4 ms·

Agreed. The Dark Tower series works very well as independent books exhuding their own exotic charm. As a canonical series, it's a jumbled mess of barely connec

Agreed. The Dark Tower series works very well as independent books exhuding their own exotic charm. As a canonical series, it's a jumbled mess of barely connected themes tied together only by Kingcs own ego (maybe that's the point, but its still narcissistic). At some point he even tries to take credit for Harry Potter and Star Wars, albeit in a vague "everything's connected" type of way. I tell anybody who wants to read the series to simply read the first book, and the last chapter of the last book. He's a brilliant writer, but his strength lies in leaving some things to mystery, instead of micromanaging his worlds.

CamperBob2 2y ago
I tell anybody who wants to read the series to simply read the first book, and the last chapter of the last book. I don't know about that. The whole idea behind the series is to serve as a recounting of Roland's mistakes along the way, and how he progressively refines his course at each iteration. Cutting to the proverbial chase just leaves the reader (and Roland) stuck in the cycle forever. You have to suffer alongside him (and his companions) to get it, I think.
- tetris11 2y ago
  The suffering becomes gratuitous after a certain point (spiderman? really?), so I think I just rejected that aspect and focused more on what made the Gunslinger so good: a slow relentless chase across an unknown world where the lines of good and evil are neither defined nor relevant.
  - CamperBob2 2y ago
    Yeah, valid point there. I almost called it quits a couple of times myself. By the end it was obvious that King was writing from a place that is uncomfortably familiar on a personal level. "Christ, I'm so tired of this project. If I were less conscientious, I could just walk away from it. Let's chop out some features and link in some third-party libraries so we can ship it already."

CamperBob2 2y ago

I tell anybody who wants to read the series to simply read the first book, and the last chapter of the last book. I don't know about that. The whole idea behind the series is to serve as a recounting of Roland's mistakes along the way, and how he progressively refines his course at each iteration. Cutting to the proverbial chase just leaves the reader (and Roland) stuck in the cycle forever. You have to suffer alongside him (and his companions) to get it, I think.

tetris11 2y ago
The suffering becomes gratuitous after a certain point (spiderman? really?), so I think I just rejected that aspect and focused more on what made the Gunslinger so good: a slow relentless chase across an unknown world where the lines of good and evil are neither defined nor relevant.
- CamperBob2 2y ago
  Yeah, valid point there. I almost called it quits a couple of times myself. By the end it was obvious that King was writing from a place that is uncomfortably familiar on a personal level. "Christ, I'm so tired of this project. If I were less conscientious, I could just walk away from it. Let's chop out some features and link in some third-party libraries so we can ship it already."