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/lit/ - Literature

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1262927 No.1262927 [Reply] [Original]

What is /lit/s opinion on this series? Was it good? Bad? Anything I should look forward to? Or is it just another stephen king book

>> No.1262943

never read them, but a lot of my friends did and everybody said that they were fantastic.

>> No.1262942

The first couple books are great stuff, the middle books are okay. I'm told the last one is kind of stupid, but I haven't gotten around to reading it myself.

>> No.1263148

>>1262942
I agree with this gentleman.

>> No.1263153

123567 are good. 4 sucks

>> No.1263156

It crashed hard at Wolves of the Calla and continued the shitfest at Song of Susannah. I did not particularly care to read King's babbling about a magical negro woman - notice the fondness he has for inserting magical negroes into his work - and Wolves of the Calla was hopelessly idiotic. When he veered off into his giantess fetish during Calla, he should have stuck with that.

Wizard and Glass set the shitty tone for Calla, really. I couldn't bring myself to give a shit about Susan Delgado and kept wondering when Roland would finish his cool story so that the Ka-tet could resume their journey towards the tower.

Also, a /lit/izen wrote a biting piece of copypasta describing the Dark Tower as being representative of King's unconscious desire for black dicks. The Tower was a phallic symbol, the roses around the tower were pubic hairs, etc etc

>> No.1263187

1234 are good, stop there.

It's DOWN HILL after that. Then the last one is the most well known to /lit/ as king troll face book.

>> No.1263188

>>1263187

I wouldn't really call 4 good.

It was tolerable.

>> No.1263192

1st book: Some good parts, but I didn't care for it overall.
2nd & 3rd books: Awesome
4th book: Pretty good. Starts to get a little iffy when the ka-tet comes across the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz at the end.
5th book: Mostly good. The bad guys were pretty lame though. (Dr. Doom-inspired robots that carry lightsabers and throw homing grenades modeled after the Golden Snitch from Harry Potter.)
6th book: This one was just okay. It was a pretty quick read, and I remember thinking that it was just a spacer book so that the whole series could come out to seven books.
7th book: Mostly good, but I did not care for the ending at all. The villains were lame.

As a whole, the series has some good parts and some bad parts. Overall, I think the good parts outweigh the bad parts, so it's worth a read.

>> No.1263194

>>1263188
Thats why this is personal option and not fact, just like yours.

>> No.1263284

the first three books were great, I read them back to back over about a week, book four, right around the middle, turned into a major borefest and I completely lost interest in the series.

>> No.1263340

i really fucking hated the ending at first when i finished the books, thoughtit was a complete waste of time, but it grew on me the more i thought about it, i liked the back story between the characters and i was pretty sad when eddie died (SOZ IF I JUST RUINED THAT) but as for the last two books all that modred shit and that mute guy who can draw (vaguely remembering) that was just bullshit.

tldr: DRAWING OF THE THREE IS FUCKING GOD TIER.

ALSO ONE MORE THING

your thoughts on china meiville's: iron council, that it was brilliant :P

>> No.1263350

>>1263192
>7th book: Mostly good, but I did not care for the ending at all.
At first I was like wtfamireading.jpg, but it managed to grow on me.

>The villains were lame.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Nuff said.

>> No.1263459

>>1263429
Notice that I said 'one of', not 'the best' pet.


>>1263379
Also, I found that Wolves Of The Calla dragged like crazy in the middle, so that is probably my least favourite book of the series.

>> No.1263475

FUCK YEAH

OY fucking ruled!

and yeah it was egotistical to put himself in the book :/

wizards and glass was my favourite besides drawing off the three becuase it was alot more interesting, it added previously unseen depths to roland, and i liked the story of howhe got his guns :P

lamest villian mordred

best randall flagg (cos hes in THE STAND)

gotta admit out of it all sussanahs exit was the lamest...

>> No.1263479

>>1263475
It was egotistical, but the funny thing is that he portrayed himself as a bumbling loser, a nice enough guy but completely ignorant and unsure of what the hell was happening. It was hilarious imo

>> No.1263485

1-3 are very interesting. 4 is a great Western.

Everything after that is post-coma, and blows majorly. If you happen to get to the end of the last book, where Stephen King tells you that you should stop reading, because that was the ending a good writer would have kept, please follow his advice.

What follows is his attempt to wrap that shit into some kind of reward for the audience, and it totally misses the point.

>> No.1263379

>Gunslinger: Shows promise for the series. Sets up an interesting world. Dull in parts, but not too bad. 7/10

>Drawing of the Three: Alright, probably my least favorite of the series. You get a majority of your party in this book, but there's still no clear goal of the series. 7/10

>Wastelands: Things get much better in part 3, a lot more action packed. We start to get hints of the over all goal. 8/10

>Wizard and Glass: Probably the best in the series. Easily the most enjoyable. 9.5/10

>Wolves of the Calla: Really enjoyed this as well, it goes between this and Wizard and Glass as my favorite installment of the series. 9.5/10

>Song of Susannah: It's pretty enjoyable, has a really good pacing to it. 8/10

>The Dark Tower: Again, pretty enjoyable, though the finale is lacking. 8/10

>Overall: I'd say the series as a whole is pretty enjoyable. By the end of it you really do care about the characters, and there were several parts throughout the series that got me choked up. That being said, King does quite a few stupid and pretentious things within the series, such as putting himself in there as an actual character.

Worth a read, but there are bound to be times when you're discouraged. After you make it past the first three, the series is smooth sailing.

>> No.1263384

I don't get Stephen King . . . I've never enjoyed a single one of his books.

>> No.1263390

Read them yourself, wait a few months, and then read them again. I loved the series, overall. The first time I read them I remember the part where they were planning to make war against the wolves being utterly tedious and mind-numbing. The second time around, I was completely enthralled. Go figure.

>> No.1263396

It's a great series. You'll enjoy it.

>> No.1263401

>>1263384
That's funny 'cause I don't get people who don't get him (not trollan, just a gentle observation). The very first book I read by him was Dreamcatcher, I was 13 and although it was the first time I'd read something as large as that and it took me awhile, I absolutely loved it. There've been a few that I don't care for as much, but I honestly can't think of a single one I don't like....well, except for Roadwork. That bored me to tears.

Ah well, different strokes and all that. Variety keeps things interesting.

>> No.1263419

Oy is one of the best pets found in a novel ever.

>> No.1263429

>>1263419

I beg to differ.

The dogs in Where The Red Fern Grows are superior.

>> No.1263622

>>1263475
He usually, if not always puts some component of himself into his novels; at least the ones I've read. Bill Denbrough in IT: Writer. Jack Torrance in The Shining: Writer. Paul Sheldon: Writer. Jack Torrance: Alcoholism. Okay, so I haven't read many King novels.

>> No.1263638

I just finished reading The Stand and I think the Dark Tower series is like the last really big King work I have left. This thread is encouraging. I need to pick them up.

>> No.1263646

>>1263622
There is *always* a writer in his novels. I was actually pretty impressed with Under the Dome in that regard, it only had a journalist, an english professor, and the wannabe poet/student he was fucking, and there were loads of other characters. Refreshing.

>> No.1264367

aha!

i think the dark tower series was the last reallygood book he wrote, everythingelse as been shit like "cell" whichwas ablatant rip off of the stand.

also google "the wind through the keyhole" possible dakr tower add on of rolands adventures with cubert and co

>> No.1264406

I really liked the whole series. I really don't see what people have against the ending - it was fucking poetic if you think about it.

>> No.1264593

I think its mutually agreed that Wolves of the Calla was one of the worst in the series

>> No.1264633

>>1264593

I loved Wolves. I really liked the whole "who the fuck is selling this town out" aspect of the book. I also really liked figuring out what the fuck the Wolves were.

I also loved the Seven Samurai, which is very clearly what it's ripped from.

>> No.1264754

tbh i think song of sussanah had its good moments and its bad, i liked the guys who ran the book shop, calvin tower i think his name was, but the whole roland son storyline was pointless, and it killed off oy!

also the ending was about redemption, rolands redemption and his addiction to the tower, much like stephen kings addiction to drugs, roland cast aside everything he once held dear, in pursuit of his drug (dark tower) and in doing so sacrificed everyone along the way, his reincarnation and significance of the horn he gains signifies change, a relic of his old life guiding him back onto the road of a true gunslinger, one that doesnt get his ka-tet killed

You’re a Tower Junkie, Roland.

>> No.1265218

1-3: EPIC
4: as good as typical king
5-7: slightly below average king except that you are attached to the characters so you dont really notice until you are finished

>> No.1265228

there was no way to end it that would make anyone happy. too many characters to finish off.

>> No.1265275

1-4 were fantastic. Wizard and Glass was probably my favorite as I would really like to read about Roland's travels before he met up with Jake. Wolves and Song were meh and I mostly enjoyed the last book (fuck yeah breakers are from Hearts in Atlantis and Everything's Eventual). The end seemed like a cop out to me.

>> No.1265282

>>1262927

The dark tower is simply a portal that teleports the gunslinger to the beginning of the book