I've finished "The Dark Tower" by Stephen King. I found this series to be clever and rich and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it.
King writes that the Dark Tower series was based on a poem by Robert Browning called "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came". The text of that poem can be found here.
The Dark Tower series, I think, is two things: It is a study in the evolution of Stephen King as a writer being written, as it was, over the course of many years. It is also a study in the afterlife. Who can know what lies beyond? Perhaps we're all virtual, collections of on-bits and off-bits in some alien teenager's equivalent of sim-earth. Perhaps the Hindus are right and fate is a wheel which we work over the course of many lifetimes to escape. Perhaps the Christians, Jews and Muslims are right and all has been created by an omnipresent and all powerful God. Or perhaps, as King imagines, the truth is some combination of all of these. If you liked "The Matrix" because it called into question your preconceptions about reality, then you'll love "The Dark Tower" series.
Recently one of King's short works which I liked came out on film. "The Mist" from "Skeleton Crew", a collection of short stories, was released to theaters in November. I haven't seen the film, but I do think that it would be quite difficult to make a movie out of the "Dark Tower" series. There's just too much going on, and it's all interweaved too tightly.
Finally, I do think that the conclusion of the series is not as strong as it could be. When I arrive at the end of this wild tale I see that King has ended with a bit of humor and a final allusion back to Browning's poem that puts the entire series in context as merely a literary exercise. It's not a work of philosophy, it's a work of fiction.
King writes that the Dark Tower series was based on a poem by Robert Browning called "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came". The text of that poem can be found here.
The Dark Tower series, I think, is two things: It is a study in the evolution of Stephen King as a writer being written, as it was, over the course of many years. It is also a study in the afterlife. Who can know what lies beyond? Perhaps we're all virtual, collections of on-bits and off-bits in some alien teenager's equivalent of sim-earth. Perhaps the Hindus are right and fate is a wheel which we work over the course of many lifetimes to escape. Perhaps the Christians, Jews and Muslims are right and all has been created by an omnipresent and all powerful God. Or perhaps, as King imagines, the truth is some combination of all of these. If you liked "The Matrix" because it called into question your preconceptions about reality, then you'll love "The Dark Tower" series.
Recently one of King's short works which I liked came out on film. "The Mist" from "Skeleton Crew", a collection of short stories, was released to theaters in November. I haven't seen the film, but I do think that it would be quite difficult to make a movie out of the "Dark Tower" series. There's just too much going on, and it's all interweaved too tightly.
Finally, I do think that the conclusion of the series is not as strong as it could be. When I arrive at the end of this wild tale I see that King has ended with a bit of humor and a final allusion back to Browning's poem that puts the entire series in context as merely a literary exercise. It's not a work of philosophy, it's a work of fiction.
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