The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower series #7 by Stephen King (novel #241)

NOW COMES ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER! I HAVE BEEN TRUE AND I STILL CARRY THE GUN OF MY FATHER AND YOU WILL OPEN TO MY HAND!

The Dark Tower is #7 in Stephen King's eight-volume The Dark Tower series. It is a dark fantasy set in Earth’s future, where physical and metaphysical laws are significantly altered. There is some collective memory of the old world and occasional portals between the old and new; characters do not refer to different “worlds” but different “whens”. This is the final novel in the series…sort of. The story reaches its climax and conclusion with this volume, and I believe King intended it to be final. But then, I don’t know if it was fan interest or the author’s, but he wrote another volume, which takes place between volumes 4 and 5, unofficially volume 4.5.

 

Roland Deschain is a Gunslinger, not so much a description as a title or profession: a knightly order trained in personal combat to be defenders of justice. Roland is the last of the gunslingers; more precisely, he was. He is on a quest to find the Dark Tower and to set something right that has somehow gone horribly wrong in the world that moved on.

 

In volume #1, Roland was alone pursuing the man in black. In volume #2, he picks up two companions from a different when: 20th-century America. He encounters Eddie, a former drug addict, and Susannah, a former schizophrenic and double-leg amputee. Eddie and Susanah fall in love and become Roland’s companions and gunslingers in training. In volume #3, the three risk great peril to add one more to their group, a boy named Jake, also from the 20th century. Volume #4 is a flashback telling part of Roland’s backstory. Volume #5 is a detour from the quest when they assist a farming community harassed by evil and dangerous beings. The very end of volume #5 leaves a cliffhanger: Susannah, pregnant with an unnatural child. She leaves her companions and travels to a different when to deliver the child. In volume #6 Susannah delivers her “baby” with terrifying affect, while Roland and Eddie hunt down an author in Maine named Stephen King. King hates the term meta-fiction, but there it is. Meanwhile Jake and Oy are on Susannah's trail in New York. Both missions are crucial to the quest, which is tantamount to saving the universe.

 

In the Dark Tower, the five companions: Roland, Susannah, Eddie, Jake and Oy a dog-like creature fiercely loyal to Jake are reunited back in Roland’s when. They all sense the Dark Tower is near, as well as the end of their quest. These companions are known as ka-tet in Roland’s ideology/religion: a group of individuals fated together as one pursuing a common purpose.

 

When they are first reunited. There is a marvelous moment that the reader has been yearning for:

    “Hile, Jake,” Roland said.

    “Hile, Father.”

    “Will you call me so?”

    Jake nodded. “Yes, if I may.”

    “Such would please me ever,” Roland said. Then slowly – as one performs an action with which he’s unfamiliar – he held out his arms. Looking up at him solemnly, never taking his eyes from Roland’s face, the boy Jake moved between those killer’s hands and waited until they locked at his back. He had had dreams of this that he would never have dared to tell.

As they draw nearer to the Dark Tower, the perils grow greater, threatening not only the quest, but the survival of the ka-tet.

 

My rating for The Dark Tower individually is…

 

4 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

But, none of the individual volumes stand very well on their own, so I’ll now try to summarize my feelings for the entire series. Yeah, I’m not going to read volume 4.5. I’ve been to the Dark Tower now, and I don’t care to return to a back-story detour from the past. May it do ya fine.

 

But goodness, this is a daunting task. First, I really enjoyed it. Though, I didn’t quite love it, not as I did my only other experience with King, The Stand. The Dark Tower series is very long, and I think it suffered a bit in that. I know King wanted to write an epic fantasy, and he surely did, but at times it felt a bit contrived. I don’t believe he plotted out the entire story before writing, but rather wrote “as it came to him”. And it felt like that. I know that’s his process, though my words are surely a gross oversimplification, so my insignificant observation isn’t worth much and certainly isn’t a criticism. It just wasn’t always completely satisfying for me.

 

One of the advantages of reading classics is that it is mostly dead authors. Ugh! that sounds terrible. What I mean is, if I call Dickens a talentless hack, he’s never going to read my words so I can’t offend him. By the way, I love Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities is my #1 all-time favorite novel. But I experience a little trepidation when reviewing living authors because there is a slim chance they’ll read my review. I had that happen once. So Sai King, if you happen to read this…I love you man. The Stand is one of my top 10. No really. Check out Wanderer’s Top 100. And The Dark Tower #7 is in the Top 100. We good? Cool!

 

For the Dark Tower SERIES…

 

4 out of 5 stars

 

 

But I’ve a bit more to say. King says Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was part of his inspiration. I believe that was mostly evident in just the epic fantasy part, but there were some very specific allusions: the dark tower itself, several glass orbs with communicative powers, a minor character named Thorin, a family named Took, and the hero of the tale loses not one, but several fingers, and others I’m certain I’ve forgotten.

 

Another inspiration was the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leonne, and the man with no name portrayed by Clint Eastwood. I recommend if you read The Dark Tower series to just go ahead and envision Eastwood as Roland.

 

Perhaps the most explicit inspiration is the poem by Robert Browning Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. The poem is included in an appendix to volume 7.

 

King mentions many other authors and/or their works in his narrative. Volume 7 alone included references to: Ray Bradbury, C.S. Lewis, Richard Adams, John Fowles, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Updike (who I’m reading next), and H.P. Lovecraft. I love that King does this.

 

In the beginning of the series, the apparent villain is the man in black whom Roland is pursuing. He is a recurring villain in many of King’s writings and is also known as Randall Flagg, Walter o’ Dim, the Walking Dude, and many other names. He is a wicked sorcerer, always smug and almost always smiling. Ya learn to hate this dude. But he is the mere under-villain and servant to the Crimson King. They’re a little like Saruman and Sauron.

 

King includes two separate epilogues. In the first, there is a reunion of several characters who, we’ll just say completed their part in the tale before the finish. King writes a beautiful summary to their lives:

 

And will I tell you that these three lived happily ever after? I will not, for no one ever does. But there was happiness.

 

And they did live.

 

Now the second epilogue: I wish King had not included it. The final chapter of volume 7, and hence the series does not offer complete closure. At first, I was incredulous, not yet knowing the content of the second epilogue, but thankfully, I put the novel down for the night and by the time I picked it up the next day, I’d grown to love the ending. I could imagine the rest as I like, and it was…sorta clear…that all would be well. So, even though I said I’d wished King hadn’t written the second epilogue, I also think it was brilliant. He gently scolds the readers whom he knew would demand to know “what happened after that?” King rather reluctantly gives them what they want. It was very clever, cuz I’m sure he was right. There would have been many angry betrayed fans.

 

I don’t suppose I could convince you to just skip this section? Trust me; better that way.

 

Finally, I’m glad to have read this and I will definitely read more by Stephen King. Any suggestions? Thank ya fine.

 

.

 

 

Song of Susannah: The Dark Tower series #6 by Stephen King (novel #240)

I’m nothing but Roland of Gilead’s [expletive] secretary. ~ spoken by fictional Stephen King, self-inserted into this novel by the real Stephen King

Song of Susannah is #6 in Stephen King's eight-volume The Dark Tower series. It is a dark fantasy set in Earth’s future, where physical and metaphysical laws are significantly altered. There is some collective memory of the old world and occasional portals between the old and new; characters do not refer to different “worlds” but different “whens”.

 

Roland Deschain is a Gunslinger, not so much a description as a title or profession: a knightly order trained in personal combat to be defenders of justice. Roland is the last of the gunslingers; more precisely, he was. He is on a quest to find the Dark Tower and to set something right that has somehow gone horribly wrong in the world that moved on.

 

In volume #1, Roland was alone pursuing the man in black. In volume #2, he picks up two companions from a different when: 20th-century America. He encounters Eddie, a former drug addict, and Susannah, a former schizophrenic and double-leg amputee. Eddie and Susanah fall in love and become Roland’s companions and gunslingers in training. In volume #3, the three risk great peril to add one more to their group, a boy named Jake, also from the 20th century. Volume #4 is a flashback telling Roland’s backstory. Volume #5, Wolves of the Calla, is a detour from the quest when they assist a farming community harassed by evil and dangerous beings. The very end of volume #5 leaves a cliffhanger when Susannah, pregnant with an unnatural child, leaves her companions and travels to a different when, late 20th century America to give birth.

 

Susannah is possessed by Mia, a minor demon who made a sort of reverse Faustian bargain to exchange her immortal being to become a mortal woman in order to have a baby. Mia needs Susannah, a fully human host, to carry the baby until the moment of delivery when the baby will be transferred from Susannah to Mia. Initially, Susannah fears the baby is a monster, but she learns it is the very human offspring of herself and Roland, though her pregnancy came about quite unnaturally.

 

Meanwhile, Roland, Eddie, Jake, and newly recruited gunslinger Father Callahan attempt to follow Susannah. Actually, Roland and Eddie intend to pursue Susannah, to 1999, while Jake and Callahan travel to 1977 to conduct business regarding their quest. However, the two pairs are sent to the other’s intended destination at the critical moment of passing through the portal. The gunslingers persevere and carry on, determined to do their best. This is particularly hard on Eddie, who is desperate to follow Susannah, but he soldiers on trusting Jake and Callahan to rescue his beloved.

 

In many ways, this was my least favorite volume thus far. It gets very weird; well, a King novel that isn’t weird would be weird, but this feels very contrived. I will spare further critique until I review the series as a whole.  In other ways, this volume was very good. The previous volume, Wolves of the Calla, hinted at a bit of metafiction, which comes full force in Susannah’s Song. It also contains very clever author self-insertion. King writes himself into the tale, every bit the best-selling author he is. Roland and Eddie travel to 1977 Maine on the quest business I mentioned. While there, they learn that Stephen King lives nearby and that he has written about Callahan, the newest member of their company. Callahan is in a different King story: Salem’s Lot. They find King and learn that he has written, but not yet published the beginning of The Dark Tower and created the character Roland of Gilead. He hasn’t gotten to Eddie yet. He tells them…

Yeah, The Dark Tower, it was called. It was gonna be my Lord of the Rings, my Gormenghast, my you-name-it.

And…

…you started to scare me, so I stopped writing about you.

Meeting his fictional creation in the flesh was rather disturbing to King, but Roland and Eddie convince him that he must complete The Dark Tower series. It was very clever and a bit confusing.

 

My rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

 

 .

 

 

Wolves of the Calla: The Dark Tower series #5 by Stephen King (novel #239)

As always, he [Roland] was never so happy to be alive as when he was preparing to deal death. Five minutes of blood and stupidity.

…he always felt sick afterwards.

 

Wolves of the Calla is #5 in Stephen King's eight-volume The Dark Tower series. It is a dark fantasy set in Earth’s future, where physical and metaphysical laws are significantly altered. There is some collective memory of the old world and occasional portals between the old and new, but characters do not refer to different “worlds” but different “whens”.

 

Roland Deschain is a Gunslinger, not so much a description as a title or profession: a knightly order trained in personal combat to be defenders of justice. Roland is the last of the gunslingers. He is on a quest to find the Dark Tower, and to set something right that has somehow gone horribly wrong in the world that moved on.

 

The precise meaning or mission of gunslingers is revealed gradually through this series. From volume 5:

He [Eddie] knew from Roland’s stories (and from having seen him in action a couple of times) that the gunslingers of Gilead had been much more than peace officers. They had also been messengers, accountants, sometimes spies, once in a while even executioners. More than anything else, however, they had been diplomats.

Roland himself explains more succinctly:

Fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves is our job.

In volume #1, Roland was alone. In volume #2, he picks up two companions from a different when: 20th-century America. He encounters Eddie, a former drug addict, and Susannah, a former schizophrenic and double-leg amputee. Eddie and Susanah become Roland’s companions and gunslingers in training. In volume #3, the three risk great peril to add one more to their group, a boy named Jake, also from the 20th century. Volume #4 Wizard and Glass was a flashback and Roland’s backstory.

 

Volume #5 returns to the quest, but only briefly. The gunslingers are forced to detour when they encounter a farming community harassed by evil and dangerous beings. According to their code, the Gunslingers must render aid and succor. The Calla is the farming community of Calla Bryn Sturgis, and the enemy is the Wolves: not actual wolves but seeming humans behind wolf masks.

 

The odds seem impossible, and there is a traitor in their midst, but Roland is undeterred.

As always, he was never so happy to be alive as when he was preparing to deal death. Five minutes of blood and stupidity.

 

…he always felt sick afterwards.

Besides the looming battle, an important sub-text is present. Susannah is in a delicate condition: she doesn’t show because the “chap” within her is an unnatural and evil being that will likely destroy her once released. At the critical moment of battle his arrival seems imminent, but Susannah forces it to wait by force of will. Shortly after the fight, she leaves her fellow Gunslingers and travels to a different when…the story of the next volume, Song of Susannah.

 

I’ve spoken of the four companions or the four Gunslingers: Roland of Gilead, Eddie Dean, his wife Susannah, and a boy Jake Chambers. There is one more companion I’ve not mentioned thus far: Oy, a doglike creature called a Billy Bumbler from Roland’s when. Oy becomes Jake's fiercely loyal companion. Billy Bumblers mimic human speech, but Oy demonstrates particular intelligence. His speech often conveys meaning beyond just mimicry.

 

I think a new gunslinger is joining the quest. The gunslingers encounter Father Callahan in Calla Bryn Sturgis. He is from 20th-century America but has taken up ministering to the folk of the Calla. This volume involves some traveling between different whens, and Callahan discovers a book of fiction by Stephen King from the 20th century. Callahan is disturbed to find that Salem’s Lot tells his story, causing him to question his own existence.

 

Thus far, I’ve rated each volume of the series individually and I will stick with that until the end, but I’m forming an opinion for the whole as well. This volume can probably stand on its own better than the others, though there is a maddening cliffhanger: what is to become of Susannah? But again, on its own, Wolves of the Calla is very exciting, very satisfying, and at the same time piquing my interest for more.

 

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

.

 

 

 

Wizard and Glass: The Dark Tower series #4 by Stephen King (novel #238)

What you call ‘the bottom line,’ Eddie, is this: I get my friends killed. ~ The Gunslinger

Wizard and Glass is #4 in Stephen King's eight-volume The Dark Tower series. It is a dark fantasy set in Earth’s future, where physical and metaphysical laws are significantly altered. There is some collective memory of the old world, and characters describe the present state as a world that has “moved on.” There are portals between Roland’s world and the old world.

 

Roland Deschain is a Gunslinger, not so much a description as a title or profession: a knightly order trained in personal combat to be defenders of justice. Roland is the last of the gunslingers. He is on a quest to find the Dark Tower, and once finding it presumably to set something right that has somehow gone wrong in the world that moved on.

 

Thus far, the exact purpose of gaining the Dark Tower is not precisely clear, but it does begin to come into focus in volume #4.

 

In volume #1, The Gunslinger, Roland was alone. In volume #2, The Drawing of the Three, he picks up two companions from 20th-century America: Eddie, a former drug addict, and Susannah, a former schizophrenic and double-leg amputee. Eddie and Susanah become Roland’s companions and gunslingers in training. In volume #3, The Waste Lands, the three risk great peril to add one more to their group, a boy named Jake, also from the 20th century. It is unclear if Jake will become a gunslinger. Roland loves him like a son, but nothing…NOTHING…is more important than finding the Dark Tower.

 

Wizard and Glass is more of a flashback than anything else. Roland’s companions question him about his past, his family, how he became a Gunslinger, a lost love he occasionally refers to, and the origins of his quest for the Dark Tower. Most of this volume is the four sitting around the campfire as Roland recounts his past. I can imagine that during the original publication, readers were clamoring for Roland’s backstory. This is it.

 

I didn’t have to wait for the next volume to be published, but I was just as anxious about this missing segment. It is riveting and tragic – my favorite in the series thus far.

 

After Roland finishes his story, he releases his four companions from their part in his quest, even though he knows they are critical to success. The retelling of his tale sharply highlights his sacrifice, and Roland will no longer risk everything and everyone for the Dark Tower.

 

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

There is little humor in this story, but occasional comic relief. Roland is typically stoic and even severe. He espouses a mystic notion of ka: something like fate, but when his companions use ka in argument against him, Roland's only response is “kaka”.

 

…the three of them stared at him, mouths open.

Roland of Gilead had made a joke.

 

In the world that has moved on, there are vestiges of former things though sometimes a bit confused: some ancient songs are remembered, Hey Jude, for instance; Punch and Judy shows are played now as Pinch and Jilly; derelict vehicles and buildings bear meaningless words such as Chevrolet or Citgo; people remember Arthurian legend; and there are memories of the ancient religion and Jesus, relegated to legend himself.

 

On a personal note, I felt it was time to address this treatment of Christ. As a Christian, I considered abandoning this series for this near blasphemy, but after prayerful consideration, I don’t feel that is necessary. I am not inclined to defend that decision here. I only felt compelled to profess that Jesus Christ is not a legend and never will be, no matter how the world may move on.

 

Peace

 

.

The Waste Lands: The Dark Tower series #3 by Stephen King (novel #237)

He thought he was at last beginning to fully understand what that innocuous phrase – the world has moved on – really meant. What a breadth of ignorance and evil it covered. ~ thoughts of Eddie Dean

The Waste Lands is the third in Stephen King's eight-volume The Dark Tower series. It is a dark fantasy set in Earth’s future, where physical and metaphysical laws are significantly altered. There is some collective memory of the old world, and characters describe the present state as a world that has “moved on.” There are portals between Roland’s world and the old world.

 

In volume I, the reader is introduced to the gunslinger Roland Deschain. Gunslinger is not so much a description as a title or profession: a knightly order trained in personal combat to be defenders of justice. Roland is the last of the gunslingers.

He had never been a man who understood himself deeply or cared to; the concept of self-consciousness (let alone self-analysis) was alien to him.

 

Like many things in this series, the reader gradually learns the full meaning and significance of “gunslinger.”

He was not broad-shouldered, as Marshal Dillon had been, nor anywhere near as tall, and his face seemed to her more that of a tired poet than a wild-west lawman, but she had still seen him as an existential version of that make-believe Kansas peace officer…  ~ Susannah’s perception of Roland Deschain

 

Roland is on a quest to find the Dark Tower, and once finding it presumably to set something right that has somehow gone wrong in the world that moved on. Through volume #3, the exact purpose of gaining the Dark Tower is not yet precisely clear.

 

In volume #1, Roland was alone. In volume #2, he picks up two companions from 20th-century America: Eddie, a former drug addict, and Susannah, a former schizophrenic and double-leg amputee. Eddie and Susanah become Roland’s companions and gunslingers in training. In The Waste Lands, the three risk great peril to add one more to their group, a boy named Jake, also from the 20th century. It is unclear if Jake will also become a gunslinger, only that Roland loves him like a son. But nothing…NOTHING…is more important than finding the Dark Tower.

 

I enjoyed this volume. It was exciting, like each volume thus far, but it might have been my least favorite. King has created a world of fantastic physical and meta-physical qualities that, in this volume, seemed a little incongruous and confusing. Perhaps my confusion made them seem incongruous. Nonetheless, hard to put it down. So far, each volume reaches a dangerous climax, a miraculous victory, and a brief return to normalcy, normal for Roland’s world, but no real closure. The action and desperation usually pick up quickly in the next volume, so I am off to begin volume #4.

 

My rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

 

 

In the King multiverse, I understand that there is an interconnection of most, if not all, of Stephen King’s stories. The only other work I’ve read by King is The Stand (loved it), and I’m familiar with a few others due to film. So, I won’t detect most interconnections, but I did find one between The Stand and The Dark Tower. At one point, while traveling the wastelands, Roland and company find a 20th-century newspaper that refers to a worldwide pandemic that exterminated most of humanity. The article identifies the virus as Captain Trips: a direct reference to the pandemic in The Stand.

 

.

 

The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower series #2 by Stephen King (novel #236)

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame. ~ Cort, the Gunslinger’s teacher

The Drawing of the Three is the second in the 8-volume The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It is dark fantasy, set in Earth’s future. Physical and Metaphysical laws are greatly altered. There is some collective memory of the old world, and characters describe the present state as a world that has “moved on.” King says it was inspired by two works: “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” a poem by Robert Browning, and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. It resembles Browning’s poem in some specific points and The Lord of the Rings very little, except as an epic fantasy. 

 

In Volume I, the reader is introduced to the gunslinger, whom I assume is the principal character throughout the series. He is on a quest to the Dark Tower, though it is unclear why? At the end of volume I, the mysterious Man in Black tells the Gunslinger’s fortune using something like tarot cards. The Gunslinger is to encounter three enigmatic characters: the Prisoner, the two-faced woman, and Death. The Drawing of the Three is about those encounters.

 

In each instance, the Gunslinger steps through a portal into another world, or more precisely, another time, the world as it was before it moved on: 20th-century America. In this world/time, he exists within the body and shares consciousness with the three persons. Each faces a significant crisis of their own, and the Gunslinger intervenes while simultaneously forcing them into his struggle.

 

It was an exciting read. Each character is damaged. Two are pitiable. Two will form alliances with the Gunslinger. All three are essential to his quest for the Dark Tower. It is riveting right from the beginning. Back in his own world/time the Gunslinger has an ongoing life-and-death struggle with “lobstrosities”— lobster monstrosities, which are almost comical, other than the permanent physical maiming they cause to the hero of the tale. 

 

As I mentioned in my review of Volume I, I didn’t want to commit to an 8-volume series, but I am entirely hooked and anxious to start Volume III.

 

My rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

 

.

 

 

The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower series #1 by Stephen King (novel #235)

The Gunslinger is first in the 8-volume The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It is dark fantasy, set in Earth’s future. Physical and Metaphysical laws are greatly altered. There is some collective memory of the old world, and characters describe the present state as a world that has “moved on.” King says it was inspired by two works: “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” a poem by Robert Browning, and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. It resembles Browning’s poem in some specific points and The Lord of the Rings very little, except as an epic fantasy.

 

The gunslinger, the last gunslinger is Roland Deschain. The novel opens on Roland’s miserable and seemingly hopeless trek across a bleak desert in pursuit of The Man in Black, a wizard or demon, or something else?

 

The reader assumes Roland is the good guy and the Man in Black must be the bad guy, but bit by bit, as King narrates Roland’s quest, the reader learns very little is quite so narrowly defined in the world that has moved on. The Gunslinger is at least admirable for his dogged commitment to his quest. You get the impression Roland would just as soon sit down and die, but he’s taken an oath, or bound to a mission, or just stubborn and will not relent. Also, bit by bit, the reader learns that the Man in Black is not the quest; he is just the key to Roland’s true mission, which is to discover the Dark Tower.

 

I’ve wanted to read this for years, but I’ve also been reluctant because I feared reading the first in the series would necessitate reading the entire series. My fears were realized as I am now captivated. Book #1 does not satisfy by itself. So, I’m in it for the long haul.

 

As a single volume, The Gunslinger is compelling and maddening. King references mysteries of the world that has moved on without explanation only later to give a clue or, presumably, in later volumes, sudden clarity. It's maddening and clever. I’d resent this if I felt it was only a gimmick to sell books, but King teases so masterfully it just feels like great storytelling. But it's still a little maddening.

 

My rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

 

 

There was a satisfying, albeit puzzling, allusion to a classic novel. The gunslinger sees some rabbits emerge from their holes.

 

Three rabbits came, and once they were at silflay the gunslinger pulled leather. [shot them]

 

"Silflay" is a word in Rabbit speech from the novel Watership Down that means for Rabbits to go above ground to feed. Perhaps there were allusions to other writings and I’m not well-read enough to have caught them. I did feel a little smug at getting this one.

 

.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (novel #223)

Here I was, a giant among pigmies, a man among children, a master intelligence among intellectual moles: by all rational measurement the one and only actually great man in that whole British world…

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. It is a fantasy satire, and I would also say Sci-Fi since it involves time travel. The eponymous narrator, mechanical engineer Hank Morgan, is transported from 1879 Connecticut to sixth-century England due to a heavy blow to his head.

 

It takes Hank a while to get his bearings and realize what has happened to him. He is quickly arrested and sentenced to death, but he uses his superior knowledge of science and history to convince Arthur and company that he is a powerful wizard. Merlin challenges him, but Hank always manages to outsmart the charlatan wizard.

 

Hank embraces his reputation, earns a position of authority in Arthur’s government, and sets out to improve the nation of “intellectual moles” he finds himself among.

 

…to banish oppression from this land and restore to all its people their stolen rights and manhood without disobliging anybody.

 

His aspirations are not merely scientific. Hank intends to end what, to his 19th-century mind, were outdated societal norms of serfdom, aristocracy, monarchy, judicial system, and the Catholic Church.

 

I was very happy. Things were working steadily toward a secretly longed-for point. You see, I had two schemes in my head which were the vastest of all my projects. The one was to overthrow the Catholic Church and set up the Protestant faith on its ruins – not as an Established Church, but a go-as-you-please one; and the other project was to get a decree issued by and by, commanding that upon Arthur’s death unlimited suffrage should be introduced, and given to men and women alike – at any rate to all men, wise or unwise, and to all mothers who at middle age should be found to know nearly as much as their sons at twenty-one.

 

As one would expect from Twain, there are moments of subtle and sublime humor. In much of the book, Hank and Arthur are traveling the realm incognito, and Hank, on several occasions, has great difficulty in coaching the king on how to act as a simple peasant.

 

The King looked puzzled – he wasn’t a very heavy weight intellectually. His head was an hour-glass; it could stow an idea, but it had to do it a grain at a time, not the whole idea at once.

 

Meanwhile, there is intrigue in King Arthur’s Court and treachery. There is a great contest between Hank and his few minions against the entrenched traditions of Knight Errantry, with a bit of pot-stirring by Merlin. I’ll spare the spoiler of how it ends.

 

Overall, I was disappointed. I’ve loved everything that I’ve read by Twain and wanted to read this for decades. I expected hilarious dialogue and farcical circumstances but found only a few bits to snicker at. But it wasn’t merely the doom of high expectations. I felt that Hank, and by proxy Twain, held humanity in contempt.

 

But finally it occurred to me all of a sudden that these animals didn’t reason; that they never put this and that together…

 

Well, there are times when one would like to hang the whole human race and finish the farce.

 

And yeah, there are times when I feel that way, but in this novel, that seems to be the prevalent theme. Not a fan.

 

Still, it was a read I needed to check off the list. I’m glad I read it, glad I’m done.

  

My Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars

 

 

This novel satisfies the Chess Piece category in the What’s in a Name 2023 Challenge.

. 

 

 

 

 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman (novel #216)

They [American gods] were afraid that unless they kept pace with a changing world, unless they remade and redrew and rebuilt the world in their image, their time would already be over. ~ Narrative

 

I’ve been intrigued by this novel but also dubious. Intrigued because I think Gaiman is an artist with words, dubious because it’s a bit out of my comfort zone.

 

Intrigue won out in the end.

 

This fantasy is about American gods – the little “g” gods that immigrants brought to America, both fairly recent since the discovery of the New World and ancient, the first peoples whose origins are mostly lost in prehistory. These gods, the creations of myriad cultures, are mostly forgotten, forsaken, and feeble.

 

Yet they endure in mostly human form and often as pathetic or bitter shadows of their former glory.

 

Speaking of shadows, the main character is Shadow Moon – not a god – released from prison a few days early due to the tragic death of his wife. Shadow is a strange dude. He is shaken by nothing: not the death of his wife, nor meeting gods, leprechauns, or imps; not by talking animals, nor TV shows that speak to him. These and other chimeras appear in Shadow’s world, and he treats them as casually as finding a penny on the sidewalk.

 

Like when he meets the ghost or zombie of his dead wife…

 

Her cold hand sought his, and he squeezed it gently. He could feel his heart beating in his chest. He was scared, and what scared him was the normality of the moment.

 

That was the first thing I didn’t like. I’m certain that Gaiman intended to make Shadow hardened and aloof, but he was unbelievable.

 

The story is captivating, at times almost maddeningly so. I couldn’t figure out where it was all leading and couldn’t stop until I knew.

 

It is leading to an epic battle between the old gods and the new gods of modern America: technology, capitalism, and mass marketing, which also have embodied agents. Shadow is stuck somewhere in the middle.

 

Despite the intriguing need to know what was next, I was mostly disappointed. At first, it had a feel distinctly like Stephen King’s The Stand, but as it progressed, it felt more like Gaiman’s own Sandman. Besides Shadow’s un-believability, the ending was anti-climactic. The characters were the best parts. Odin aka Wednesday, who was the other main character, Shadow's new employer, leader of the old gods and the one calling for the war.

 

They made me. They forgot me. Now I take a little back from them. Isn’t that fair? ~ Wednesday

 

Pain hurts, just as greed intoxicates and lust burns. We may not die easy and we sure as hell don’t die well, but we can die. ~ Wednesday

 

There was Shadow’s cellmate Low Key, who turned out to be Loki. Most of the gods went by monikers that were subtle clues to their mythical identities. I caught a few, but many were lost on me. Gaiman did his research, and he can certainly write.

 

My Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars

 

I’ll read more by Gaiman. I enjoyed Coraline and Stardust, but Sandman not so much. But one of the best things I’ve read by Gaiman is his foreword to the 60th-anniversary edition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

 

 

 .