The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King

Quite a few years ago, I started The Dark Tower series, with quite high expectations of the books to say the least. Afterall, if you ever talk to fellow King fans, many of them will tell you that the series is their favorite by the author. Personally, I felt that was hard to believe. My personal favorite by King is The Stand, which I think is the ultimate book about good versus evil. I love the way King develops his characters and is just so genuine in his writing, particularly in this novel. Plus, at the time, The Dark Tower series wasn't even complete! It just left you hanging!!


Now that the series is finally complete (as of 2004 . . . I'm just now getting around to finishing it!) and I have finished the series myself, have I changed my mind? NO!! I still think that The Stand is still my favorite by this author (and one of my favorite books overall). However, with that said, I do not think that the series was horrible though. It was still very good! So good in fact, that I would rank it in my top 5 favorites of King's books!

It has been recently that I have read the last two books in the series, Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower. All of the books are so interconnected, that at first, it was hard for me to remember all the minor characters that turn out not to be so minor or all the details that come into play in the series. (That, combined with the fact that the last two books are a total of 1258 pages is the sole reason why it has taken me so long to post book reviews these days!!) However, once I got back into the series from taking a couple of years off from it, I could not put the book down! I had to know . . . Does Roland and his ka-tet make it to the Dark Tower? I will not answer that for you here! That you will have to find out for yourself!

The thing that I absolutely love about King's books is their interconnectedness. As you are reading, you may discover that a character is so familiar to you. It very well could be because you have already met this character in another one of King's stories. And, this series is the ultimate place for just that! You will meet characters and face details from many of his works, including The Stand, Salem's Lot, It, and many more. You may even encounter the author himself in the story! This series has been a part of King's life for so long and has been lurking in the back of his mind, that I think he had a hard time not incorporating all these characters and details somewhere! Overall, it may seem like a very daunting series to read . . . it may seem a little out there or weird . . . afterall, it is basically a combination of two genres (western and science fiction), two of which you rarely see together . . . but when it comes down to it, completely worth the read in the long run!

Many of his readers may have been disappointed by the ending. Some may have said, "WHAT!?!?!?" Some may have even been downright angry! As for me, I loved it! It just made sense!! If you were to ask me why, I would not be able to explain why it made so much sense to me. I just did!!