisoned.. there was a plot to poison him but Roland foiled it.. the assassin was to have been his mother I think.

 

Correct you are, she was to stab him with a poisond blade, but Roland got to her first.

Maybe it was Cort who was poisoned.......

 

I can actually remember reading my first Stephen King book, in the 7th grade, sneaking peaks at Carrie, trying not to get caught, reading him more, getting Pet Semetary for my 18th birthday, staying up all night to read it. His recurring characters from Sheriff Alan Pangborn to Randall Flagg are part of his appeal. The Dark Tower Series is one of the finest ever written. Did I feel cheated because it seemed like Roland had not completed his ka, and had to start over again? Yes, at first I did. Then I had to wonder, how many times had he failed before, what was his mistake? killing his mom? Letting Jake die the first time? Letting Susannah go thru? Letting Cuthbert and Alain give their lives for his quest? Letting David, his first true weapon, die? There are too many things to think about.

 

His mistake was he did not have the horn of eld.
It says in the poem by Robert Browning, (what the series iis based on) that he blows his horn before he enters the Tower.

When he finds himself back in the desert, aT the end, he has the horn.
So maybe this time he will succed.

I still feel cheated..... I still get pissed thinking about it.

 

I also felt cheated I finally got to read the last book a month ago and was like wtf!!!! But the story was still well told. The ? I have now is if he's repeating everything is the outcome afterward for jake susannah and edie going to be different? But as jake said their are other worlds than these.

 

Maybe, Vegetable. But, "ka like a wheel". A wheel is something that keeps turning, no ending. Like a circle, when you get to the end, you are at the beginning again. So maybe, his quest is never ending. He is guided by "ka like a wheel"

 

i like his "Four Past Midnight" book...4 stories in one book....freakin unbelievable

go KING!!!

 

I dont understand why so many people dont like how the series ended. I thought it was the perfect ending to be honest. I think that King's story was so epic that if he had chose one rigid ending, you all would have been much more disappointed. He basically left the opportunities for roland and company wide open, and the ending is truly up to your imagination now.

like he said, it's about the journey.

 

I can't except that.
The whole of existence was at stake, and Rolands entire life has been about the Tower; him entering the Tower and correcting what ever was wrong with it.

And to just toss him back to the begining, and just blow off all that King set up in the other books.......it's very disapointing.

What happened to the Tower?
Does it fall? Are the beams restored? Whats the fucking purpose if Roland is eternally repeating himself? That just negates the whole purpose. There is really no danger, cause he just get's sucked into a time warp and ends in square one. The Tower is in no danger. everything is a-ok.
King wrote 7 full novels over the coarse of 30 plus years with no solution, no ending.


And Flagg and the Fuckin Crimson King........

I have a real compasion for this story. I was one of the people who was waiting for years for the fifth book, I had high expectations. And to end it like that is like King saying "Fuck You" to all of you hard core fans who want and need a real ending.

this could have been my generations Lord of the Rings.
Instead we're gonna have to settle with Harry fuckin Potter.

 

Your statements totally reinforce what I said "the whole of existance". Yes, but as long as there is free will, he cannot vanquish evil. Evil must continue to exist. The quest isn't about entering the tower, it is about getting to the tower. But if he completes his quest, the whole of existence changes.

 

At the end of the seventh book its showed that he had indeed just been replaying the same scene for all of eternity, But he also had something that he lacked all other times that he had entered the tower. Didn't he have Cuthberts horn or something and all the previous times he didn't? Plus if you guys want to read more about Roland there is a short story called "The little sisters of eluria" Or something to that effect printed in "Everythings Eventual" I liked book seven but i guess it had to end someway.... Or did it?

 

These books are amazing, I've read the first three. They blew me away.

 

Damn all I needed to read was the last book and I think I just spoiled it for myself by reading this thread oh well hopefully it will still be enjoyable.

 

I totally agree with you. After King constantly re-iterated over and over about keystone worlds and "no do-overs", we get an ending that is one BIG do-over. Plot holes don't get much bigger than the one he gave us at the end.

 

Funnily enough, I finished reading book 1 in the series 'The Gunslinger' this morning. The only other book I have in the series is Book 4 - 'Wizard and Glass'. Book 2 and 3 are on the Christmas list this year!!
I've started reading another of his novels, 'The Talisman' this afternoon which I've heard has many ties with the Dark Tower series, as well as acting as a standalone novel. One person advised me against reading it before finishing the Dark Tower series, but seeing as it was published before all books in the Dark Tower series were written, I think I'll take my chances. At the moment it seems like a completely different story..

..but yeah, roll on Christmas.

 

so did you like it?

wizard and glass is my favorite BTW.

 

I loved it, the ending was superb and left me with a hunger for more.. confrontation with the man in black, being showed the universe, and the piece of descriptive writing which put the earth, space and galaxies/the universe into perspective.. and roland himself waking up 10 years older.. the forthcoming story of what's happened to the boy he met at the way station, jake - and just to continue and eventually complete this saga.

 

I have read all seven of these books, and while I like some of the earlier ones better than the later ones I am satisfied overall... I had to read the series through one more time after reading the last book, before that I was unsatisfied with the ending... but now I think it suits the series. I think the last books feel rushed, but.... they aren't bad. Not bad at all!