Thursday, December 02, 2004
The Dark Tower Review
OK this post is a bit of a spoiler, so if you haven’t finished the Dark Tower series or think you might want to read it in the future (which I half-heartedly recommend) please read no further. I didn’t know what to think of the book after finishing it, nor what to think of the series. I see the quality of the books differently then Stuart, who smartly drew the comparison between the Dark Tower series and the Star Trek movies, thereby solidifying the view of the masses that we are giant dorks. If I were to rank the books, (and I dont understand why I am using the conditional tense since I am about to rank them right now. Oh God I just made a grammar joke.) I would rank them II, III, I, VI, IV, VII, V, in terms of their ability to stand as individual novels.
As you can tell from my rankings, there is a clear emphasis on the first four books, which were written over a long period of time when King was younger, meaner, on coke and booze, and probably a better writer. I am sure King would tell you differently, and he may be a better describer or have a better command of language than he did previously. These however, were never King’s strengths to begin with. His strengths were using his imagination to create crazy worlds and outrageous characters. In the last three books, he instead focused on bringing worlds he had created already together rather than creating new worlds. He became unable to give the main characters greater depth, which became most obvious with regards to Eddie Dean, who was the most vital, interesting character in the second and third books, and reduced to a stale, one-liner comic relief bit before King finally realized what was happening and killed him off not half way through the seventh book.
The books then, for people like me who had already invested so much damn time in them, became about reaching the end, discovering who made it to the Tower, who died, and what was finally at the top when Roland got there (as we all knew he would.) Whereas in the first three books as a reader I was able to enjoy the journey (partially because I didn’t know where it was going), I now simply wanted to get to the end of the ride. If J.K Rowling reads this blog, which I am sure she does, let this be a warning to her. Don’t forget to let us enjoy the ride as Harry finishes his last two years of Hogwarts.
On to the ending, I’ll admit I got chills going down my spine when I read Roland’s declarations as he made his way to the top of the Tower. I was originally disappointed with the circular ending because I think it shows a lack of creativity, reservations that have not totally dissipated as time has moved on. It does, however, play into several themes, (ka as a wheel,) plus it allows existence to always be saved as Roland lives in a continual loop, preserving the Tower from the same evil forces until the end of time. It still makes me angry, because I would have hoped King could come up with something better. Of course there is almost no way he could have met expectations since he had been building to that moment for 4000 pages. The weakness of the last three books as individual journeys also put more focus on the ending of the whole saga, increasing expectations and disappointment.
Final Grades:
DT 1: 85/100
DT 2: 93/100
DT 3: 91/100
DT 4: 75/100
DT 5: 35/100
DT 6: 84/100
DT 7: 65/100
The Dark Tower Saga: 70/100
The overall score may be lower than the average score of the books, but the 5th book was basically a total waste and the series did not end strongly. Still a pretty good effort by King, but one can’t help feeling he wasted an opportunity to make one of the all-time great sagas. He was certainly on that road through the first three books. Like Stu said, if they ever take my idea and make this into an HBO TV Series, it could be one of the great shows of all time. They just need to give me, Stu, Lee, and Sarah Todd creative control over King. Not sure that will happen though.
As you can tell from my rankings, there is a clear emphasis on the first four books, which were written over a long period of time when King was younger, meaner, on coke and booze, and probably a better writer. I am sure King would tell you differently, and he may be a better describer or have a better command of language than he did previously. These however, were never King’s strengths to begin with. His strengths were using his imagination to create crazy worlds and outrageous characters. In the last three books, he instead focused on bringing worlds he had created already together rather than creating new worlds. He became unable to give the main characters greater depth, which became most obvious with regards to Eddie Dean, who was the most vital, interesting character in the second and third books, and reduced to a stale, one-liner comic relief bit before King finally realized what was happening and killed him off not half way through the seventh book.
The books then, for people like me who had already invested so much damn time in them, became about reaching the end, discovering who made it to the Tower, who died, and what was finally at the top when Roland got there (as we all knew he would.) Whereas in the first three books as a reader I was able to enjoy the journey (partially because I didn’t know where it was going), I now simply wanted to get to the end of the ride. If J.K Rowling reads this blog, which I am sure she does, let this be a warning to her. Don’t forget to let us enjoy the ride as Harry finishes his last two years of Hogwarts.
On to the ending, I’ll admit I got chills going down my spine when I read Roland’s declarations as he made his way to the top of the Tower. I was originally disappointed with the circular ending because I think it shows a lack of creativity, reservations that have not totally dissipated as time has moved on. It does, however, play into several themes, (ka as a wheel,) plus it allows existence to always be saved as Roland lives in a continual loop, preserving the Tower from the same evil forces until the end of time. It still makes me angry, because I would have hoped King could come up with something better. Of course there is almost no way he could have met expectations since he had been building to that moment for 4000 pages. The weakness of the last three books as individual journeys also put more focus on the ending of the whole saga, increasing expectations and disappointment.
Final Grades:
DT 1: 85/100
DT 2: 93/100
DT 3: 91/100
DT 4: 75/100
DT 5: 35/100
DT 6: 84/100
DT 7: 65/100
The Dark Tower Saga: 70/100
The overall score may be lower than the average score of the books, but the 5th book was basically a total waste and the series did not end strongly. Still a pretty good effort by King, but one can’t help feeling he wasted an opportunity to make one of the all-time great sagas. He was certainly on that road through the first three books. Like Stu said, if they ever take my idea and make this into an HBO TV Series, it could be one of the great shows of all time. They just need to give me, Stu, Lee, and Sarah Todd creative control over King. Not sure that will happen though.
# posted by Marmaniac @ 5:43 PM 
