August 27, 2001

10:08 AM

Dark Tower V Prologue availableat Stephen King's official website. Apparently, King is "hoping to press on to the very end and publish the remaining volumes all at the same time. That probably means three books, one of them fairly short and one of the other two quite long." If he continues the increase in quality that he established with Wizard and Glass, we'll be in for quite a treat.
posted by tallman (23 comments total)

Oh, I forgot to mention, the plot of the Prologue is somewhat reminiscent of Kurosawa's classic film, Seven Samurai (these farmers are losing more than their crops, however), though I can't decide if this is necessarily a bad thing... Also, I'm not sure I trust King to end the series right, as the story has grown very complex and I've often been disapointed by his endings. Regardless, I look forward to these new volumes, which I will no doubt enjoy:) Ka will tell; Ka like a wind...
posted by tallman at 10:12 AM on August 27, 2001

crap.. that means i'll have to read the first four again... BAH! i just got done reading the first four Harry Potters too! these are some long books, too...
posted by lotsofno at 10:18 AM on August 27, 2001

It's about time. How many volumes are there supposed to be in all?
posted by Cavatica at 10:53 AM on August 27, 2001

lotsofno: Each of the DT books came with a section that went over what has happened in the previous books. You can just read up on that. Wizard and Glass has been one of his best stories ever. I read W&G whenever I'm between books, just to pass the time. Geat story telling.
posted by inviolable at 11:51 AM on August 27, 2001

The series was always to be 7 books. Having bought my first DT back in '87 when Drawing of the Three was first released as a limited edition by Donald M. Grant, I've been in a constant state of want on DT for entirely too long.
posted by jburka at 12:23 PM on August 27, 2001

Wizard and Glass was good? I'm going to have to revisit it because I couldn't make it through the first time. I really haven't cared for that series beyond The Gunslinger, which I thought was a fantastic standalone novel. And I'm worried about the dark forboding figure at the end of Book III (I think). Is he who I think he is? Oh, God help me.
posted by daveadams at 12:25 PM on August 27, 2001

dave: if you're thinking he's Randall Flagg, you're right. Otherwise: no, however did you get *that* idea? ;>

I don't like the gunslinger novels very much myself, as they feel too close to sorcerers-and-princes fantasy fluff for my taste, but for an old-skool King fan, they are fun to read through for the sake of picking out the places where they intersect with his other novels.

in fact, a lot of his work comes back to Roland and Flagg. End of Insomnia, anyone?
posted by Sapphireblue at 12:45 PM on August 27, 2001

Sometimes seems like everything he's done since Drawing of the Three comes back to DT. Which I would have enjoyed more if the other three books had even been on the horizon. So now I'm happy. Thanks for the link.
posted by matt8313 at 12:55 PM on August 27, 2001

omg... my friend and I were just wondering last nite when the next book was coming out. For some reason I was thinking that S.K. was going to finish off the last three books all at once.

So many of his books have common threads running through them. I think thats one of the things that I like most about his books. The weird feeling that i get when i run across a crossover thread.
posted by jbelshaw at 1:14 PM on August 27, 2001

its true that the talisman with peter straub was the prequel, right?
posted by JackthaStripper at 2:01 PM on August 27, 2001

"If he continues the increase in quality that he established with Wizard and Glass, we'll be in for quite a treat."

you mean disgust and irritation as you watch one of your favourite series on the planet swirl down the crapper?*


*imho.
posted by jcterminal at 2:17 PM on August 27, 2001

dave: if you're thinking he's *****, you're right. Otherwise: no, however did you get *that* idea? ;>

FOR FUCK'S SAKE. A little spoiler warning next time, yeah? SOME OF US HAVEN'T READ IT YET.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 3:57 PM on August 27, 2001

Sorry - I've had my morning coffee, and I still can't get over it. You owe me a plot twist, MKC. Erotic fiction will be fine.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:13 PM on August 27, 2001

oh! fyi: stephen king has decided that the Dark Tower itself is the nexus of all the worlds he has written about.

Someone want to build a visual aid?
posted by jcterminal at 4:40 PM on August 27, 2001

Visual Aid?

Here you go!

Anyone else haunted by this game?

bah-bah! bah-bah! *47 Brigands?! Noooo!*

That and Talisman. Yeesh, did I waste some good years.

k
posted by Kafkaesque at 5:05 PM on August 27, 2001

wizard and the glass was fantastic! at first, i thought it would be lacking because *possible spoiler* it didn't really continue the storyline too much, but getting to know roland and his old pals was great.

and damn the talisman was long... i heard he's working on writing the pre- or sequel to that... but i dunno how that would be the prequel to the dark tower series... maybe it's because i haven't read it recently... bah, i can't even read the prologue yet, i'm going to my local library and getting the first four books tomorrow.
posted by lotsofno at 5:24 PM on August 27, 2001

kafk you freak! i meant SK books. :P

(neet link tho. so SK writes books based off of board games?)
posted by jcterminal at 5:32 PM on August 27, 2001

Nah, King's Dark Tower comes from a Robert Browning Poem entitled "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"

Pretty big poem.
posted by Cavatica at 6:46 AM on August 28, 2001

if you're thinking he's *****, you're right

Arrrrg. The one thing I hate about most of Stephen King's stuff is the dependence on the supernatural. Now, that's not a bad thing, but it just seems like the rules in the worlds in SK's novels are never established well enough for me to buy into the supernatural stuff. All the evil/good stuff in The Stand was totally unbelievable. The ending of It seemed totally ridiculous. And some of his books just seem to depend on essentially deus ex machina for resolution. How boring.

Misery is by far my fave King novel (of the ones I've read) because the horror and the resolution have nothing to do with the supernatural. Gerald's Game was fantastic, too, until we discover the ... well, I don't want to give anything away.

I got the impression that The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon might not contain much of the supernatural, but I didn't finish reading it. Anyone want to clue me in?
posted by daveadams at 9:42 AM on August 28, 2001

The one thing I hate about most of Stephen King's stuff is the dependence on the supernatural.

That's a pretty big "one thing".

And some of his books just seem to depend on essentially deus ex machina for resolution.

Some of everything depends on d/e/m; everything that springs to mind, though--Carrie, Salem's Lot, Christine -- EGAD! I've read them all, up to Insomnia but can't remember a thing! -- generally seems to avoid it pretty well.
posted by claxton6 at 10:06 AM on August 28, 2001

Clax, like I said, supernatural doesn't bother me. I dunno, it's been a while so I can't think of any specific examples to back up my argument. Maybe I'd just read a bad string of them, but Insomnia, It, The Stand, Dark Tower beyond book one, the resolution of Gerald's Game, and Desperation just didn't satisfy. They all just seemed like cop-outs. Either in building to the climax or in resolving it.

I know I enjoyed The Dark Half, Needful Things, a lot of his short stories (the one with the highway trap in the desert was great), Misery... I know I've read more but I can't remember them! Heh.

Am I just expecting too much? Maybe the dependence on the supernatural bothers me because in every other way, King's books seem resoundingly authentic. I thoroughly enjoy his character development and storytelling capabilities, but the bigger story so often disappoints me.

Maybe I just can't explain it. :)
posted by daveadams at 12:33 PM on August 28, 2001

I thoroughly enjoy his character development and storytelling capabilities, but the bigger story so often disappoints me.

No, that sounds reasonable. There are times when the supernaturalness works and times when you just say wtf.

Personally, I liked It and The Stand, but that was more for their bulk (heh heh) than for their resolutions.

As for the Dark Tower, I personally think they've been declining in quality, steadily. Or, not so much quality, as steadily losing what it was that made the first one so special, maybe a kind of iconic-ness that's gotten lost, maybe necessarily, as he fleshes it out more. There's still interesting stuff in there, but for the number of years I waited for the last one, I have no memories of reading, and no desire to revisit it.
posted by claxton6 at 1:12 PM on August 28, 2001

I have to agree:
I bought the limited edition hardbound when I was younger, and really thought "the gunslinger" had merit. It was actually a well written, decent story. I have watched for and read every book in the series since, due more to the fact that I have to finish reading anything I start, no matter how tiresome and terrible it becomes (wheel of time, anyone?)

I felt physically ill after wizard and glass. I think I will sleep better pretending that King decided never to write again after "the gunslinger", and maybe someday someone will pick up the gauntlet and do something worthwhile with it.

At the rate the Stephen king novel factory pumps out this stuff, does anyone actually think it is good? If anyone has forgotten the face of his father, it is old Steve.
posted by das_2099 at 8:54 AM on August 29, 2001