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[BennyBlanco]

Ran out of podcasts to listen to at work, and noticed Spotify added audiobooks last month. Over the years many people recommended this to me so I started listening to the first book. I listened to the entire thing in like 3 days, and thought it was quite good but not great. A little disjointed and stilted and mildly confusing. Then I ran out of listening time on spotify and bought the paperback of the 2nd book. I found a copy of the audiobook online and also listened to it at work. Whoever did the audiobook trying to do Detta’s voice was absolutely hilarious. Immediately I was hooked when he got disfigured by a lobster. Then he’s in a shootout with mobsters in 1970s NYC. Just a deeply weird book but I liked it a lot. I’m like 75% of the way through the 3rd book now and I’m completely hooked.

Of course; it’s a Stephen King book so there is some weird sexual shit with a demon raping Susanna and Rolan banging an oracle for information. Why are you like this, Stephen? Does it keep getting better? Because I feel like it is progressively improving as he finds his rhythm with the story. I like the way it is linking his weird fantasy world with ours. It’s all very well done.

 

[Danteyke223]

Really depends on whether you care more about the Journey than the ending. People notoriously hate this series's ending for a reason. I liked the journey, but I can understand why the ending pissed people off.

 

[FunkMiller]

If I were you, I'd stop after book four. The series takes a TREMENDOUS dive in quality after that, thanks to King nearly being killed in a road accident, and letting his ego get the better of him.

First four books feel like they are written by a completely different (and much better) writer. Last three feel like something written by an overindulged celebrity who's too famous to be edited properly, or be told when he's doing something very, very wrong and stupid.

However, you're about to get to Blaine. And Blaine is a pain, can you say thankee.

The Dark Tower cycle could have been one of the single greatest, most daring, and imaginative fantasy series ever told, with a gigantic scope and depth... but it got knocked of the rails by a freak accident, and a man who lost his way. Oh discordia.

 

[DKehoe]

If I were you, I'd stop after book four. The series takes a TREMENDOUS dive in quality after that, thanks to King nearly being killed in a road accident, and letting his ego get the better of him.

First four books feel like they are written by a completely different (and much better) writer. Last three feel like something written by an overindulged celebrity who's too famous to be edited properly, or be told when he's doing something very, very wrong and stupid.

However, you're about to get to Blaine. And Blaine is a pain, can you say thankee.

The road accident has a huge impact on the direction of the story. To an extent that people would think you’re joking if you told them what happened.

 

[FunkMiller]

The road accident has a huge impact on the direction of the story. To an extent that people would think you’re joking if you told them what happened.

Still can't believe all of these years later nobody sat him down and told him to stop.

 

[BennyBlanco]

The road accident has a huge impact on the direction of the story. To an extent that people would think you’re joking if you told them what happened.

Well now I’m really curious. I have also heard the ending sucks but it’s really hard to end such a long series.

 

[DKehoe]

Well now I’m really curious. I have also heard the ending sucks but it’s really hard to end such a long series.

The story has this multiverse aspect to it with characters from King's other stories crossing over. For example the villain from The Stand is a villain in The Dark Tower and a character from Salem's Lot pops up later on. Eventually, the characters of The Dark Tower realise they are in a story being written by Stephen King, the books you the reader have been reading. They then also realise that they have to cross over into our world to save King from being killed in a road accident, the actual one which did happen to King. They also need to get him writing The Dark Tower books again after he had stopped doing so. King has sections talking about the guy who hit him and what a moron he is.

The two of them have pages on the Dark Tower wiki. You can see King's here and Bryan Smith's here.


I actually like the very end of the series, as in the last couple pages. But how it wraps things up before then is very messy to say the least.

 

[DKehoe]

Still can't believe all of these years later nobody sat him down and told him to stop.

Considering the guy who hit him died from a drug overdose you'd think they'd have maybe suggested reigning in that stuff. Like how he compares the guy to Sheemie.

 

[FunkMiller]

Well now I’m really curious. I have also heard the ending sucks but it’s really hard to end such a long series.

You might be better with it as you’ve had a warning. All of us who waited expectantly for years, and had to wade through that ego and alcohol driven horseshit were not happy

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I read the whole thing a good decade ago.
Book 1, a younger and different King trying to do something different. Slow, but good.
Book 2, maybe my favorite. A real page-turner, I read it all in a day.
Book 3, slower and ends in a cliffhanger. Good, but you couldn’t pay me to remember what happens in it.
Book 4, it’s possibly the most important one but good Lord is it too long for its own good. This is from Steve’s most unrestrained period, he’d write one bloody tome after another without batting an eye.
Book 5, the last truly good one. Shorter and to the point. A bit anti-climatic, but the last one where you feel the story is still going somewhere instead of collapsing onto itself.
Book 6, huh. If you can get over the self-indulgence, it’s not bad. Thankfully he kept it short.
Book 7 tries to bring it all together and mostly succeeds. There’s a couple of very useless scenes that of course are very long and could be cut out completely, and the ending is a bit of a letdown. But let’s face it, the man isn’t one for long sagas. His style changes so much already between book 1 and 2. If not for the accident, he may just have dropped the whole thing a long time ago.

 

[jason10mm]

I liked it quite a bit, even if it is wacky and weird for most of it. King is prolific enough that I can forgive some extreme diversions every now and again. He is still pumping out a book a year I think, though I've fallen off reading him since maybe 11/22/63 or thereabouts.

His 70's and 80's output though, JFC he was a TITAN!!!

I kinda wonder if he will be remembered in 150 years or so, or be yet another high volume seller that gets completely forgotten in time.

And I still want my Christine and Fast and Furious cross over, how has this not happened yet????

I'll accept Firestarter and Stranger Things as well.

 

[cash_longfellow]

As a HUGE Stephen King fan, I just could not get into the series at all for some reason. I tried several times. Could be just the genre flip that throws me off.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

My take on the series:

1 - Weird and confusing. Definitely can tell it's written by a novice writer. Kinda cool concepts
2- Much more confident storytelling. Really dug this book
3 - Amazing. Top notch stuff. Amazing cliffhanger
4 - Didn't like this one. Started out well enough, but the backstory felt like a huge detour and it wasn't even the part of Roland's background that I wanted to hear about.
5 - It took me 7 years to read this. I think I was burned out from reading 1-4 (especially 4). I think it's fine. Liked seeing the ka-tet start to grow
6 - Wut.
7 - Pacing on this novel is nuts. It has the story content of 3 novels. Felt super rushed, but the ideas were dope. I didn't like the final battle, but i love the epilogue and I'll fight anyone who says it wasn't fitting.

 

[Cohetedor]

Loved this series and how it tried to bring characters and places and themes from most of his books all together in one place.

There are 8 books, Wind Through the Keyhole was written after and takes place between books 5 and 6 if I remember correctly.

 

[RJMacready73]

Well now I’m really curious. I have also heard the ending sucks but it’s really hard to end such a long series.

A lot of Kings books had awful endings, some worse than others but one that stood out for me was the Dome book, fuck me you couldn't make it up, he can write incredible characters and situations and really get you into these worlds and I just think he gets to the end and he hasn't a fucking clue how to wrap em up so just comes up with whatever shite pops into his mind so he can close it and move on, from A Buick Eight is another WTF ending, I then give up on King and haven't ready anything of his in years

 

[BennyBlanco]

A lot of Kings books had awful endings, some worse than others but one that stood out for me was the Dome book, fuck me you couldn't make it up, he can write incredible characters and situations and really get you into these worlds and I just think he gets to the end and he hasn't a fucking clue how to wrap em up so just comes up with whatever shite pops into his mind so he can close it and move on, from A Buick Eight is another WTF ending, I then give up on King and haven't ready anything of his in years

Pet Semetary ending is 10/10 imo. But yeah it’s hard to write good endings.

 

[Doom85]

Pet Semetary ending is 10/10 imo. But yeah it’s hard to write good endings.

I felt The Shining conclusion was pretty satisfying. As much as I like the film, the book version of Jack is more layered and interesting to me.

I liked that the movie version of Dr. Sleep paid homage to the ending of The Shining book, even if some of the stuff in the hotel felt fanservice-y (the movie was better in the first 2/3 where it went its own direction instead of trying to be Shining 2).

I don’t remember disliking the ending to It. Maybe because I had fallen so in love with the main characters and their stories that the ending execution almost didn’t matter to me. Honestly, while the movie Part 2 was weaker than Part 1 due to some campy moments, I’m glad it cut superfluous stuff like Bill’s wife (the bicycle ending was less goofy sounding in the book, but in actual live action it looked ridiculous to me) and Beverly’s ex and just focused on the group’s friendship. But it was Bill Hader who was the surprise MVP, I knew he’d nail the comedy of course, but his emotional moment portraying Richie crying over who they lost to Pennywise in the final battle was so well done.

But yeah, Pet Semetary is my favorite book of his. That book is just pure perfection. I wish there was a full adaptation, both film versions are enjoyable but cut out a lot especially from the first half of the book which made me really care about the leads and their bond with their next door neighbors (I do find it funny that based on previews people thought the new movie was going to be “lighter” compared to the book/first film and complained, yet if one actually watches it the ending makes it clear that it is an even darker ending than the book/first film. Oof).

 

[What A Shame...]

I loved the franchise until it shits the bed with the multiverse and real-world stuff.

It's to be expected from King though. He proudly admits to writing on the fly and not brainstorming. This was most evident to me when reading The Stand. Great book that slowly builds towards an epic battle between good and evil, and then ends with the laziest fucking deus ex machina I've ever seen in a story.

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

I read the whole series back in 2009, almost 15 years ago, I loved it for the most part though the series is tragically flawed.

Basically the first 3 books are all fantastic, then the 4th book stops everything cold for a very long flashback story which was well done, but I thought it was a bit of a slog (it probably goes down easier if you don't read them all back to back like I did), the 5 book bored me to tears, once again it stopped things cold for a sort of Seven Samurai side story that I just thought was boring, book 6 is just the bridge 5 to 7, not bad but nothing that stands out too memorable, thankfully I thought the final book was solid and I was pretty pleased with the ending for the most part.

Overall it hits some very remarkable highs despite the lows and is well worth reading, I used to be a hardcore Stephen King fan, sadly the guy has left me cold with his recent politics, yet The Life of Chuck was one of the best things he's ever written, so he's still got it, I still kind of hope we might get a proper Dark Tower book 8 one day.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

My favorites in the series are books 1 and 4. The last book had an interesting ending though

I still need to read Wind Through The Keyhole

 

[DGrayson]

I loved it. Its not Lord of the Rings level of consistent quality and the end does get a bit wacky but I really enjoyed it. Would be impossible to adopt that into any sort of visual medium, be it a prestige TV show or a movie series, its just too insane.

 

[Lunarorbit]

If I were you, I'd stop after book four. The series takes a TREMENDOUS dive in quality after that, thanks to King nearly being killed in a road accident, and letting his ego get the better of him.

First four books feel like they are written by a completely different (and much better) writer. Last three feel like something written by an overindulged celebrity who's too famous to be edited properly, or be told when he's doing something very, very wrong and stupid.

However, you're about to get to Blaine. And Blaine is a pain, can you say thankee.

The Dark Tower cycle could have been one of the single greatest, most daring, and imaginative fantasy series ever told, with a gigantic scope and depth... but it got knocked of the rails by a freak accident, and a man who lost his way. Oh discordia.

The road accident has a huge impact on the direction of the story. To an extent that people would think you’re joking if you told them what happened.

My excitement for a series has never taken a plunge like it did from book 4 to book 5. I was so frustrated by some of the character decisions that I never finished the book or series.

I love the idea that he had for the ending; the execution and self masterbatory nature of it sucked though

 

[RJMacready73]

Pet Semetary ending is 10/10 imo. But yeah it’s hard to write good endings.

Agree, some of his books have incredible endings and I don't recall having any issues with his earlier work, I just found his later works to be a bit meh when it came to the endings with some being downright insulting

 

[FunkMiller]

I love the idea that he had for the ending; the execution and self masterbatory nature of it sucked though

I never had an issue with

Spoiler: Massive spoilers for the ending.

the cyclic nature of the end of the story. It felt very fitting.

But I don't think I've ever read a worse climax to a book than one where the great and powerful evil entity of the entire series is reduced to a weird, scrawny little shit, dressed like Santa Claus, standing on a balcony, screeching 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE' at the protagonist, and throwing snitches from Harry Potter. Then he gets killed because a guy that turns up in the last few pages of the entire saga rubs him out with a pencil eraser.

Just typing that dumb fucking shit out gives me a headache.

And no, I don't give King a pass because he was being all 'meta' and commenting on his own inability to end a story well. It's just fucking shit, and should never have been allowed by his editors.

 

[DKehoe]

I never had an issue with

Spoiler: Massive spoilers for the ending.

the cyclic nature of the end of the story. It felt very fitting.

But I don't think I've ever read a worse climax to a book than one where the great and powerful evil entity of the entire series is reduced to a weird, scrawny little shit, dressed like Santa Claus, standing on a balcony, screeching 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE' at the protagonist, and throwing snitches from Harry Potter. Then he gets killed because a guy that turns up in the last few pages of the entire saga rubs him out with a pencil eraser.

Just typing that dumb fucking shit out gives me a headache.

And no, I don't give King a pass because he was being all 'meta' and commenting on his own inability to end a story well. It's just fucking shit, and should never have been allowed by his editors.

Yeh I really like the cyclical aspect and that King tells the reader"hey, you can stop reading right here and be happy. If you go further you will get an answer but it's not going to leave you satisfied" Then when we choose to keep going we get that reveal. We the readers are Tower junkies like Roland, driven by the obsession of what's at the top rather than being able to leave at a more satisfying point like Susannah was. It's about being able to enjoy the journey, not just fixate on the destination and is a great final bit to end things on. The film teasing that maybe this was going to be the cycle where he finally gets it only for it to shit the bed and not deliver that was kind of funny on a meta level.

But yeh the Crimson King stuff was so poorly handled. Flagg was the much more compelling villain of the story but he gets dispatched by Mordred who then doesn't amount to much himself either. So then we're left with The Crimson King, supposedly this evil of all evils. There's something to the idea of the mundanity of evil and that his own pursuit of the Tower made him this pathetic creature. But the overall execution was so badly done. Rather than Roland dispatching him, or him being helped to do so by the ka-tet, the key figure is a guy we have no real investment in who resolves things in a manner that makes it clear King was just pulling it out of his arse.

 

[Dev1lXYZ]

I started reading the Dark Tower books in the 9th grade circa 1990. I recall reading the first book being a slog, but I was encouraged to read the second. The second book, The Drawing of The Three was really what kept the series alive. When The Wastelands released, I got it the first week that it was out. It was neat because it had some inlaid glossy pictures of some the scenes in the book. The hook of the book to me is how much it feels like a b tier science fiction/western movie. The first half of the book is a lot like the first book with a better pace, but not as groundbreaking as the second. The latter half of the book literally goes off the rails. It has a very wacky for the time. My friends hated the book because they thought that the book started too slow then got stupid. I would add that the opinions of most readers back then was the same. In fact, we considered The Wastelands the end of the series. Personally, I really enjoy the first three books and in all honestly, I think most people stop on The Wastelands.

During the pandemic I decided to pick up Stephen Kimg again and read all of the books in the series. King more or less builds a connected universe with his other works in the rest of the books. It’s genius because I felt inclined read most of King’s back catalog and discovered some real gems, especially his early books like Salem’s Lot. IT is a must read as well. I would suggest reading The Stand if you haven’t already. Finish the first three Gunslinger books, pause, and then read The Stand before book IV.

 

[Cohetedor]

I started reading the Dark Tower books in the 9th grade circa 1990. I recall reading the first book being a slog, but I was encouraged to read the second. The second book, The Drawing of The Three was really what kept the series alive. When The Wastelands released, I got it the first week that it was out. It was neat because it had some inlaid glossy pictures of some the scenes in the book. The hook of the book to me is how much it feels like a b tier science fiction/western movie. The first half of the book is a lot like the first book with a better pace, but not as groundbreaking as the second. The latter half of the book literally goes off the rails. It has a very wacky for the time. My friends hated the book because they thought that the book started too slow then got stupid. I would add that the opinions of most readers back then was the same. In fact, we considered The Wastelands the end of the series. Personally, I really enjoy the first three books and in all honestly, I think most people stop on The Wastelands.

During the pandemic I decided to pick up Stephen Kimg again and read all of the books in the series. King more or less builds a connected universe with his other works in the rest of the books. It’s genius because I felt inclined read most of King’s back catalog and discovered some real gems, especially his early books like Salem’s Lot. IT is a must read as well. I would suggest reading The Stand if you haven’t already. Finish the first three Gunslinger books, pause, and then read The Stand before book IV.

I would also throw in Eyes of the Dragon before book 4. It was my first Stephen King novel I read in fifth grade and still one of my favorites.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I started reading the Dark Tower books in the 9th grade circa 1990. I recall reading the first book being a slog, but I was encouraged to read the second. The second book, The Drawing of The Three was really what kept the series alive. When The Wastelands released, I got it the first week that it was out. It was neat because it had some inlaid glossy pictures of some the scenes in the book. The hook of the book to me is how much it feels like a b tier science fiction/western movie. The first half of the book is a lot like the first book with a better pace, but not as groundbreaking as the second. The latter half of the book literally goes off the rails. It has a very wacky for the time. My friends hated the book because they thought that the book started too slow then got stupid. I would add that the opinions of most readers back then was the same. In fact, we considered The Wastelands the end of the series. Personally, I really enjoy the first three books and in all honestly, I think most people stop on The Wastelands.

During the pandemic I decided to pick up Stephen Kimg again and read all of the books in the series. King more or less builds a connected universe with his other works in the rest of the books. It’s genius because I felt inclined read most of King’s back catalog and discovered some real gems, especially his early books like Salem’s Lot. IT is a must read as well. I would suggest reading The Stand if you haven’t already. Finish the first three Gunslinger books, pause, and then read The Stand before book IV.

Problem is, The Stand makes most of King’s later production redundant. When King goes all out to paint the full picture, he really does. First 200 pages of The Stand is incredible stuff and worthy of a full novel. Same for the setup of old Derry in It, it’s just too good. In the 90s you could only read those two books from him and be perfectly content with not reading more. Wizard and Glass (DT IV) just feels kinda like the same thing, but in a fantasy world so it’s not as powerful.

It’s still definitely worthy to go back to his earlier books instead, when he wasn’t so often repeating himself. Salem’s Lot, Pet Sematary, Carrie, The Shining are all still fantastic. Night Shift is still one of the best collections of short stories you can read.

 

[Dev1lXYZ]

I would also throw in Eyes of the Dragon before book 4. It was my first Stephen King novel I read in fifth grade and still one of my favorites.

That was my very first Stephen King book that I was allowed to buy. My mother was an avid reader who hated SK because she thought he wrote vulgar pulp. (Yes, please!) I was heavily into fantasy ala AD&D, and The Lord of The Rings back then and caught her in a good mood that day and she let it slide. The cashier at B. Dalton even brought it to my mother’s attention that it had subject matter that was adult! .

My mother paused, looked over at me and smiled. It was purchased along with a new book mark.

I really liked the book and my friends and I ran many an adventure where we had incorporated things from that book into our AD&D campaign.

I haven’t read it in many years and need to revisit it. I remember a lot of the plot from reading it so many times as a kid.

I agree that reading it would be a nice supplement to Wizard and Glass as well as it really is integral to both the Roland and Flagg.

 

[Dev1lXYZ]

Problem is, The Stand makes most of King’s later production redundant. When King goes all out to paint the full picture, he really does. First 200 pages of The Stand is incredible stuff and worthy of a full novel. Same for the setup of old Derry in It, it’s just too good. In the 90s you could only read those two books from him and be perfectly content with not reading more. Wizard and Glass (DT IV) just feels kinda like the same thing, but in a fantasy world so it’s not as powerful.

It’s still definitely worthy to go back to his earlier books instead, when he wasn’t so often repeating himself. Salem’s Lot, Pet Sematary, Carrie, The Shining are all still fantastic. Night Shift is still one of the best collections of short stories you can read.

The Stand is King’s magnum opus, but it’s a hard read for most as a first book. It’s not difficult to understand, but King goes into deep characterization to the point of boredom for many. It bored me on my first attempt in the 9th grade. I want to say I stopped reading it and bought IT, which was very long too, but has better pacing overall to me. At that time,my friends and I were into Ghostbusters RPG and our squad ended up visiting Derry in our campaign.

 

[jason10mm]

The Stand is King’s magnum opus, but it’s a hard read for most as a first book. It’s not difficult to understand, but King goes into deep characterization to the point of boredom for many. It bored me on my first attempt in the 9th grade. I want to say I stopped reading it and bought IT, which was very long too, but has better pacing overall to me. At that time,my friends and I were into Ghostbusters RPG and our squad ended up visiting Derry in our campaign.

Which version of The Stand we talking about here? While I really enjoyed the longer version, I think the abridged, original release, whatever version is superior for moving faster.

For my money IT and perhaps The Talisman are peak King (guess he has an assist with The Talisman) for being novel, inventive, engrossing, lengthy, but never overstaying their welcome, and ending pretty well. Though I think the core ideas in his earlier "straight horror" books were much more robust and iconic (Cujo, Christine, Salem's Lot, Carrie, etc) . I'm really struggling to pull any strong impressions from his later stuff though the writing is usually pretty good in them.

 

[Dev1lXYZ]

Which version of The Stand we talking about here? While I really enjoyed the longer version, I think the abridged, original release, whatever version is superior for moving faster.

For my money IT and perhaps The Talisman are peak King (guess he has an assist with The Talisman) for being novel, inventive, engrossing, lengthy, but never overstaying their welcome, and ending pretty well. Though I think the core ideas in his earlier "straight horror" books were much more robust and iconic (Cujo, Christine, Salem's Lot, Carrie, etc) . I'm really struggling to pull any strong impressions from his later stuff though the writing is usually pretty good in them.

For many years, the abridged The Stand was all that one could find. That was the first version that I exposure to and it maintains a decent pace. When the unabridged version came out, it was like a James Cameron Director’s Cut in a sense. It drove the pace way down and made the book so much longer, that it’s a much greater time investment. He also changed some things around if I remember correctly too. I think the audiobook of it is right at 40hrs, and I could read it in about 20-25 versus the abridged being maybe 12-15 hours of read time, These days, I just listen to the audiobook of the unabridged, which is excellent. The narrator starts off feeling a bit robotic, but you get used to it.

I’ve never read The Talisman. The plot sounds very interesting reading a synopsis, in fact I read the premise and made myself stop after the first paragraph. I think I found my next Audible book to use my built up credits on.

 

[sankt-Antonio]

I loved it, all of it. Even the wacky stuff. It was a highly entertaining read.