Actually, most of the Dark Tower material is below par. Weird and awkward rather than thrilling scary or fully entertaining. The best sequence was the flashback to when Roland was a young fellow and how he lost the love of his life.
Of course, “below par” for King is still decently good. Some more of the metaphysics of the Dark Tower’s world is fleshed out in the King/Straub collaboration book Black House.
What can Roland & Co. do about the beams? There’s a certain fatalism about them eventually failing and the tower eventually falling no matter what. I suppose the gunslinger(s) might disperse the forces trying to hasten the fall…I think the danger is one of anticlimax. We’ll see.
Hmmm… Having just read about half of The Drawing of the Three this afternoon, I’d have to disagree with that. I found the early parts of the book, with Roland awakening on the beach and struggling with the “lobstrosities,” immensely entertaining, and pretty much the whole sequence where Roland meets Eddie Dean and his drug-running pals was pretty thrilling.
I’d agree that much of The Gunslinger is pretty awkward reading, especially in its original form. However, other parts of the series stand out as some of King’s best work. YMMV, of course.
According to Lilja, the books will all be out in hardcover by the end of 2004. Lilja is, like, King’s #1 fan, and it looks like these dates are direct from Simon & Schuster.