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.
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