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Shastia
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Post The Dark Tower
on: March 02, 2004 06:05
Has anybody read these. I love them!
They're by Stephen King and there kind of like Lord of the Rings as a Western.

So, who's your favorite character? Mine's Jake(and Oy).
Do you think they'll find the Tower and if they do, what'll be in the top room?

Your opinions please!
k
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: March 02, 2004 07:39
hmmmm we have a stephen king thread... but... im tempted to keep this one open as Dark Tower is quite a bit seperate from the rest of the books.

have you read wolves of the calla yet?

I am a huge fan of the books...my fave has to be wizard and glass though, reading about Rolands life as a child was just wonderful! and soo addictive. Hes the most fascinating character for sure, but i dont think i could pick a favourite from the whole ka-tet, sometimes i like Eddie, hes so funny, sometimes Jake and Oy are just the sweetest, sometimes Susannah is just cool....and Roland, doing the old mysterious Roland thing

I think that they will find the tower, all of them, though weather they will all reach it is another matter (dont they have a beast to fight and a field of roses to cross...)
I sincerely hope that Roland reachs the top of the tower, and Jake with him.

Some time ago i heard the theory that Rolands world was connected with Fiction- its like a wasteground for fiction that left its mark in our world...
- king arthur (arthur of eld)
- gunsligners (westerns)
- glass tower and red shoes (wizard of oz)
- calla (something to do with samuri's i believe)
- charlie the choo choo (a "book" in eddie and susannahs world)

***calla spoilers**

- Harry Potter
- Marvel Comics
- Stephen King even mentions himself...

***/spoilers***

theres a bunch more as well, but i cant recall them off the top of my head, anyway that theory didnt quite fit to start with, but after the weirdness of the fith book then its looking more like that theory could have something in it.... the reason Rolands world is failing? because people in other worlds (our world?) are not reading so much, being taken over by technology and not using our imaginations so much.... if that world is connected to ours by imagination only, then i can see why they have problems.

Anyway thats one of several theories.... but its the one i like most at the moment.

At the top of the tower, now that i hope will be spectacular.... i wasnt overly impressed with book 5, it didnt seem in keeping with the others in the series, so i hope that the story turns out as good as it started off.... i really want to see more auras and little bald doctors.

your thoughts?
k
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: March 02, 2004 07:46
oh yeah, i cant believe that by november this year we will know the whole story.... years and years of waiting for books to be published and suddenly we get the last three one after the other

wolves- November 2003
Song- June 2004
Tower- November 2004

that i _think_ is the printing schedule though it might be may and october... around those times of year anyway
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: March 02, 2004 03:29
Are you serious? Wheeeeeeee

I love this series! I haven't read the latest, because I didn't want to read anymore until it was finished (a new resolution of mine - not to read any book series until they're finished).

I really enjoyed this serious mostly because it was so different to any other fantasy-type thing I'd read. It's definitely time for me to re-read the first few books!
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: March 03, 2004 03:58
have you read the new version of book one?

yeah i was serious, the series is completed and at the publishers
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: March 03, 2004 07:47
New version of book one.. nope nope nope... what's different about it? Rewritten? Extended?
k
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: March 04, 2004 04:21
rewritten.... quite alot of the little details in book one dont make sense for the whole story... the whole walter/good man/ marten thing... that is all changed- the language is more "dark tower" as well... the events... well 19 becomes important suddenly. (that starts making book 5 make more sense... and its going to be in the later books too)

its worth having a look at, i think its in paper back now so shouldnt be too expensive
Shastia
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: March 13, 2004 01:14
I actually preferred twotc to wag because I am more interested in the charcter developments than backstory to be honest.
My absolute favorite so far is the waste lands. I thought it was excellent, and it is when the story really started to pick up the pace.

I haven't read they old gunslinger, so I can't say what has changed.
k
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: July 29, 2004 12:19
ah i found this old thread and thought i would bump it up since song of susannah has been released.

I have written a review which i put in my LJ but i guess i should repeat it here as well..

*spoilers spoilers spoilers*

*sigh* well it could have been worse. I was so worried about King writing himself in, but it seems he used it to justify why he is writing the tower books... it kinda makes sense, but i think it was entirely unecessary, especially all that rubbish about him being the twin of the rose and god and all sorts.

I wish he would get on with the story already though, the first four books were stories in themselves.. they had a start a middle and a end (well almost, in the case of the waste lands) but these last two, wolves and song, have been something and nothing really... i mean yeah they had a fight in wolves and stuff but not much of one, nothing much happened, and song was even worse.... i mean really- they hung around in maine and new york and thats it.

I just know that King is going to use the world trade centre bombing to destroy the black shade of the wizards rainbow... i mean the prophesy said it had to be destroyed between the two towers and the kid has to grow a bit so they must go forward in time... I think some americans are gonna be a tad annoyed if he uses that event.


Theres no character development... before in the books i have really enjoyed getting to know eddie and jake and roland and Oy (and to a lesser extend susannah, hes not so good with writing women) but they arent growing any more.. and they dont make me laugh so much- only one bit made me smile in the book.

King is obsessed with his frigging accident, not only did he mention it several times in the book (if it happened on the 19th then i suspect that the use of 19 in the books was little to do with what he said in his DT intro and more to do with fitting the accident into it the books) but kingdom hospital also has a scene almost exactely as the newspaper article in the book describes the accident.. I still wonder if the accident screwed with his brain a bit, his ego has grown thats for sure.

I cant say i was impressed with this book, the first four were so promising, and now... well i have to read the last one of course, it should improve, but these last two wolves and song have bumped the dark tower series way down on my list of fave books to read. Such a shame.

Still it could have been alot lot worse


/spoilers
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: July 29, 2004 10:00
Uh oh. Sounds suspicously parallel to the Robert Jordan/WoT factor. *sigh*.
k
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: July 30, 2004 04:49
well we know that theres only one book left in DT series, so he has to sort out everything in this next one....

I heard that WoT is like this endless saga.
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: July 30, 2004 08:01
That is indeed WoT in a nutshell. Which is a shame, because it started so well. That and the mention of ego is what I think DT and WoT may have in common.

It's interesting to think what effect (affect? I never know which to use correctly) the internet (and the easy availability of fans and opinions) has had on writers ongoing works. I think there's been some discussion of RJ and his interaction with fans bringing about a decline in his writing.

I'd be interested if there was anything in that respect discussed on JK Rowlings work also... But this is hijacking the thread
k
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: July 31, 2004 05:24
nah hijack away.... any other DT fans will soon bring it back on track.

With Rowling i think things are a bit differnt, i know she interacts with her fans on the web and things but her story is already written she just has to fill out the details to make a book as far as i can tell..... though i do think that if less adults had become interested in the book her style and maybe harrys behaviour in book five would have not been so adult. if you compare book 1 to book 4.. for instance they seem geared towards differnt age groups almost.
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: October 04, 2004 08:36
Well thats it the series is over.... for those fans who dont know, the seventh and final book came out last week some time.

I finished reading it last night. The rest of this contains big spoilers for the whole series.


***spoilers***





Well he eventually got back on track with this, you can read my previous review to find out what i thought of wolves and song (basically if you want the short version, they werent very good and could have been combined into one book without loosing any plot elements)

It didnt start off wonderfully, as with the other books it dragged a bit and focussed way too much on King for my liking. The death of flagg was a tad too gruesome for my liking and it struck me that king wasnt sure what to do with this big evil character he had made up and so just got rid of him in a convenient manner.

the two main deaths could have been written far better i think, though im not sure exactely how. But after those happened things started to pick up and remind me of why i loved the DT series to start with... there were some moments of genius in there much more like the style of the first four books and i got drawn into it more and more as the story progressed.

I thought the ending was amazing. Absolutely and completely perfect, once king did that "are you sure you want to know" bit then i guessed what was going to happen to roland but i hadnt guessed before then... it makes a wonderful kind of sense and wow. just wow. It redeemed itself slightly due to those endings.

I did get annoyed that the author kept putting in commentry like hints for the future (that was the last time she ever used a term of endearment on him again) and stopping the story to talk about either himself, his writing or to address the readers (but we know different dont we... etc etc) Im sure he didnt do that in the first four books and it really disturbed the flow of the story...

As far as im concerned, what really let the series down was Kings mary-sueing... i really really really really really hate that he wrote himself into the story and it wasnt at all essential to the plot, at all... if he wanted the DT series to have a biographer it could have been a fictional one... it didnt need a biographer though, all events could have happened without him there.

book one- once we met jake i loved it
book two- wonderful
book three- wonderful
book four- the absolute best... how i wish we had had at least one more story from rolands past.. he has a long one.
book five and six- could have been cut down and combined and lots taken out... namely everthing with SK and most stuff with mia.
book seven - after the tunnell in fedic things improved alot.

The ending..... perfect.

And that is my final say on things.... what did you all think.

****/end spoilers****
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: October 04, 2004 08:08
Hooray! A fantasy series that's finished! I shall be buying up and reading the entire series once they're all out in paperback.
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: October 12, 2004 08:10
k, you summed it up nicely, I feel the same.

I'm glad that Eddie, Jake, and Susannah got back together. I wasn't too surprised about the ending concerning Roland. I was hoping he could go to the clearing at the end of the field after all he's been through, but at least he's got his horn back.
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Post RE: The Dark Tower
on: October 13, 2004 08:41
**spoilers***


well you never know... he might next time. After all the poem requires a horn to be blown and this time he might be able to

Which is why i love that ending.
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