Re: Books by Stephen King
Okay, I'll also say beware dark tower spoilage here.
My personal problems with the series didn't so much relate to ow it ended, or who was lost, so much as to how certain other characters were treated along the way and King's final coda.
Rowland needed to gain the tower and the Crimson King being a great bunhug was certainly fitting enough, also, while I did not like Jake and Eddy's deaths, I could understand them, Rowland has always made it clear from the first book onward he's given up everything for the tower, and would be willing to do so again. The heart breaking scene is that in the wastelands, in which a grief stricken Jake is pulled through the door, reunited with Rowland and begs him to not let him fall again, and even as he comfort's Jake, Rowland knows the promise he gives is a lie, since heck yes, he would let Jake fall again if it meant gaining the tower.
This is the contrast between Roland and Susana, since Susana realises in the end that their katette itself and what they've gained together is more valuable than the tower.
My lady described this as a fairy tale ending of the kind King doesn't usually write, but then remarked she didnt' mind in the least, and neither did I since the ending was definitvely a deserved reward for all of them.
I admit I'm in two minds about the coda, since while on the one hand I could understand what Rowland finds in the tower and the implication that he's stuck on the wheel, at the same time I'm not really sure if King actually should have written the coda itself.
Yes, King remarks that nothing he could've written could've been like our imagining of the dark tower, and that's true, but in a way I would rather King had left matters at that, rather the way, much as I love the time war audios, that Doctor who had never shown us the time war, much less retconned the hole thing, since a war that is so all encompassing it is fought through time itself and warps the entirety of reality is, like the dark tower, a concept which should really just be left unexplained, and inexplicable.
There is after all a perfectly good literary reason why the title character neve appears in Lord of the rings.
Oh, King did write a warning that those who prefer to imagine the tower should stop without reading on, but honestly I don't think I know anyone who did.
So while I do understand the ending, I found it disappointing, but then again was probably always doomed to, unless King had indeed just stopped with Rowland entering the dark tower, as he probably should've done, much as it would possibly still piss off another portion of the fan base.
My really major problems with the Dark tower's last few books involved the way Mordred, the man in black and Susana were handled.
First, in the original Gunslinger, and in Wizard and glass, it is made pretty clear that Walter, the man in black is definitely not! Flag, aka Martin Broadcloak, aka the ageless stranger.
yet, suddenly they become the same person? This really disappointed me, I remember at thirteen reading the description of Rowland's vision in the Gunslinger, and thinking "Wow, this ageless stranger sounds bloody evil, and as for this beast?"
And yet suddenly there is no order of evil, just Flag and his boss, with the beast being retconed out of existance in a new retelling of the gunslinger (which I haven't read yet). Frankly that! disappoints me almost as much as the ending, since mystery is one thing, but retconning because you can't be bothered to plot enemies you promised is just plane lazy.
Second, Susana. In The drawing of the three and the wastelands we see Susana conquer her alternate personalities, come together and become down right awesome. Then suddenly bing! she's got another one! really this was a severely unfair use of the character, simply repeating yet another plot.
what is worse, is that King went with the most obvious plot for his female character and had Susana's story suddenly revolve around pregnancy, when there was so much more to her than simply the fact that she's female. Again, this just plane struck me as lazy, going with the most obvious plotline, and an unfair use of a character who had so much to her, her learning to shoot, her activism, whether Detta walker's immorality had left scars, than merely the fact that she happened to have a uterus.
And the result of this pregnancy is some frankenstein mess of a character who proves to be the dampest of damp squibs, and also rubs King's most iconic villain off the map in an effectively off screen scene that has nothing to do with the protagonists!
Again, I appreciate that King's idea was to show that evil consumes itself, but honestly one can take bumhuggery a bit too far.
of course, also bare in mind, that while I have read the first four dark tower books several times each over the years, starting with the Gunslinger when I was thirteen, I've only read the last three books once in 2008, (I had to get them from the states since the RNIB didn't have them at that point). I was not exactly with it at that point, indeed some events in the books I only remembered when checking the synopses recently whilst browsing the Stephen King wiki.
I do intend to do a reread of the hole series at some point, and maybe then I'll feel differently about where things ended up, we'll see.
Oh and btw in other news, I have now put just after sunset and four past midnight onto my Victor.
My lady agrees with Jayde and others here that sunset is probably the better collection over all, so when it next comes time for me to read some short stories, I'll likely be tossing a coin to let ka decide .
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