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Originally Posted by Hedgehog
1. This last book seemed rushed. This is particularly strange, since the previous book really didn't advance the plot very much. Did King want to finish this book (and his career) so badly that he didn't pay attention to pacing?
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This one I think is perfectly paced. I never really like the first book. The second was fine and the third seemed to lag. The fourth, fifth were complete stories unto themselves and I don't think can be held in consideration when talking about the pace of the entire story. The sixth lagged at times, but overall I think King did a fine job keeping us interested long enough.
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2. Unfortunately, the three major villains, after 6 books of buildup, all go out like punks. Major disappointment. Mordred may as well have been cut from the story. Walter's death would have been cool and somewhat deserved, but the easy end of the other villains cheapened it. And the Crimson King being a total incompetent by locking himself out of the tower was just total shortcut on King's part, IMHO. I'd much rather have had Mordred die at birth, have the CK put an end to Walter, and have Roland and the CK have the big apocalyptic showdown at the tower. Instead, Roland pretty much coasts to the tower in this book.
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Mordred's death was a little anti-climactic, but the rest were fine. In fact, they were more than fine. Flagg comes back to try to pull a fast one and finds out that there are no fast ones to pull. The smug pretentious man we meet in Eyes of the Dragon, The Stand and hear mention of in half a dozen other books tries to 'go along to get along' using the same old shit and is made to pluck his own eyeballs out. Nice.
The Crimson King. After all the build-up we find out he's actually just a crazy old booger in blood red garb. Isn't that the way it always is? The bogeyman outside is always bigger and badder than he really is? The Crimson King didn't deserve to have Roland ease his misery, even though he certainly thought of Roland as an inferior being. Instead the mute-artist gets the pleasure. Nice.
You couldn't have had a big apocolyptic showdown because life isn't full of apocolyptic showdowns. In the end, a big showdown would have been equally disappointing. Not because you can't make everyone happy, but rather because it would have felt wrong. The Tower was the objective. Everything that happened after the big showdown wouldn't have compared. That would have lessened the importance of achieving the Tower and the story would have fallen on it's ass.
Roland didn't coast to the Tower at all. Even before the loop started he lost his family, his home and his friends. After the loop he had to witness Jake, a boy he considered a son, right?, die twice, once by his own hand. Eddie died, Susannah had to go, Oy served as sacrifice. Gave a few fingers and suffered through a few bad fevers and what he thought was 'dry twist.' He made some hard choices and walked a long road, I'd hardly call that coasting.
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Originally Posted by derwood
If the Tower is the center of all worlds, why is it at the edge of End-World in Roland's world? What is on the other side of the Tower? Seems strange that the center of the universe is on the very fringe of the world.
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I think that it's at End-World in Roland's world view. For Roland to finish his epic story the Tower has to be at the edge of End-World. (I travelled all over the land, through the city of Lud and Thunderclap all the way to
Mid?-World.) Doesn't quite work for me. Maybe physically it really is in the middle of all worlds, but from Roland's view (and that of his ka-tet) it's End-World.
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No references to the little doctors? Insomnia's take on the Tower (as a metaphorical structure representing different layers of reality) was never touched upon in the DT books. And was it actually the Crimson King who appears in Insomnia, or some being that he sent to do his dirty work (not Walter, but some other manifestation of evil)?
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Now that we know how important Patrick Danville was I imagine that the figure we see in Insomnia is full fledged Crimson King. Especially now that we know that the Crimson King isn't some vast hole of indomitable evil on the upper levels of the tower, but a crazy old bastard who locked himself out.
I think King purposefully chose not to bring the metaphor from Insomnia into the DT series. These books are simple, for lack of a better word. They never seem to discuss the voodoo. To Roland the Tower just is. There is no need to question. The Tower is the center of all worlds and the Beams holding all of it together are being broken. If that happens, it's bad. He has to stop it. That's all Roland needs to know.
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Originally Posted by FoolThemAll
I'm a fan of the theory that King actually did include a real ending, the story of the final loop, and hid it in plain view. The final loop: Robert Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came". Roland comes to the Tower with his horn and the realization that he is not ever meant to enter the tower. And thus, the end of the story is Roland's (20th?) arrival at the Dark Tower.
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Absolutely bloody brilliant. Hadn't heard that, but makes perfect sense.