have you finished the dark tower yet

man, what does a brother have to do to get a reply around here

You may forget that Dana is on the west coast. It's barely reaching 8am here.

so what are you doing up then

Plus, you could have PMed her.

Good question! Unfortunately, my excuse is called "work".

bah, pming is so overrated. I prefer the good old fashioned call and bump and bump and bump and response thread.

bump

YES! I did, just this past Monday actually!

And sorry for the delay in getting to this.. I was out of the office on Friday and didn't check email/internet all weekend.

this was put up two weeks ago lol

I just bumped it because I saw you were on

looking forward to hearing your take on the end

Shall I comment here, or do you want me to PM my thoughts?

I think the book's been out long enough that it's cool to do it here.

****WARNING....SPOILERS BELOW*****

Okay, if we're just talking about the very last book....

Overall, I would give it a thumbs up. I know a lot of people got really pissed off at the ending, but remember "ka is a wheel" and one of the first themes discussed in the Gunslinger is "resumption." There were a few things that were "off" in my opinion, or at the very least, incredible (not like the whole book wasn't, but in the context of this series, I think you know what I mean). I was never a fan of Stephen King inserting himself into the story to begin with... obviously he addresses that at the end, but I still think it's a rather selfish thing to do. So that kinda irked me... the way Eddie and Jake died? Again, not so believable and hard to take. And while I understood the importance of Patrick Danville, I thought that whole end scene with the Crimson King was rushed and not well conceived.

I actually cried while reading this one, mostly because my favorite character (Oy) bit it near the end... I actually got very teary during all the bad parts with Oy-- when Jake died and he stopped "talking," his loss of appetite towards the end, his reluctance to bond as closely to anyone besides Jake. I always knew that Susannah would reconnect with Eddie and Jake in some way, but again, thought it was too pat.

My husband has the first Concordancebook and I just ordered the second one for him as a surprise. He said a lot of questions were answered in the concordance. Of course, there's also a lot of background info that plays into the DT series from other books (I have not read them all, but my husband read the Little Sisters of Eluria over the summer-- interesting points). One thing he did mention to me, which I missed, was that on Roland's re-emergence from the tower into the desert-- he had the horn this time. He didn't have it when he reached the tower. So maybe Roland *did* learn from his past?

It was hard to finish the book, to be honest. One side of me wanted to see what happened in the end, but the other side of me was reluctant to part with these characters.

I know I'm glossing over a lot here... was there anything specific that you had in mind?

I guess I can stop reading now.

oh, just thought of another interesting thing... when Roland is walking through the tower, each level being a different part of his own life, I had totally forgotten about the rainbow in his nursery as a child.

The ending personally irked me a little bit, but books IV and V were good enough on their own that I consider the entire tale a success.

I did like the interpretation that Roland was on his second to last loop, and that each loop is different. Some say that he makes the loop 19 times, and that this was his 18th. When he remembers the horn, it would be the last loop ending with him blowing the horn to enter the tower.

More thoughts.... I'm not very well-spoken when it comes to literary criticism, so please bear with me.

Roland, as a character, embodies the characteristics that most people strive for -- focus, strength, reason, resourcefulness. He also has the ability to speak in a manner that makes his ideas clear and concise, and appears to be quite adept at teaching others. But for all of these "positive" characteristics, they ultimately lead to his downfall-- his willingness to sacrifice everything to reach the damned Tower. I think Roland is learning, like we all do as we go through this life. Roland gets many chances to learn from his mistakes though. How many times has he experienced this? How old is he really? Obviously, we as readers, only have a glimpse into this iteration of his journey, so we can only speculate about what has happened before and what will happen after. In some ways, this series reminds me a lot of the movie "Memento"-- the character can't quite remember what exactly happened before (he seems to have moments of clarity), but he is hellbent on exacting his revenge (reaching his Tower) no matter what.

Why does Roland sacrifice the ones the loves? What happens in that moment that makes him forget or in some cases, ignore the external stimuli that are begging to be addressed? Has he ultimately forgotten the face of his father?

oops, guess I posted this before I had a chance to read yours... I'm a really sloppy reader at times. I guess I missed the bit about this being Roland's next to last journey. Crap.

well, that's just one interpretation

you should check out the dark tower forums if you want to get seriously overloaded with info

I think the address is http://www.darktower.net

another possible theory is that Roland needs to learn not to chase the tower at all, and as long as he does, he wil keep looping