OMG THAT SUCKED.
I just finished The Dark Tower, Book Seven, and I just. GRR. Slight spoilers follow, if you care about that.
I have never wanted to kick an author in the face in my life, but I'd sure like to put some boot to Stephen King's puss right about now.
The first four books were so, so good-- I thought, he's going for something as ambitious and wonderful as Middle Earth, and by golly, it's just about that good, it really is! -- And then, book five was a little meh, and book six...pretty much blew.
But book seven. A kick in the teeth, and then some. Note to Mr. King: just because you say "hey, look, I'm pulling some deus ex machina out of my ass" does not make it okay. Just because you say "I know I wrote myself into the story, but it's not metafiction, because that's pretentious" does not make it any less pretentious! And then having the gall to write a snide, condescending ending note to the readers who have followed your story for over twenty years, a note in which you basically stick your middle finger sky high at them...unbelievable.
I am actually *mad* about this. A review on Amazon said something to the effect that it was as if, after falling in love with Middle Earth and Frodo and Sam and everyone, Tolkien had begun ROTK by writing himself into the story, explaining to the hobbits that they were just creations he'd come up with as a god of sorts, and then having Frodo complete his quest for no reason by making him do it over and over again in a cop-out "time loop". No grey havens for you, buddy! And let's just gratuitously kill Sam, Merry, and Pippin, while we're at it. Oh, and Sauron? He's just a crazy old guy dressed in a Santa suit. Ultimate evil, schmeevil. We'll just erase him, literally, in the cheesiest deus ex machina in the history of ever.
*exhales*
I'm going to go looking for some Dark Tower fanfic, and see if I can't find an ending more like it ought to have been. Failing that, maybe I'll write one.
I have never wanted to kick an author in the face in my life, but I'd sure like to put some boot to Stephen King's puss right about now.
The first four books were so, so good-- I thought, he's going for something as ambitious and wonderful as Middle Earth, and by golly, it's just about that good, it really is! -- And then, book five was a little meh, and book six...pretty much blew.
But book seven. A kick in the teeth, and then some. Note to Mr. King: just because you say "hey, look, I'm pulling some deus ex machina out of my ass" does not make it okay. Just because you say "I know I wrote myself into the story, but it's not metafiction, because that's pretentious" does not make it any less pretentious! And then having the gall to write a snide, condescending ending note to the readers who have followed your story for over twenty years, a note in which you basically stick your middle finger sky high at them...unbelievable.
I am actually *mad* about this. A review on Amazon said something to the effect that it was as if, after falling in love with Middle Earth and Frodo and Sam and everyone, Tolkien had begun ROTK by writing himself into the story, explaining to the hobbits that they were just creations he'd come up with as a god of sorts, and then having Frodo complete his quest for no reason by making him do it over and over again in a cop-out "time loop". No grey havens for you, buddy! And let's just gratuitously kill Sam, Merry, and Pippin, while we're at it. Oh, and Sauron? He's just a crazy old guy dressed in a Santa suit. Ultimate evil, schmeevil. We'll just erase him, literally, in the cheesiest deus ex machina in the history of ever.
*exhales*
I'm going to go looking for some Dark Tower fanfic, and see if I can't find an ending more like it ought to have been. Failing that, maybe I'll write one.