Check the last line of Book 1, also the last stanza of Browning’s poem. But upon reflection, I think Roland’s stuck, as long as he keeps going up that Tower. The Crimson King’s minion (the triple Stephen King guy) mentioned that past the Crimson King’s castle, ka plays no part in Roland’s story. That may or not be true (every CK minion lies to Roland whenever they get the chance), but what’s to say just having the horn will equal perfection for Roland? For someone who “is the type of person who straightens crooked pictures in hotel rooms” there is bound to always be something that Roland feels is suboptimal in his past. He’s always going to approach the Tower with some regret or another.
Whether that’s a bad thing, I don’t know. We should all seek perfection. But very few of us are given an eraser, or an Artist capable of fixing our errors for us. (Or a Tower through which we can begin anew, as far as I know…)
Ah. Thanks! Without that line, it really seemed like he just tacked the “horn” thing on.
One other question, though, is why is Roland being punished? I posted a longer question about it above, but when it comes down to it, he never did anything that he didn’t have to do to save the Beams and he was required to do that. If doing those things also let him save the Tower so he could touch it, well, why is it wrong to do the right thing for both good and bad reasons?
Wow. I don’t know if I have ever had to stop and cry so often during a book. I feared the loss of Eddie more than any of them. After that I thought I was numbed, but Oy…I couldn’t believe how bad that hurt. Especially after he was dead and Roland was stroking his fur. It reminded me of how it felt to lose a beloved pet and I just put the book down and sobbed.
I don’t know how to feel about the ending. I almost feel that I should have stopped reading where Kings says to. Of course, no one could have possibly done that, and if the book had ended there, today I’d be complaining that King had copped out. All I can say is, what happened is what had to happen. I think King pulled it off and I’m glad he was able to finish.
That said, could we have left out the zit-eating scene? :eek:
Re: Jake’s hair. My hair is naturally medium to dark brown, but especially when I was younger, the sun could lighten it a lot. Obviously Jake had a dark-blonde sun-bleached thing going from his time in the desert.
Thanks for the explanation, CrazyCatLady. It was clear as day, say thankya.
Okay, I FINALLY finished this thing. Man, it’s never taken me so long to finish a book. Damn schoolwork. Anyways, I wasn’t crazy about the ending. But as Stephen King puts it in the afterword, it was the right ending. Then I got to thinking. How else could it have ended? Sure, Roland could have saved the Dark Tower but the way things were set up (the Breakers being freed and the Beam rebuilding itself and the others) it didn’t really seem like it even needed saving. Besides, who wants a happy ending?
I really like the way he wrapped up all those loose ends. For a long time I’d been wondering where the heck Patrick was and if the whole book of Insomnia really was worth it (it was). And the inclusion of Ted Brautigan made my day. Or year. Or years. Or whatever. He was cool. I just wish S.K. explained more about who the Crimson King was. Was he another person seeking the Dark Tower and got trapped there, or was he destined to rule it? Maybe I’d just better go back and reread everything.
But in all, I’d say it was a great end to and epic series. Oh, and I take back the comment about the ending. Part of it was happy, the Susannah in New York part at least. That was satisfying. I love open endings like that.
But if the Crimson King had been left to his own devices, he most likely would have taken the Tower.
Here’s my question: Did King’s mention of the people at the Tet Corporation who do nothing but read Stephen King books, and then Roland dismissing those books out of hand mean or imply that King doesn’t put much weight to those stories’ connection to the Tower series? Seems that he mentioned that the tangiential books were a subconscious attempt to continue the Song, but weren’t the right words.
Well, I have been putting off reading this thread, and dying over that, until I finished the book. I had trouble reading this book through,strangely enough. When Eddie dies, I was pissed off and almost put the book down (I would have picked it up again, but still). When Jake dies immediately after, I DID put the book down for a day or so, grumbling about the destruction of the tet. When Oy died I damn near cried, but I had seen that coming too. What was a Billy Bumbler going to do in End World? I would have liked to see Oy-the-dog in Central Park with J,E and S. As for Roland repeating the loop, well, I had so little time to get used to the idea before King introduced the Horn of Eld and the idea that this would be the last spin of the wheel that I don’t know how I feel about that. I’ll have to palaver more with you fine folks about it.
Well, the two other prevailing opinions that I’ve seen about this are:
A. Roland, being the type of guy “who straightens crooked pictures in hotel rooms”, is always going to approach the Tower with one regret or another, and is veritably doomed to repeat the cycle for eternity.
B. It’s not actually getting everything perfectly right that will end it, it’s not actually entering the Tower. The most important thing in Roland’s life isn’t the Tower, it’s his friends and loved ones that he’s been sacrificing his whole life. (That may be two reasons, I dunno.)
The name of Roland’s game all along has been choice. Ka may will it, but Roland deliberately accepts each option as a choice. I originally was going with A, but now I think I like B better. I think a reread is going to clear a lot up for me, but I’m not eager to do so right now.
Okay, I’m one of those soulless bastards who will read the end of a book before I finish it. I’m also several days away from being able to purchase this book, and I really want to know what happens. So, can somebody give me a brief (or even semi-long) synopsis of it? The bits and pieces above are tantalizing, but not terribly fulfilling. What actually happens?
Were Pimli Prentiss and Finli O’Tego lovers? Between the zit thing and the hug they gave each other before dying (which, to Roland, said all he needed to know about their relationship), I wondered.
Anyone else think it was hilarious that even Roland thought Insomnia was a useless mindtrap? At least I’m in good company.
I cried at each of the deaths in the ka-tet, but man… poor Oy. He deserved a better fate. If it’s a sin to mourn a pet too much, as Daddy Mose said, then this is one soul God don’t need.
I don’t think they were lovers, personally. I think it was more like a sort of brotherhood, since they were in the same situation. It just didn’t feel like any other type of relationship to me. But that zit thing was pretty gross either way .
And I used to feel the same way about Insomnia. I only got halfway through it the first time, but the second time…wow. I loved it. It’s just got so much text it might make your eyeballs bleed.
Oh yeah, I went back and read that whole scene with Bryan Smith again. All I can say is I don’t think Stephen King’s ever going to be able to put this accident thing behind him. Ever. He made the man look like an idiot (which he was for trying to stop his dog like that), but I digress. Didn’t Bryan Smith die in real life some time after the accident? It sort of made me feel sick seeing King insult a dead man like that, no matter how big of a mistake he made. Also an interesting note: if you have his memoirs, On Writing, a portion of the crash scene was taken from the postscript, “On Living”, including the Marzes bars bit. In fact, Smith supposedly mentioned to King that he was heading to the store to get “some of those Marzes bars” and King thinks to himself that he’s almost been keilled by a character from one of his own novels…
:eek:
[hijack] Argh! Don’t you just hate overtype? I must have hit the insert key instead of the delete key five times. Stupid keyboard. [/hijack]
Keep in mind that I read this really fast, and was crying a lot. But for what it’s worth, here’s a rough outline.
Callahan uses the turtle carving to hold back the baddies in the Dixie Pig, while Jake and Oy follow Susannah’s trail. The Pere sacrifices himself to let Jake through, as the Type One vamps in the back room are immune to the turtle, and start chowing down on him. He eats a bullet to make sure he doesn’t get turned instead of killed.
Whatever of Mordred she was carrying is removed from Susannah, and born of Mia. He’s adorable, until he latches on to Mia’s breast, and promptly turns into a huge spider and sucks out all of her body’s fluid, leaving a husk. Susannah takes the opportunity to grab the doctor’s gun and does her gunslinger thing. After dispatching all the CK’s people, she shoots off one of Mordred’s legs, but he escapes. Mordred has a birthmark on his heel, which becomes a black-widow-like mark in his spider form.
Jake uses his wits and a couple ‘Rizas to make it to the tunnel under the restaurant, nearly gets caught in an Old Ones’ version of Orwell’s Room 101, but swaps consciousness with Oy, who isn’t affected, and they make it through to Susannah.
Meanwhile, Roland and Eddie get back in touch with John Cullum, who takes the contract from Calvin Tower and promises to get Susannah’s godfather in on the act to protect the rose. He hears and believes their story, and helps them get to Turtleback Lane, so they can get back through to Susannah and Jake.
Mordred lurks around in the complex, watching Roland’s band and hating them. Flagg shows up, intending to dupe Mordred, lop off his birthmarked foot, and use it to gain access to the top of the Tower, betraying the CK and becoming ruler of everything himself. He’s got a telepathy-blocking hood on, and thinks it’s protecting him. However, it’s useless against Mordred, who rummages around hin Flagg’s mind, then when he’s gotten all he needs, he takes control of Flagg’s body, forcing him to put out his own eyes, and assist Mordred in ripping out his tongue as a tasty treat. So much for the formerly badass Flagg. (Mordred needs lots of food, preferably fresh, bloody, human meat, to fuel his fast growth.)
Reunited, the ka-tet sets out to stop the breakers - by freeing them if possible, killing them if necessary. They are met by three renegade breakers: Ted Brautigan, Dinky Earnshaw, and (since I’m spoiling you I’ll be direct) Sheemie. Sheemie can teleport, but (probably because he’s soft in the head: M-O-O-N, that spells under the radar) that is unknown to the baddies who oversee the breakers.
Through some discussion, the ka-tet realizes that not only are the beams nearly broken, Stephen King is in danger of being run down and killed in the keystone world. They decide the must first stop the breakers, then cross over and save King.
The breakers are housed in a Pleasantville-like city built in a splotch of artificial sunshine in the middle of Thunderclap. A lot of the breakers are selfish assholes who don’t much care they’re ending existence, as long as they get to use their psychic talents and catch a matinee of *Star Wars * once in a while. Roland and Co. lay successful seige to the town, killing most of the CK’s agents, while corralling the breakers. The beams are saved, and even start regenerating. Eventually they will propigate so that the full number of beams once again exist.
After a group hug, the heros go amongst the corpses of the baddies, making sure of all of them. But they’re a bit too late. The warden is just alive enough to shoot Eddie through the head. But it’s worse than you think - he doesn’t die right away, but lingers on, with Susannah at his side. Just before he finally expires, he becomes lucid enough to say goodbye. He calls Roland “father,” and tells Jake to beware of Dandelo.
Roland and Jake leave Susannah to bury Eddie, and cross over to save King. They meet an extraordinary woman named Irene Tassenbaum, who morphs quickly from fairly willing hostage to deliberate assistant. She manages to get them to the site of the accident just seconds before King snuffs it. Roland realizes that one of them is going to die saving him, and means to do it himself. But when he jumps out to save King, the pain in his hip trips him up. Jake shields King with his own body, and takes the brunt of the crash. King is hurt just as the author was in real life, but Jake’s chest is crushed. Roland has to attend to King, making sure he’ll heed the song of the Turtle and write the rest of the story, and can’t be at Jake’s side when he dies. Jake passes along the info from Eddie to Oy though.
In a scene sure to rip your heart out (if it wasn’t when Eddie died - in that case, this scene stomps on it), Roland buries Jake in the woods near the accident site. Oy would rather just curl up and die on Jake’s grave, but he has work that Jake would want him to complete, so he goes with Roland.
With Irene’s help, they meet up with the Tet Corporation bigwigs: Pop Mose is still alive, and Aaron Deepneau’s niece is there. The rose is doing fine, kept in a garden in the lobby of their huge office building. Ms. Deepneau is shocked to discover that Roland cares more for the Tower than anything: saving existence was purely incidental to his quest for the Tower. (The real life) King uses this passage to basically dismiss the significance of his other books which mention the Tower and the CK, particularly Insomnia. Roland learns from Oy to look out for Dandelo.
Roland takes the Dixie Pig door back to Fedic, where he has arranged to meet Susannah. The breakers have dispersed, and Ted and Dinky have headed to Calla Bryn Sturgis to see if they can use the Unfound Door with the help of the Manni to return home. Sheemie died from a small wound he got during the liberation of the breakers - a cut in his foot got infected due to the poisonous atmosphere of Thunderclap.
Roland and Susannah have a miserable trek through Thunderclap and the lands of the CK. Susannah develops a lesion on her face that won’t go away - thanks to the poison air of Thunderclap. They meet the CK’s chancellor, who tells them the CK is mad, cannot be killed, and is trapped on a balcony of the Tower. If they just leave him alone, he’ll be trapped forever, and the Tower will be safe. But if Roland enters the Tower, he will allow the CK the opportunity to escape and reach the top. He tells Roland to cry off, but Roland refuses.
They eventually come out of the badlands and come to a little town, with one living inhabitant. He’s a standup comedian from America-side (came through the “door” of death), and he’s sustained by a robot programmed to maintain the town and help any humans there. He’s got a little house at the corner of Odd Lane and Tower Road, and he’s got an actual photograph of the Dark Tower. Of course, Roland is beside himself over this.
The comedian offers them a warm place to stay and a decent meal. Then he entertains them with some jokes, and he is damned good - they laugh themselves silly, until Suze accidentally slaps her face, and breaks open that lesion, which bleeds all over. She repairs to the bathroom, where she finds a Deus Ex Machina note from Stephen King, which leads her to unscramble Odd Lane into Dandelo. She twigs just in time to save Roland from laughing to death under the power of the comedian, who in fact turns out to be a psychic vampire insectoid.
They discover that he’s kept Patrick Danville prisoner in his basement, using him for food over the years. He’s cut out Pat’s tongue, but the (now teenage, IIRC) kid can still draw like no one you’ve ever seen. Dandelo has provided him with a large tablet of paper, and tons of pencils, but queerly, all the erasers have been cut off and stored separately.
They take Pat and head for the DT. Susannah has persistent dreams of Eddie and Jake meeting her in a wintry Central Park, and telling her she knows what she has to do and how to do it, but she can’t figure out what they mean. She feels she’s not meant to go to the DT with Roland, but she can’t think of how she’s supposed to go about leaving Roland. Then one night Patrick draws a picture of her, lesion and all, and she asks him to erase the lesion. When he does, the real lesion also disappears. Then she knows what she has to do. She has Patrick draw the Unfound Door for her, and prepares to go through. Her parting with Roland is painful. He doesn’t want to lose the last of his friends, but he doesn’t want to make her stay. He let’s Oy decide whether to go with Susannah, and Oy decides, “'Oland.” As Susannah rolls through the door, Roland cries, “Wait!” but she’s already gone.
Mordred is still on their trail, and decides to attack in the night, when Roland has been overcome by exhaustion, and tells Patrick to watch for a short while while he sleeps. Patrick fails, and Mordred attacks. But he forgot about Oy, who saves Roland’s life by pouncing on Mordred and practically chewing off one of his legs. Roland wakes and shoots Mordred to death, but not before Mordred hurls Oy onto a broken tree branch, killing him. They bury Oy beneath some roses that are the outlying edge of the great field around the Tower.
They finally approach the Tower at sunset. It looks just like it has in everyone’s dreams. The CK is on a low balcony, barking mad and with a box of sneetches. He hurls them at Roland and yells, “EEEEEEEEEEEE” a lot. Roland feels an irresistable pull to the Tower, and knows he won’t be able to stop himself from breaking cover and getting cut to ribbons. Of course, they figure out that Pat needs to draw and erase the CK. He uses rose petals mixed with Roland’s blood (the thorns nearly take off another of his fingers when he picks a rose for the purpose) to color in the CK’s eyes, then erases the picture - only the color of the eyes remain, in the picture and in reality.
Roland approaches the tower, and the field of roses emits the sound of a horn blast. Yet Roland hears voices telling him he should have the Horn of Eld himself - it would have been the work of three seconds to retrieve it after Cuthbert fell. He hears Cort and Vannay intimate that he’s doomed to repeat the past. Still, he reaches the door and offers his gun - made from the metal of Eld’s sword - as a passkey. Patrick, remaining out of sight nearby, hears a massive door open and shut.
The End.
Epilogue: Susannah in New York.
Susannah comes through the door into Central Park in December. She sees Eddie, just as he was in her dreams - looking like he’s waiting for someone. She has one of Roland’s guns, but the barrel is now filled, and it is useless. She throws it away. When Eddie turns, she sees his shirt says, “I drink Nozz-a-la,” a clear indication that this is an alternate New York, that this is not her Eddie. But to her relief, he is not a heroin addict, and even looks like he recognizes her. He tells her he’s been dreaming of her, of this meeting. He asks her how this is all possible. How, indeed, is it possible that he already loves her?
Then he says she has to meet his brother - who has also been dreaming of her. As she steels herself to meet the Great Sage and Eminent Junkie, Eddie calls out to his brother - “Jake!”
The Narrator is kind enough to indicate they they will probably one day adopt a queerly intelligent dog and name him Oy. And he says he can’t tell us they lived happily ever after, because no one ever does, but that they lived, and that’s what matters.
Coda:
The Narrator warns us we should probably stop reading - leave Roland where Patrick last observed him and be satisfied. But he admits that most people want resolution. So he goes on with Roland’s story.
Roland climbs the tower, finding reminders of his life, from birth onward, in successive levels. After the smoking stake from Mejis, he starts skipping rooms, just running up the stairs. There comes a strong alkali smell in the air, as he climbs more stairs than the Tower could possibly have, judging its size from the outside. Finally he reaches the top, opens the door, and cries out in despair. But it’s too late. He is pushed into the apotheosis of all deserts.
Roland stands in the desert, recovering from a moment of dizziness. He is pursuing the man in black, now sure that he will catch him, and eventually gain the Tower. He touches the horn at his belt, and feels that something is different. But he must just be remembering dreams of the Tower - he’s never really been here before.
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
Here’s a thought: When the gunslinger re-starts his quest, it is before he runs into the lobstrosities, and therefore, before he loses his fingers. Will he lose his fingers again? IIRC, the reason he had to train new gunslingers is because he only had one good hand left. And he only learned to love again because he was forced to let people into his life because he needed their help. So, if his hand stays whole, how will the quest be different?
Anyway, like Weirddave, I’ve been anxious to read this thread. I rather liked how things speeded up at the end, as I felt that a lot of books 5 and 6 dragged on and on. Especially book 6. I did find the end satisfying. Susannah found her tower, too–Eddie and Jake’s last name was Toren. I like how King did leave it so that additional DT books could be written.
While I don’t think he will (or should) write any more about Roland’s repetition of the tower quest, I’d welcome books about additional aspects of the Dark Tower saga. I agree with whoever above mentioned that more stories about the Tet corporation would be most welcome. And he could always write more to fill in Roland’s earlier history, like he did in the Little Sisters of Eleuria. I’d also like to see more backstory about Lud and the Monos, and basically all about life before the technology started breaking down. Come to think of it, if Irene Tassenbaum’s husband was the founder of North Central Positronics, then there is probably a great story there, too.
And my three personal nitpicks:
First of all, it really bugged me that Roland didn’t see that something was hinky with Dandelo. Susannah kenned it right away. It was obvious to the reader that there was pretty much no way some sane and cheerful guy would be living alone out there. There had to be something wrong. Why didn’t Roland get it? That was one of the biggest lapses in judgement that we saw him make, and I don’t recall any explanation being given for it.
Second, why didn’t Roland make sure he got his gun back from Susannah before she went through the door. Not to mention the erasers. They had time to prepare for her departure. Those guns were the most important things he owned.
Third, throughout the quest, why didn’t they make more of an effort to bring valuable things back from America-side? They had plenty of opportunities to get more aspirin and could have gotten better drugs, too. If paper was so scarce, they could have brought some of that. And so on.
Here’s a thought-was anyone else bothered by the fact that Jake was Eddie’s brother at the end? I understand that each world is slightly different from the next, but Jake is Jake, his genetics came from his parents, who were (presumably, I don’t see how they could be), not Eddie’s parents. It was a nice touch, and it certainly fit in with a lot of the themes of the book, but to me, it was totally unbelievable.
What, you think Elmer and what’s-her-name Chambers are the only humans ever to exist who have genes capable of expressing Jake’s phenotype? Being that there are so many millions of different possible combinations between the genetic codes of one man and one woman, I have no problem with believing that a couple could produce both Eddie and Jake. You have to keep in mind that in this world, neither the Chambers’ nor the Deans’ were Eddie and Jake Toren’s parents. (Given that Calvin Tower’s name was originally Toren and that his family used to be quite wealthy, I sorta wondered if ol’ Cal might not be their dad in this world.)
I swore I wouldn’t post here any more, but after slamming the book about my room several times this weekend and frankly bawling over Jake and Oy, I really do believe this is Roland’s last go round to the tower.
He now has the horn and if you’ll read the Browning poem, it seems to be a requirement to blow the horn…
But, I also think somehow do ya ken, that Roland should have given up the tower once the beam(s) was safe. There was no need unless that is to be his only final rest is reaching the top and not being cast back out upon the desert. Maybe Eddie’d be dead, but he and Susanna, Jake and Oy would be living in the Calla. Jake could have a new freind to play with in the hay loft, Oy would be the best friend/pet ever and Roland and Rosalita could be together–love maybe not, but it worked. Maybe even Susanna could have been happy or sent through to NY through the door.
And all would have been well, and all manner of things would be well
and to Sai King who said he didn’t want to read all the hate letters yellug at him for killing Eddie Jake and Oy. I could have stood Eddie, but to vent you may be receiving a caustic letter from me on that. Probably won’t though…
Hoo boy. That was a hell of a read! Even when I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about it, and still am. It was excellent. Absolutely excellent. It’s weird and sad but oddly satisfying to know that there will be no more DT books about sai Deschain. I’ll miss them greatly.
As others have already asked about in this thread, I am not sure I “get” the ending. I mean, I understood what happened, but, for one thing, I don’t understand how Roland ended up with the Horn of Eld on his hip once he’d been booted from the Tower. Does it mean he made a different decision earlier in his life, even though it precedes his desert adventure?
And if those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, how can Roland possibly learn from his other go-rounds if he doesn’t remember the previous ones every time he starts over? Or is it that he remembers them subconsciously, and carries those lessons forward? If anyone can help answer those questions for me (say please!), I’d be better equipped to decide if this means the next trip will be Roland’s last one through or not. For his sake, I hope so. I love the guy.
I’m surprised that so many people here thought that Susannah’s ending was happy-ish, or a good ending for her. I couldn’t disagree more violently. It totally cheapens everything that she’s gone through, and even worse, cheapens both the characters and the sacrifices of Eddie and Jake. It was almost as if Susannah thought to herself, “Well, sure, my husband and my ka-mate are dead, but there are others out there who are close enough. I’ll just go hook up with them.” Shit, even Oy was smart enough to know the folly of that (as I interpreted it, anyway).
Worse yet, she forgets everything about what she has become. Gah! She, a crippled black woman from a racist and sexist world, became a gunslinger! And she’s chosen to forget all that she is in favor of some knock-off version of her ka-mates while her REAL (to my mind) husband and ka-mates are dead. I think that’s pathetic and tragic, though, as King said, there was happiness for her there. And if we readers are to think that any version of Eddie and Jake is as good as the ones we’ve been reading about all this time, then why should we grieve for the ones who died at all? Am I supposed to think, “Mrs. Tassenbaum will plant a tree over Jake’s grave in the keystone world, but hey! There’s a million Jakes out there!” That rubs me the wrong way.
Those thoughts aside, this was one hell of a satisfying book. I loved how Flagg met his demise. I thought it was absolutely perfect. I felt a leetle sorry for Mordred, but then again, he made his choices, too, and paid for them. I thought the whole Dandelo thing was kind of dumb all the way around – I mean, the guy tacks on 's to “Odd Lane” to distract them from the anagram? Why doesn’t he just take down the damn street signs? The deus ex machina was just weird. If the Stephen King of the book can plant clues where he pleases, why not tell Roland what’s going to happen at the top of the Tower, for instance?
I think I just need to give the whole thing more thought. Maybe start over.
Probably won’t though…