My favorites are probably books 2 and 3. For me, the series reaches greatness then, but the rest is merely good fantasy (still worth reading, but not as awesome, at least to me).
The “essay” that Jake hands in at school has to be the creepiest thing ever!
The “author’s note” in the last book was, as lots of others have said, annoying. But I wouldn’t let that spoil reading the series.
Choo-choo, my friend. Choo-choo. Choo-choo.
That is the truth.
The series is a barometer of how you feel about the author. The more that you like King, the better “Tower” seems. I’m a fan of his work, even as I acknowledge how uneven it is. (Even to the point of wondering if “Stephen King” hasn’t become a “house name”, used by King, his wife, and their sons.)
I read the series about 5 years ago, committing to acquire each volume at used book stores. I enjoyed them, but did not feel that they represented his best work.
I seem to be a little different from most fans of the series in that I liked the first book the least. It was the second one that hooked me. The first one was good, but it left me wondering what all the shouting was about. Then I saw what all the shouting was about once I’d started the second installment.
You’re not alone- I am not sure if even finished the first book, I really disliked it. I may go back one day and re-read it but I got hooked on the second book. I think I found it at a garage sale for almost nothing and was glad I did because I don’t think I would have paid anything significant for the sequel of that first book…
He had only written the first two when I started reading The Dark Tower series. I don’t know that I ever heard “shouting” about the series. But I enjoyed a lot of circa 1980s Stephen King so I picked them up.
To be honest, as a kid not knowing anything about the books, I found the mishmash a bit disorienting. Is this a spaghetti western with mutants and sorcerers? Why does he sometimes talk like someone out of Lord of the Rings (aside from that he appears to be on some sort of Frodo quest for this Tower…which I don’t understand either)? Is this the same bad buy from The Stand? Why do they sing old Beatles songs? Why are there doors on a beach full of giant lobsters leading back to 1970s New York? So on and so forth. Over time it made more sense.
Honestly, I’m not sure how successful the upcoming film (films?) are going to be. King films tend to be fare particularly well under the best of circumstances and The Dark Tower might be too bizarre and eclectic for most movie-going audiences. And it’s too big a story for me to get engrossed in the first film in a series of films that never get made. Maybe a ten part HBO miniseries would have been better.
I agree the first book is very good and they drop off from there. Books 5-7 are genuinely bad; they don’t read as if they were well edited.
I actually liked the very ending, though.
I had some trouble getting into them and the wishy-washy time travel stuff put me off.
Only when I thought about The Gunslinger being an extension of HG Wells’ The Time Traveller (the crabs at the end of the world!) did it finally stick for me.
If I could describe most of the Stephen King books I’ve read, I would say this:
He excels at character building, world building, and suspense building. He absolutely, positively sucks at coming up with a satisfying ending most of the time. I was really hoping this book series was going to be more like The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile, but toward the end it did stuff that was just…shitty. The resolution of the aforementioned Randall Flagg, for one, was a complete nut-punch.
If you’re at sea, and you have nothing better to do, read it…but be prepared to toss your device in the ocean when you get to certain parts. Make sure your mates are forewarned and know to hold you down when this happens.
I have tried to read the first book no less than three times, going back probably 20 years. I just can’t do it. I make it a little further each time, but the … absolute nothing-actually-happening-ness just makes me shut down and be unable to finish it.
The first adult book I ever read was Carrie (because it was the shortest book in my parents’ bookcase), and I tore through all the early stuff before I made it to high school. I have been trying to get through The Gunslinger since it came out. Maybe what I need to do is find a copy of the graphic novel so I can at least know the story without having to slog through all the words, then dive into book 2.