The Dark Tower

[Throughtheaurora]

After you've finished the series you'll see loads of really annoying things they didn't finish. Like who Bango Skank. Does anyone know the significance of nineteen? Is it because it is Roland's nineteenth time around?

After reading the blurb on WaG I thought I would be really annoyed at it and desperate to find out what's happening to the now story. But as I started to read the flashback I got really into it so the end result was that I didn't bother about the now story much.

[Anoria]

Re: Wolves of the Calla

I'm in the middle of the climactic final (what I think is final) battle, but had to stop and facepalm and tell someone about it. Oh my GODS sneetches. Never did any idea of their origin cross my mind until I saw the label. If I ever meet Stephen King I'm going to have to slap him.

Also, while I'm here: I totally knew who was wearing the ring that Callahan saw in the laundromat. Called it in the air. I win.

Eddie is more <3 than ever.

I'm gonna go and read the last 23 pages now.

Edit: last 23 pages read. I think the appropriate term for this situation is "~*iguana*~."

Edit again:

Anyone else have trouble not lapsing into Calla talk - thankee-sai/you say true and so on?

I give you an excerpt from tonight's conversation with the Boy:

[00:32:44] telcontara177: I think in references and circles, but I don't talk that way so much anymore because I have different sets of things to reference with each person I talk to
[00:33:08] telcontara177: but the running themes in books are a lot like inside jokes, so I ken those well

[Kimberley]

I love The Dark Tower series,possibly my favourite series after HDM. Its so difficult to choose a favourite character, I love them all! My favourite book is definatley The Wastelands, especially the bit with Jake trying to find his way through the door into Mid World again.
I am currently on my 3rd reread of them, and I keep managing to spot little things that I didn't notice before. Its a great series!

[Aurone]

I am right now reading the first book, the Gunslinger, for the second time since I had to return it half way. I am right after they've finished up with the Oracle.

[David F]

Edit again:

Anyone else have trouble not lapsing into Calla talk - thankee-sai/you say true and so on?

I give you an excerpt from tonight's conversation with the Boy:

[00:32:44] telcontara177: I think in references and circles, but I don't talk that way so much anymore because I have different sets of things to reference with each person I talk to
[00:33:08] telcontara177: but the running themes in books are a lot like inside jokes, so I ken those well

In Shetland, yer 'ken's and 'aye's are ten a penny, which made it all the more strange. Talking with wife at the time of reading, I very nearly slipped into 'you say true' on a few occasions.

[Anoria]

Last book I read was The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King, part of the Dark Tower. I suppose it was good, just very strange.

That one was strange, I agree. My favorites so far are the first and fourth, since Roland is in my opinion the best part of the whole thing. I think I'm going to read the first six over again before I start the seventh, just so I catch all the little hints and references and doublings-back of the story before I head into the last section.

I just finished Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which I started a day or two ago after frequent and repeated urgings from Raphael. There were a lot of twists. I predicted some of them, but not all, which is the perfect balance, and it was deliciously dystopic. Now I'll understand the Whuffie (which I always wanted to read as Whuffle) system at Penguicon that much better.


Merged from "Currently Reading" topic

[Roll_with_it]

Hmm, i'm rather un-blown away by the series. I like them and all, theyy jkust aren't very gripping. Do you think I should persevere with them? I don't want to spend all my money on 5 more books that just aren't that great. What do you think about the possible J.J Abrams film/tv adaption?

p.S: Your avatar is great.

Merged from "Currently Reading" topic

[Anoria]

Hmm, i'm rather un-blown away by the series. I like them and all, theyy jkust aren't very gripping. Do you think I should persevere with them? I don't want to spend all my money on 5 more books that just aren't that great. What do you think about the possible J.J Abrams film/tv adaption?

p.S: Your avatar is great.

I'm not sure what to tell you, if you're not blown away by now. I personally find them riveting, but I've known for a long time that I have a special place in my heart for cynical, solitary men who are good at killing things (Aragorn, Roland, Malcom Reynolds, Lee Scoresby though he's a bit more cheerful), and that may be what keeps me going with the series. I would suggest checking The Waste Lands out of your local library and giving it a try, at least. There are riddles.
I will tell you that the whole grand plot gets at once more epic and more tightly interwoven as the story progresses. The parallel histories are reminiscent of HDM (and scores of other fantasy/scifi books out there I'm sure) a little bit, too.

The Duck of Doom appreciates your admiration

[furbaby]

I don't want to spend all my money on 5 more books that just aren't that great.

I know just what you mean. When I got them, I think I took advantage of a bookshop offer (2 for 3? Buy 1 get 1 half-price? something like that), and the others I picked up in charity shops.

[Aurone]

I got Book 3: Wasteland on hold at the Library, assuming whoever checked it out before me ever cares to return it (it was due back last week).

[Max]

Love the books, but am I the only one who thinks that the embedded stories from Roland's past (especially the one that forms the bulk of Wizard and Glass) are way better - certainly much better written - than the main narrative? Could just be my taste.

[Darragh]

In a whopping deal coming together quickly, Stephen King, Imagine Entertainment and Weed Road are in discussions to make a screen trilogy and TV series out of King's epic novel series The Dark Tower. Akiva Goldsman will write the script, Ron Howard will direct it, and his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer will produce with Goldsman and King.

Universal is in talks to acquire a package that included the books, and the attachment of the team behind the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code. Both Universal –where Imagine is based—and Warner Bros—where Goldsman’s Weed Road banner is housed—have been vying for the project.

The Dark Tower is King’s answer to JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and the author will get his own screen trilogy. Like Tolkien, King's epic novel series is set in an otherworldly but familiar world, and involves a quest to save the world. The series spanned seven novels that involved Roland Deschain, the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers who exists in a world that has an Old West feel, but which is infused with magic. He is on a quest to find the Dark Tower, a structure that holds the key to the nexus of all universes. He encounters many allies and enemies along the way, as the world crumbles around him.

The book series was once developed by JJ Abrams and his Lost cohorts Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but they never cracked it. Goldsman, who has become a prolific producer, was the catalyst for securing the rights from King, and he brought it to Howard and Grazer. It was not immediately evident how large the transaction was, but King has often optioned his works for little or no money upfront, and reportedly he bestowed the rights on Abrams for $19, a number which has significance in the novel series. King is working on an eighth novel, one that doesn't change the ending, but deals with characters and a storyline that falls midway in the series. CAA is working on the deal.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/04/stephen-kings-dark-tower-set-for-film-trilogy-tv-series-by-beautiful-mind-trio

Might be good.