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Posted By: Magus Oct 27, 2004 - 05:28 pm

I finished this book the other day. It's an excellent book that I would recommend to everybody. Of course, I DO recommend you read the four that come before this, and follow it up with the two that follow it. I had to right what I thought of a book I've read sionce the school year began in English as an assignment. I think that this book, this series, is long overdue for a topic. I will post another for Wizard and Glass tonight. I'll follow it up with ones for The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three and The Wastelands when I write them. But, as of right now, this is all that I have. It's not perfect and doesn't encorperate the complexity that this book deserves, but I think it will suffice for now. Well, here it is:

******WARNING: SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!*********

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Posted By: Magus Oct 27, 2004 - 05:29 pm

This book, written by Stephen King, is the fifth installment of his seven volume “Dark Tower” series. It follows the epic quest of Roland Gilead, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean and Jake Chambers as they search for The Dark Tower.
I rated this book a 1, the highest available score of the S.S.R. scale, for several separate reasons.
The characters, as developed and cultivated over this and the last four volumes of the series, are very deep and realistic. While they are all unique and imaginative in their own right they are also very real, very human. They are even more believable as human beings then many people I have met.

The setting of the series is Mid World, the center of all reality, a world that has “moved on”. This world is highly imaginative. It is not all that separated from our own and yet could hardly be further from it. It has evolved from when the “old people” left. It’s culture shows evolution in some aspects to ours and “de-evolution” in other aspects. Certain mindsets are the kind a person would expect in the earlier days of America. Religions prosper in many forms, from a version of Catholicism that has changed from when the world has moved on, to new imaginative polytheistic doctrines and sects.

Another character that shows himself in this book is Father Donald Callahan. He is the “false” priest who ran off from Jerusalem’s Lot in Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot. This books features a lengthy side-story of his life after the events that transpired in ‘Salem’s Lot that show insight and do much to develop his character.

The plot of this story is also quite extraordinary. It vaguely resembles the film The Magnificent Seven. As in the film Roland Gilead’s party, his “ka-tet”, of Gunslingers comes to help liberate a village, Calla Bryn Sturgis, from the terror of The Wolves. The Wolves, once a generation, raid the town and take one of every twin, for which all of the birth’s result. The suspense drawn out throughout the book is mind boggling. From first coming to the village to planning out their offensive to take; from searching for the traitor in their midst to dealing with Susannah’s demon-child growing inside of her; from Father Callahan’s story to Tian’s Grand Pere’s. Stephen King masterfully draws out the suspense and ends it in the battle against the Wolves of the Calla, for which they are triumphant in. Then, just as all seems fine, Mia, Daughter of None, the alternate personality of Susannah, slips away from the party and escapes into a magical doorway linked to all worlds, all dimensions. The key to this door, the alternate key that Roland possesses, is a book, ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.

This book deserves a rating of a one. It has masterful characters, developed richly and fully throughout the course of the book. It has a marvelous character-driven plot with countless turns. It has a masterful style about it written by today’s best selling author.