"Read the books, disappointed with ending"
Yeah when it started getting Meta and up itself my enjoyment slumped, only finished it as I'd been given the box set. I did like the looping events idea but felt was mishandled |
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I love it.
On first read through, I HATED the ending. Was actually genuinely angry that after waiting years and years for each to be released (I got in to it when only up to Wizard and Glass had been released), that such a complex layered story (it's woven in to his other works too) ended like that. However, on the second, and subsequent, read throughs, I absolutely love the ending, and think it's dark and devastating and hopeful and exciting.
The end is even foretold if you think about it, we are told over and over through the series "ka is a wheel" .... spins round back to where it starts only to go all over again.
As for it being meta - if you've as successful a career as Stephen King then I reckon you're allowed to be a little vain and insert yourself in your own story. I liked the coincidences-that-aren't-coincedences nature of the story. |
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It wasn't the ending I disliked.
I gave up on it as soon as King placed himself in the story as a character and then admitted after that he had done that to get back at critics.
Up to that point it was my favourite ever book series. |
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"I love it.
On first read through, I HATED the ending. Was actually genuinely angry that after waiting years and years for each to be released (I got in to it when only up to Wizard and Glass had been released), that such a complex layered story (it's woven in to his other works too) ended like that. However, on the second, and subsequent, read throughs, I absolutely love the ending, and think it's dark and devastating and hopeful and exciting.
The end is even foretold if you think about it, we are told over and over through the series "ka is a wheel" .... spins round back to where it starts only to go all over again.
As for it being meta - if you've as successful a career as Stephen King then I reckon you're allowed to be a little vain and insert yourself in your own story. I liked the coincidences-that-aren't-coincedences nature of the story. "
I'm not a huge horror fan so never really read much of Stephen's work so while I can't deny his success he hasn't banked enough credit with we for it to be personally worth the risk/payoff.
I agree on reflection the ending isn't as vile as people make out, in fact series like the Wheel of Time (I'm a big fan and have a theory how the TV show and the books are just separate spins of the wheel) and Battlestar Galactica "All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again” also use it to good effect. |
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"
I gave up on it as soon as King placed himself in the story as a character and then admitted after that he had done that to get back at critics.
"
So what if it was a dig at critics? He does it in a clever way imo. Twins, twinning, and pairs of opposites joined/linked, are a running theme throughout. Two Jakes. Each beam is a linked pair. Two mothers (Susannah/Mia). In Wolves of the Calla most of the characters are twins. And so so so many more. It's fitting that Roland and Sai King are twins. Of course they are the same, but also not the same.
I also think it was a message that he as the writer (remember he wrote the first one as a teenager, and it's mentioned/linked in almost all his other works, which is a LOT), is as much as a sl@v3 to ka as Roland is, as all the characters are. Like it or not, the wheel turns and they must turn with it. |
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"
I gave up on it as soon as King placed himself in the story as a character and then admitted after that he had done that to get back at critics.
So what if it was a dig at critics? He does it in a clever way imo. Twins, twinning, and pairs of opposites joined/linked, are a running theme throughout. Two Jakes. Each beam is a linked pair. Two mothers (Susannah/Mia). In Wolves of the Calla most of the characters are twins. And so so so many more. It's fitting that Roland and Sai King are twins. Of course they are the same, but also not the same.
I also think it was a message that he as the writer (remember he wrote the first one as a teenager, and it's mentioned/linked in almost all his other works, which is a LOT), is as much as a sl@v3 to ka as Roland is, as all the characters are. Like it or not, the wheel turns and they must turn with it. "
For me it was the same as watching a TV show or movie and suddenly someone with a fake Irish accent appears.
You are immersed in a world of fantasy, oblivious to all going on around you and then out of the blue you are ejected from that world by something so jarring and forced that you can never return to it. |
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"
For me it was the same as watching a TV show or movie and suddenly someone with a fake Irish accent appears.
You are immersed in a world of fantasy, oblivious to all going on around you and then out of the blue you are ejected from that world by something so jarring and forced that you can never return to it. "
We obviously interpreted it in different ways. I feel like an author meeting a character he believes he created but turns out to be real, actually sounds exactly like fantasy  |
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By (user no longer on site) 3 weeks ago
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"I know nothing of the Stephen King series, but my mind went straight back to Dark Towers and Wordy and "Magic, Magic E..."
Just me then."
You and me both...
And Dark Towers was the scariest thing on TV when I was 8...
Look, what you can see, at Dark Towerrrrrrsssss! |
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I feel the exact same. First time I was a bit put off by it, but on subsequent readings I love it. Although I very almost took his advice and didn't read it. I wonder if anyone ever held out and left it 🤔 |
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By *ild_oatsMan 2 weeks ago
the land of saints & sinners |
I bought the The Gunslinger years ago on a whim years ago after reading the opening line in a book shop
For years I avoided the other books in the series. As I felt the first book was a complete story in itself.
I’ve now read all of the books and feel that you have to read them several times over to fully understand all the layers.
I once got a Fab meet after telling this joke in a message turned out she was a massive Dark Tower fan.
Why did the dead baby cross the road? |
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