Stephen King's Dark Tower (preamble)

[rachelmanija]

I want to write more about these books at my leisure, but for anyone who is wondering if I was still reading or what, I finished the sequence, and I'm really glad I did. It's weird and flawed and probably would have been better if King hadn't taken it in some of the directions he did, but I agree overall with Swantower's assessment: it really is

Comments

[swan_tower]

I am very much looking forward to discussing the endings with you. (I'm about to go to a con, so depending on when your post goes up, I may be late in chiming in -- but keep an eye on that space!)

[tool_of_satan]

Are the two endings in the same book?

[rachelmanija]

Yes. There's a stopping point which is partly happy and partly open-ended, and King (who is openly narrating by that point, the books get very metafictional after a while) says you can stop there and have a happy ending, or keep going. The second ending doesn't contradict the first, it just shows what else happens. It's definitely darker but (in my opinion) not in a way that invalidates what went before. It also is somewhat open-ended, and leaves some space for interpretation. Actually, both endings could be interpreted in either extremely dark or fairly happy ways, or something in between.

[tool_of_satan]

Did you read the extra 8th(?) book?

[rachelmanija]

Not yet!