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Christian Book Store - The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, Book 7)
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List Price: $35.00
Our Price: $3.95
Your Save: $ 31.05 ( 89% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Donald M. Grant/Scribner
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781880418628
ISBN: 1880418622
Label: Donald M. Grant/Scribner
Manufacturer: Donald M. Grant/Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 864
Publication Date: 2004-09-21
Publisher: Donald M. Grant/Scribner
Release Date: 2004-09-21
Studio: Donald M. Grant/Scribner
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: MAGNIFICENT CONCEPT: The symbolic trials and tribulations of an author's quest to write and complete his creation: his book.
Comment: Stephen King the author of the Dark Tower series is of course the Gunslinger: from the first volume to the seventh. In one of the most amazing symbolic epics ever written Stephen King has documented the loneliness and creative efforts of an author in his quest (the trials and tribulations) to create and finish a new novel.
The Man in Black is none other then his yet undefined creative genius who sets out the plot at the end of the first volume via the Tarot Cards by prophecizing the drawing of the three. To chase the Man in Black across the desert (mind) is essential to the beginning of any creative effort. This is why the Man in Black dies at the end of the first volume because his roll is complete in defining the limits and boundries of the new creative work.
Modred or should it be read 'MORE DREAD' as in the author's fear of not completing his task, which is a demon child always lurking in the background of any author's mind.
Ed Dean is the addict turned gunslinger, which is Roland or should it be read 'Roll On' or 'dragon = drag on' that can not stop creating until completion come, which is addiction in exclusion to the existence of all other aspects of creation: family, friends and society at large. This is the reason that Roland twirls his fingers as if to say 'get on with it' or 'roll on'. Keep the narrative going to get the work finished.
Susannah is symbolically the psyche of King, which has a one track mind: hence the wheel chair. This is why Ed Dean and Susannah fell in love with each other: two sides of the same coin (addiction and obsession).
Jake represents symbolically the 'youthful spirit' of the new creative idea of the new volume to be written whether it be King's first creative effort CARRIE or the last book he ever writes. Remember that it was Jake that was first pulled into Roland's world.
Oy seems to represent 'literary licence', which is the perogative of every author.
The Crimson King is 'Stephen King' incarnate locked out of what goes on in the tower because the book being written, regardless of its title, is the DARK TOWER, which takes on a life of its own. The book therefore writes itself and the author is helpless to do other then to fling spite and hate (slings and arrows) at the genius, which Roland represents but to no avail. The author forever dreams of writing his book (ruling the universe) unfettered by those seemingly unnecessary appendages: Ed, Susannah, Jake and Oy but the laws of creative writing locked Stephen King out on the balcony of his own genius preventing him from inserting his input. The book has taken on a life of its own and the author is powerless to prevent its journey to completion and he can only look on as his work completes itself.
As Roland: Stephen King, is snatched once again into that final room at the top of the DARK TOWER as if he is in an eternal time-loop he dreads the future of yet reliving the creative juices that flows through a writer as he journeys to the end of yet another book. Stephen King has written more then forty books and each time he had to relive this time-loop: the birth and completion of yet another book. He can not stop or retire from writing, for his mind will not allow it, for it is after all who he is: the last gunslinger.
Customer Rating:
Summary: King's Magnus Poopus
Comment: * Spoilers*
I had a negative first impression after reading DT7. I happened across this site and was surprised at the high number of five star reviews the book received. I saw a lot of "Brilliant Ending" and "Masterpiece" descriptions so I figured that all these people can't be wrong. Maybe I just missed some of the finer points of the book. Maybe my initial impression was off base. So I read the book again. Turns out it wasn't any better the second time. The same glaring flaws I noticed from my first reading were still there after the second. From the hastily written demise of Flagg to the numerous instances of deus ex machina, this book screams "rush job."
I honestly don't see how any true fan of SK can feel anything but cheated after reading the confrontation or lack thereof between Roland and Flagg. I mean this guy is featured in a number of SK's books. The mere mention of his name had been known to cause death and insanity. The Dark Tower series even spends six books painting Flagg as Roland's arch nemesis. Based upon all this build up, one would expect an epic battle for the ages between Flagg and Roland right? Well think again. Flagg is easily killed by a newly born spider boy who is a-hungry. This is like Darth Vader getting killed by an Ewok before his epic battle with Luke. Then there is the Crimson King, the most powerful being in the world, one would expect that his death would be difficult right? Nope, he gets erased. How about Susan? She endures all these hardships, from physical pain to mental anguish, to reach the Dark Tower. Even the death of her lover cannot not deter her from reaching her goal. Then when she can actually see the Dark Tower she decides, " You know what its not worth it anymore, I am going home." Uh okay. I wont even go into the parts where SK writes himself into the story.
Maybe I expected too much after reading the first four books. SK piqued my interest with hints here and there of a world that had moved on. A world that was linked to ours but one that was different and dying. A world where paper and glass were considered luxuries. I remember the first time I read about the Rose in the vacant lot and the little suns it contained and thinking that King would have some way of tying all this together and it would be magnificent. To build suspense King even tells us that not everyone, including Roland, will make it all the way to the Dark Tower. After, reading DT4, I was also hoping to learn why or how the world moved on and the fate of his childhood friends. Back then, the possibilities were limitless.
Well, I guess the joke was on me, the constant reader. Turns out the whole series was about Roland forgeting to pick up a horn. I guess I mistakenly thought the series would be about the Rose, the Beams, the Tower and the different levels of existence. I guess SK changed it up in the middle.
To be fair, taken by itself DT7 is not a bad book. But when taken in the context of the series, the new ideas just don't mesh very well. Major charcters get killed by minor characters, the ka-tet jumps back and forth between different worlds and time periods, its all rushed. If you read the first four books you will notice that SK used to take his time to develop his characters and ideas. After the accident, SK relented to those who wanted him to hurry up and finish the book. It took him forteen some years to write the first four books and two years to write the last three. Its not too hard to notice the drop off in quality.
I am giving this book one star because it pretty much ruins all of King's books that came before it. Books like Insomnia and Rose Madder are pretty much worthless. Now that we know Flagg is a scrub, the Stand loses its most of its luster. This stinker just killed King's entire body of work. I can only hope he redeems himself and decides to rewrite the last three DT books, at least last two, like he did with The Stand.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Low Water Mark
Comment: DT7, for all the reasons already given in the other one-star reviews, is the low-water mark of King's career.
I thought he'd hit bottom with Dreamcatcher, the first King book I'd ever read with not a single character I gave a flying damn for, but DT7 is worse. It's even worse than DT6, which was worse than DT5.
I've long felt that IT, for all the book's many flaws, was the high water mark. So perhaps it's no accident that any real tie in with IT is pretty much absent from the Dark Tower series, despite the turtle talk.
Even though I cut the man some slack-- if I'd been shredded and pulped in a terrible accident and subjected to a year of incredibly painful rehab, I would certainly have been badly shaken and so preoccupied with my own mortality that I would have been in a rush to get the series over with too, and the pressure from his Constant Readers to finish it was obviously enormous. I've never been invested in this series the way many of King's fans are, so I didn't lose any sleep over the steady decline in quality that started to show its face after DT3.
There's no way to know how it would have turned out if the accident had never happened, but personally I think he simply over reached himself with the series. Character-driven fiction will only take you so far. It was enough to carry him through IT for over a thousand pages. But not enough to carry through seven volumes, even if every volume was not a doorstop.
He may not be through just yet. Dumas Key is not a great King book, but its a helluva lot better than a travesty like this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What a ride.
Comment: In reading this entire series, I could write a 10 page essay. I will spare you all that. This book is a greating ending to the series. It will explain just about everything and even tug on your heart-strings. So be prepared for the final roller coaster that is The Dark Tower Series.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Comment: I started reading the series 3 months ago, and have since not been able to put down any of the books. I read some of the reviews before every book (but not enough to spoil anything for me), and was starting to get nervous with some of the critisism I encountered. By the time I got to book 7, I was terrified it might suck. Fortunately, I was blown away with nothing but positive vibes for the ending.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
Part of me wishes I had never read Coda (then my ending would have been the Tower door slamming shut behind Roland-which in my opinion would have been sweet enough). But, one has to finsh what they start, and so I read on (after 4000 plus pages, I wasn't going to stop so close to the end). It's kind of what I expected. That is, a bit of a downer with a possible positive (the horn). But WTF, that's a King novel. The ending had to be dark. Remember folks, its a Dark Tower, not a White Tower.
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Editorial Reviews:
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All good things must come to an end, Constant Reader, and not even Stephen King can make a story that goes on forever. The tale of Roland Deschain's relentless quest for the Dark Tower has, the author fears, sorely tried the patience of those who have followed it from its earliest chapters. But attend to it a while longer, if it pleases you, for this volume is the last, and often the last things are best. Roland's ka-tet remains intact, though scattered over wheres and whens. Susannah-Mia has been carried from the Dixie Pig (in the summer of 1999) to a birthing room -- really a chamber of horrors -- in Thunderclap's Fedic; Jake and Father Callahan, with Oy between them, have entered the restaurant on Lex and Sixty-first with weapons drawn, little knowing how numerous and noxious are their foes. Roland and Eddie are with John Cullum in Maine, in 1977, looking for the site on Turtleback Lane where "walk-ins" have been often seen. They want desperately to get back to the others, to Susannah especially, and yet they have come to realize that the world they need to escape is the only one that matters. Thus the book opens, like a door to the uttermost reaches of Stephen King's imagination. You've come this far. Come a little farther. Come all the way. The sound you hear may be the slamming of the door behind you. Welcome to The Dark Tower.
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