Mark Lawrence's Reviews > The Dark Tower

completely u derstand your review. The overwhelming feeling I got, during the later Dark tower books, was King was rushing to wrap up the series. Not, I believe, because he wasn't enjoying the world he created but possibly due to recognising his own mortality after the near fatal car accident. I don't think he wanted an unfinished saga to be part of his legacy. With all that said, none of the later books are poor and i certainly found a lot of enjoyment in them.

Perhaps the Crimson King is another Wizard of Oz, like Marten/Flagg in Wizards and Glass?

The first two books are the only ones I have read and both had good and bad points but probably not enough to make me want to read the third.

Volumes 3 and 4 were my favorite. A curious ending and certainly memorable though not what one would expect. :)

(SPOILERS for the Dark Tower)
I agree with most of the points you make in your review.But I think it was right after all to give us a weak Crimson King. You are a hero on a long quest, you fight all the armies and the monsters and the temptress and the archenemy and at the end you storm in the throne room to get the throne from the evil king and..how is this king? In games and modern literature it's usually the ultimate boss, the hardest fight. But should it be? Isn't it more realistic to have a weak king, an easy task after you've beaten the elite imperial guard? And in older literature I think the final fight isn't usually the hardest. In the Trojan war, after all this heroic fighting, they just take the city with a trick. It's just a reference in the Odyssey and other works, nothing more. And in Odyssey itself, Odysseus just fights a bunch of unwanted guests who have little to no experience in battle. Compared to Cyclops, Laestyrgones, Scylla and Charybdis it's...weak. But then again it's normal. Why should there be an ultra difficult battle in Ithaca? In real life, one may struggle in the university for example, failing exams again and again until there's just an easy exam between him and the graduation. Then he wonders "was that all?" and is officially a graduate.

(extra SPOILERS for the Emperor of Thorns)
After reading the ending of EoT I thought "Hey, that kinda reminds me of the Dark Tower". I like saying the Broken Empire is like Hawkmoon with a Dark Tower ending. So, I expected a 4/5 star review of the DT. But I agree the final book is kinda weak compared to other parts of the series. The Wizard, in my opinion, is the zenith of the series. But there are worse parts too. The Wolves or Susanna, for example.

The last few books were a little uneven in quality (still entertaining), but the ending was fantastic. My sister still puzzles me, she loved this ending to pieces (as did I).... on the other hand she is still peeved with (Broken Empire spoiler!)(view spoiler)[ Jorg's death (hide spoiler)] at the end of EoT. She bitched for days about it (still a sour topic) even if the series is one of her favorites.

I agree with some of your points but they don't overshadow the brilliance of the book, or series, for me. Crimson King was pretty lame. I was more disappointed by how easily Randall Flagg/The Man In Black was destroyed by Spider-Baby. He was an amazing force in The Gunslinger. So much so that King ignored his death scene when he wrote the rest of the series and retconned a new scene in subsequent releases. Then he's totally outgunned by spider-baby.

Ultimately, though, Roland is what carries the story and his character never falters. That's what makes the ending so brutal.

I've often felt that the final 3 books of this series suffered as a result of King deciding, "Ok, I'm gonna finish this series right now in one fell swoop." All three books therefore have a similar feel and suffer many of the same flaws. King beats some of his plot points into the ground, especially just how oh-so-significant the number 19 is. Having said all that, I love this series and I think the ending is perfect. I was a bit surprised by how fast King dealt with RF and the CK, but everything about the final two books was fast and brutal.

Looking forward to more of your books, Mark!

Excellent insight. Frames up exactly how I felt.

Man great review. Had similar feelings about all these anticlimaxes, and the value in the journey! Good to know that u stand in these paths ;)

Very much agree with your review man.
I also agree with Relstuart above, 3 and 4 just blew me away. King is, ofttimes, the freaking master, or master of freak... Or, something like that.

I know this might sound a bit harsh but the editor should have sent the manuscript back, forcing King to rewrite the ending. I loved the series to death, the last page of TDT pissed me off to no end. Aye, I rated the book 5 stars anyway. :-)

I agree with you that the journey is (often) more important than the destination. And although for an author it can easily be a hit-and-miss thing, I believe that King ended his cyclopean epic brilliantly. In fact, I like the ending so much (what with its somewhat Asian philosophy of repetition) that for me it completely made up for the anticlimaxes you mentioned in the spoiler section. Still, thanks for your review; I enjoyed it.

I recently finished The Gunslinger and have been on the fence about continuing the series. I'll take your advice and keep going.

I thought this one would have brought the series back for me, if it wasn't for the Crimson King, and the end of Flagg. That being said this one brought back a lot of what made the DT great, Roland's fate, the whole part with the vampires in the resturaunt, bringing more of the DT mythology to the story, and more parts where the story actually plays up on Roland's role of legendary last gunslinger/knight errant man with no name. 2,5 and 6 were missing these elements. 1 and 4 were it for me.

Zach wrote: "I recently finished The Gunslinger and have been on the fence about continuing the series. I'll take your advice and keep going."

The Gunslinger is the weakest installment in the series, I think. Read on, you won't regret it. :-)

Sorry, I just thought the whole series was pure brilliance.

Santa Claus with Quidditch Snitches....

I was furious for quite some time after I finished The Dark Tower. Even now I just can't forgive King for that ending. The series as a whole was a mixed bag. At times I found myself feeling like it was superbly crafted. At others I couldn't help feeling like King was in a hurry to finish and must have side to himself "Whatever... That'll do!"
The most frustrating series of books I have ever read, full of genius and laziness In equal measure, I'm glad I read them, but I haven't been able to pick up anether of his books since!

Spot on analysis. I could not agree more!

I'm reading the third book I always thought how this book would end my friends told the ending was amazing cant wait to read

Probably my favorite series ever and what convinced me that King is a great author, not just a good author.

Honestly, I'm not to big a fan of this series. I wish that I was was, but I just could not get into it. I read the first three books and I could not handle the fourth, it's over one thousand pages long and I did not want to read it just to have read it, I wanted to read something I enjoy.

Thanks for your summary - it actually help me understand the ending better - much appreciated!

Very well put

😂😂 I shall not set foot in the scintillating lands of spoiler-land, then!

I did a massive eye roll when he put himself in the story. Finished the series I’ll more than likely never go back to it. But then again you could literally draw a line through every part in which SK himself is in the book and not read those parts and you wouldn’t miss a beat. Just thought it was a dooshy move on Kings part

This perfectly sums it for me as well...

While I liked the reviewers viewpoint, I have to agree with the majority. After taking the incredible journey with Roland, Oy Suzanna and the rest, I was distraught by the ending. At the time I remember thinking, “I could have written a better ending”. But the series was one of the absolute best I’ve ever read.

Glad you enjoyed the journey Mark! The only book I just couldn’t connect with was “The Wolves of the Calla”. I found that a REALLY hard slog for the most part (this was borne out in the fact that of all the books in the series it was the one that took me the longest to read). So after I post this I’m going to hunt down the book on here to see if you wrote anything for that, as I’m now intrigued as to what your thoughts on it were.

Loved the first 3 books in the way they all so seamlessly flowed in to one another. But for me, my absolute favourite in the series was “Wizard & Glass”. That was a sheer joy from beginning to end, and then I’d say “The Dark Tower”. It felt like a truly befitting end to the saga. (I chose not to read on, but I have an idea what may have led ahead, and having that sense of agency after spending so many years with these characters really felt important and was a deft move by King I felt).

So now I gotta ask - will you be reading “The Wind Through the Keyhole”? I hope so! :)

Long days, pleasant nights Sai Lawrence!

Paddy wrote: "Glad you enjoyed the journey Mark! The only book I just couldn’t connect with was “The Wolves of the Calla”. I found that a REALLY hard slog for the most part (this was borne out in the fact that o..."

Read it years ago - and have reviewed! :D

Wolves of the Calla ... I quite liked it, but the ending was pants and the way the bad guys were overcome ... silly.

I always likened the Crimson King to the wizard in the Wizard of Oz - we expect this great and mighty sorcerer at the end of our journey, but get a somewhat pathetic old guy instead. I kinda liked that we got the unexpected anti-climax, as sometimes that is just how life goes. But, Ka is a wheel… maybe the satisfying ending came on the next time around! I like to think so!

I loved this series as a teen… how did the opening chapter go? ‘The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.’ .. almost as good as the opening line of a book about warrior-assassin nuns. ;)

Just received my copy of The Gunslinger, need to get going on this series ASAP. I've heard it reads like one big fever dream...