Finished the last book of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King last night. 7 books written over the course of 33 years. Luckily for me, I didn’t start the series until a few months ago so I wasn’t one of those miserable people who had to wait decades for the story to come to its fruition.
But alas, my friends are gone. Gone are Roland of Gilead, Susannah, Eddie, and Jake of New York, Oy of Mid-World. No longer will they keep me company at night, telling me their tales as I pass the time. And this is oddly depressing. When you read a book of that magnitude, the characters become so real to you that their ends, be it their deaths or the completion of the story, leave you feeling slightly hollow as if you’d truly lost a friend.
I loved the books. Granted, there comes a point where the deux ex machina becomes a bit wearisome, but then again no fantasy novel could exist without it. King is the type of writer who can keep your attention even through the boring parts (i.e. book 6 “Song of Susannah”). Most of the books were 2 or 3 days of reading which is about average for me because his writing style prevents me from wanting to put them down (unlike say Heinlein who while I find fascinating, I have a habit of stopping towards the end and not finishing for months.
For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it is a story about Roland Deschain of Gilead, the last of the Gunslingers on his quest to find the Dark Tower. Roland’s world is similar to ours, yet very, very different. It’s the way the worlds intertwine that make the story so interesting with each character helping the reader along in discovering what the Dark Tower really is.
If you’re a fan of Kings writings I highly recommend this series.
Hile Roland of Gilead, Gunslinger. We were well met. Long days and pleasant nights.
rolled out on
Monday, December 05, 2005 9:03 AM