Hedgehog

Just finished it. Took 2 days.

This was a very fast read. I'm kinda disappointed in it, but maybe that's just because it was about Susannah, who is my least favorite character of the heroes. She did need some fleshing out, though. I think, however, that we didn't get any character development from her in this book, just plot movement.

I am happy that we are moving toward the end of the story, though. Next one's in November, isn't it?

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Roark

September something.. whenever King's B Day. I'm going to pick it up today and probably finish it over the weekend.

warrrreagl

Two days??? How many pages is it? What about the illustrations? How is Roland's arthritis? How does King's appearance in his own book come across?

Details, man DETAILS!!!

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God of Thunder

It's out?!?!?!?!??!?!

Damn, and I consider myself a big King fan. Shit!!!! I guess I need to crawl out from under this rock I've been hiding under.

I feel shame

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Derwood

If further discussions include spoilers, please use the spoiler tag.

Thankee-sai

Has anyone else sensed King's fear of finishing this story? The first 3 books clipped right along, then Wizard and Glass was 600 pages of stalling, and Wolves of the Calla (which i'm about 2/3 of the way through) is another 600 pages of a sidequest. I assume SoS is more stalling as well.

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Kaos

I feel the same way as Derwood. I just started SoS, and along with Wolves....I feel like they haven't taken one step closer to the Dark Tower.

Derwood

I'll be very curious to when it's all done if you could skip from "The Waste Lands" straight to "The Dark Tower" without missing a beat. Probably not because of Spoiler: All the stuff with the rose in NYC

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Derwood

I just finished "Wolves of the Calla", so it's on to SoS. I'll put in my 2 cents when I'm done.

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warrrreagl

I got Song of Susannah last weekend and started it, but I'm only averaging about 20 pages per day. It'll be made into a movie before I finish it.

What in the heck are bobs and all that other stuff mentioned with the Manni at the beginning? Are they really old-fashioned plumb-bobs? I swear, I really like Stephen King, but why does he spend 40 pages describing a common object like a pistol and then suddenly create a new object from some other universe without the benefit of any explanation whatsoever?

I miss my Concordance badly!

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melandren

I love these books. They're self indulgent as hell, but even the ones that don't push forward so much as drag into the back history are fun. I love how he's tying together 90 percent of the crap he's written over the years.

Vaultboy

DT 4 & 5 are not mostly stalling. Wizard and Glass does much to show us what exactly drives Roland and exactly how good a gunslinger he is. It also sets up Wolves of the Calla. Remember that DT is not just about a guy chasing after a building. Its about the interconnectedness of worlds and realities. DT5 also shows us the pervasiveness of Flagg and his consorts and just how long this story has been coming on for.

Wolves of the Calla in its turn is nt just a sidestory. It shows us a lot of things, with Thunderclap and the links to our own world(s) being the most important of these. It also shows us that the man in black and Flagg knew then already the path that Roland would take.

I like the DT series. It has the feeling of a tale that has already finished its telling (and could not have been told any differently) but it keeps you interested, anticipating the end, but dreading it at the same time. Because we know sidestories (i.e. all his other books), we are constantly asking questions...and we think we know what will happen, but we have to wait and see nonetheless. Few other storytellers have managed to do what King has done.

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Derwood

Having just finished Wolves, I agree that it's not stalling. Wizard and Glass was like pulling teeth for me. Took me forever to get through that one. It got better in the final 1/3 when the story came together, but I would rather have read about the battles with the Good Man as back story than Susan and Mejis.

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Vaultboy

A lot of fans actually said that they were very interested ni the battles. I for one am interested in how the Good Man was finally beaten, how the rest of Roland's friends died, etc.

But I think it was good that we could see that Roland has loved, and that he is quite experienced in things other than dealing in lead.

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Derwood

I suppose. But I think the story of Susan Delgado could have been a 75 page sidebar in a novel rather than a 600 page story.

I'm hoping that the final battle with the Good Man (who I don't think was beaten, as clearly Gilead fell) is fleshed out in the final book.

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Derwood

I just picked up SoS, and I noticed that in the usual King bibliography in the front, they highlighted all the other books that are "Dark Tower related".

I have only noticed connections to "The Stand" and "Salem's Lot" so far, but there are many more listed:

'Salem's Lot
The Stand
The Talisman
It
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Rose Madder
Desperation
Bag of Bones
Black House
From a Buick 8
The Regulators
Skeleton Crew
Heartsin in Atlantis
Everything's Eventual

I've read most of those, and maybe it was just too long since or I don't remember the character names or something.

Can anyone draw out the references to those other books? Please use the Spoiler tag for those that may not have read them/Dark Tower

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Cycler

Spoilers ahead.<p>I can help out with a few here<p>Everything's Eventual is a side story explaining Roland's Encounter with The Little Sisters of Eluria, vampire nurses.<p>Eyes of the Dragon has Flagg as one of its central characters, one bad dude in that book as well.<p>The Talisman and Black House have to do with the Breakers and the crossovers between worlds.<p>That is all I can remember right now the rest of the books I ahve save a few but cannot recall the connectedness. <p>I really liked Wolves very good at the end. SoS was slow but was still a solid novel.

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Derwood

Right, I'm reading Dragon right now, so know that their was a king named Roland and that Flagg is a bad guy, but is it the same guy? Is the implication that all of these evil characters (the walking man in The Stand, etc.) are the same guy?

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Slauncha Man

Hearts in Atlantis has as antagonists "low men in yellow suits." I can't remember if they make an appearance in the Dark Tower series, but I think they do. Anyway, Eyes of the Dragon seemed to me something that King wrote when he didn't want to finish DT; I just finished it today and it involves King Roland and Flagg.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Also, in Eyes of the Dragon, it established Flagg as an ageless evil, which would certainly support this notion that he's the same bad guy in all of the books he's in.

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holtmate

I enjoyed SoS...it was a really fast read, and with Dark Tower coming out in November, there's not too much of a wait. I still haven't gotten over the trauma of finishing Waste Lands, and having to wait YEARS for the follow up!

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Derwood

Luckily I didn't start reading the series until this march, so my only wait will be the final book.

I got SoS from the library 2 days ago and am 2/3 of the way through already. It's the fastest read since Wastelands.

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warrrreagl

In "Hearts in Atlantis," Ted Brautigan was a Breaker, and the Crimson King's henchmen (Low Men in Yellow Coats) came to pick him up after he escaped. Also, when Carol Gerber left college to join a radical group, she became a follower of another R.F. character who taught her how to make herself "dim."

The title short story in "Everything's Eventual" has the main character, Dinky, basically in training to become a Breaker.

"From a Buick 8" revolves around the number 19 quite a bit.

In "Insomnia," a character named Ed Deepnau (it was Aaron Deepnau in DT) warns everyone about the Crimson King and the Centurions.

I have always thought the bear/beast in "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" could have been something made by North Central Positronics, too. However, the official linkage doesn't include this novel as being DT related.

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pixelbend

I am reading "It" right now (only about 20% through, damn it's long). The boy who grows up to be the librarian and calls all of the group back to Derry can hear "The Turtle", which is one of the guardians of the Beam.

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Derwood

Just finished SoS. I like it. Fast paced, cliffhanger ending. Can't wait to see how it finishes up.

I have mixed feelings about Spoiler: King writing himself into the book. Though I guess that since he killed himself off in the van accident at the end, he might be trying to say that in THAT world (which Eddie keeps thinking is the "most real" world) King does in fact die, whereas in OUR world, he lived. Dunno.

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warrrreagl

Apparently the Beams are really being broken, as reported in this article on Drudge (http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm).

Where is Roland, damn it?

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the_marq

I just finished SoS last night, I held off reading this thread until I was done for fear of spoilers.

So far I think that the Wastelands was the best book of the series. I don't really see how King can possibly finish up the story of the dark tower series in just 600 pages (or 1200 for that matter a la the Stand). There are still far too many things to discuss..IE:

What happened to Roland's father?
What happened with the Good Man?
What happened to Cuthbert, Alain, Jamie etc..?
Is Pennywise the Clown from "IT" the same being as the Crimson King?
What or who drives Ka? Is there a god who runs the unfound doors, pure chance is far too easy an answer.
What is the point of breaking the beams? What is to be gained from felling the Tower?

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warrrreagl

The Crimson King appears in full regalia in "Insomnia" and I think the answer to your first question is "Yes."

I'm not specifically looking for spoilers, but does 22-year old Patrick Danville appear in SOS to save Roland and Eddie's lives? If not, then that must happen in the final book. I am simultaneously reading SOS and Insomina right now, and Insomnia has MAJOR ties to the Dark Tower.

To briefly recap, the hero in Insomnia has been contacted by those who follow the Purpose (the Green Man) to thwart those who follow the Random (the Crimson King). The Crimson King wants to prematurely kill a 4-year old boy named Patrick Danville who is actually destined to die at age 22 while saving the lives of a gunslinger named Roland and his friend.

The hero in Insomnia actually meets face to face with the Crimson King and momentarily outwits him, winning a brief but critical battle.

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the_marq

I'll have to read Insomnia again, thanks warrreagl.

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Cycler

<p>That is what I said last night , dug around in my collection couldn't find it. I know I have read it but it is nowhere to be found, maybe I borrowed it?. Might have to buy it again.

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micah67

I particularly enjoyed the part where

Spoiler: Author Stephen King writes about character Stephen King referring to the situation like a "Stephen King novel".

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DonnieBoy

borrowed this from the local library read it in about 3 days! thank goodness only 2 months to wait on the last book! I loved this book and the direction the story is going... i just think it is going way to fast now...

DB

Derwood

It's a good question. Insomnia was written in 1994, so who knows if King is going to feel obliged to follow what he wrote there. He probably will though, as it seems that most of his work in the past 10 years is somehow linked to the Tower.

I love that King has basically created his own myth about what drives good and evil and has now applied it directly to his new work, as well as tying it into his older works. It's as though he didn't realize the common thread in his own work until late in his career.

Ultimately, The Crimson King isn't the highest form of evil (at least that's the way Insomnia makes it seem). He (It) is representative of the Tower's evil side, however, and King intimates now that he has taken the forms of Walter (Dark Tower), Pennywise (It), Flagg (Eyes of the Dragon, The Stand), and many others. Not every book fits neatly into this mythology (The Shining, for example), but all the books in Maine seem to fit in somehow. Originally, you had a strong connection between the Castle Rock books and the Derry books, but now those are being tied into the Tower as well.

Insomnia is a must read for anyone reading the Tower books, as it has all sorts of new ideas about what the Tower is and how it works. It's more of a metaphor of the levels of existence than a physical place.

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Captain Nemo

holtmate, talk about waiting years, I started this series back in 1987(1988?) when the gunslinger was published by Charles Grant. I've had to reread that book no less than 4 times, as he was really slow in publishing this series (until he decided to release the series to the mass market that is). It's kind of weird how he now uses Grant as the mass publisher. I suppose it is a good thing for Grant, but I haven't seen to many signed limited editions coming out since then. I still proudly own signed limited editions of all of the Dark Tower series so far....

DonnieBoy

I'm hoping that after the story of the Dark Tower is complete, King will still write about the characters of these novels. Maybe a short story here or there. There is alot about Roland we don't know and there is plenty of story line there.

DB

Derwood

For those of you trying to feed your Tower hunger, go read "Insomnia" and "Hearts in Atlantis". I just finished "Insomnia," which is about the Crimson King and the Tower, and am 100 pages into "Hearts in Atlantis", the first story of which is called "Low Men in Yellow Coats." Just like in Callahan's story of how he came to Mid-World, the Low Men in this story communicate via lost pet posters, etc. It's yet another brain storm by King on this ever growing mythology of the Tower and the Beams.

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warrrreagl

Earlier, I posted that "From a Buick 8" revolves around the number 19, but that was coming from someone who hadn't read it yet. Now that I'm reading it, I can't make the Dark Tower connection at all.

What is the connection between "From a Buick 8" and "Dark Tower?"

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Derwood

I don't know, I haven't read it. I'll probably read that one after I'm done with "Hearts in Atlantis"

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warrrreagl

"Hearts in Atlantis" is MEGA-cool, and has some of the most direct Dark Tower ties of any of the rest.

And you'll never look at Lost Pet notices quite the same again.....

Predictably enough, the "Hearts in Atlantis" movie was so different from the book that it's almost like a different story involving the same character names.

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Derwood

Movie? Which of the stories did they use for it?

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warrrreagl

"Low Men in Yellow Coats," if you can believe a movie was actually made about THAT. Ted was played by Anthony Hopkins. Here's the IMDB page on it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252501/

And here's a quote from a review found on that page. It really sums up the complete disappointment found in the movie:
"One bad aspect of the movie version however, is the elimination of all supernatural elements. Instead of making Anthony Hopkins' character a Breaker from the Dark Tower universe King has created, like Brautigan is in the book, he is a psychic sought by the FBI to root out communists (hey, this is 1960 after all). So the string is still intact: Of the more than 30 movies based on the work of Stephen King, not a single one even mentions the Dark Tower.

How unfortunate."

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warrrreagl

19 days until The End......

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