kate_nepveu | Entries tagged with books: dark tower series

So the stuff in the prior post reminded me that I've always thought of Bruce Springsteen's "Livin' in the Future" as a Dark Tower song, and now that the movie is not good, I was daydreaming what a constructed trailer for the . . . TV show, probably . . . that we should have got would look like.

This is almost certainly impossible because of the footage that would be needed to be created from whole cloth, so this is just for fun.

( spoilers for all of The Dark Tower series )

Someone give me a bazillion dollars and I'll make it happen.

So . . . that was a thing.

Okay, it is actually shaped like a movie. It required (at least) one explicitly-acknowledged "just because" in order to make the plot work, but by and large it was shaped like a movie and, as far as I can tell, got its exposition across—very obviously, granted, but I'm starting to think smooth exposition is no longer something movies care about? (Feel free to provide counter-examples.)

As a standalone movie, it's . . . unexceptional? I thought some of the special effects were oddly shoddy and uninspired, but it does contain gunfights, Idris Elba being grizzled and badass, and Matthew McConaughey waving his hands around, so if that's a thing you wanted from seeing the trailers, then you'll get it. I'm not sure that it would particularly zing or feel fresh, but it does generally provide what it promised, though there's a lot more of the kid, Jake, than one might expect.

(This review has movie spoilers but amused me and seems about right: The Dark Tower Is Not That Terrible — But It Does Feel Like a Copy of a Copy of a Copy, by David Edelstein at Vulture.)

As an adaptation, it makes some interesting choices, most of which I did not like.

( all the spoilers for the movie and the entire book series, so many spoilers )

Okay, I actually went to three things at Readercon; this was the last. As it was a discussion, I didn't take many notes; and since work is going fairly well, I think I can spare a few minutes to type up my few notes while they're fresh (and while I'm waiting for the Advil to kick in. Boo, headaches.).

Short non-spoilered version: There were only six people in the audience, and one of them, well, I had to say at one point, "Excuse me, I wasn't finished talking." Despite, or because of, that John Langan did a nice job as moderator. No-one really had answers for my questions, but a few interesting points were brought up for me to ponder in other areas.

Here's the spoiler version. If you haven't read the books, it won't make any sense; and if you might read the books, it will ruin things for you.

( SPOILERS for the ending of the Dark Tower series )

Oh, and hey, I got thanked in the program for the suggestion of this discussion! I am unreasonably chuffed by this.

I've barely scratched the Readercon program, but the grid shows a Sunday morning discussion called "King's The Dark Tower."

I suggested a discussion on this topic, never heard back from programming, figured they thought it was a dumb idea, and didn't try and fit in a re-read so I could talk sensibly about it (since those of you who have read the spoiler-filled posts will have noted that I am not exactly a model of clarity on the topic).

I'm certainly not implying that the program committee should have done anything otherwise—I'm sure they've enough to do, and they may not have known they were putting it on until the last minute. But, but, I'm going to be so unprepared!

(Also, I woke up with a headache and itch appallingly from eight separate insect bites (acquired in less than five minutes, how I hate biting insects) and am stuck inside on a gorgeous day trying and failing to do loads of critical work. Pout pout pout.)

Oh, and in the unlikely event that anyone out there is a PHP guru willing to take commissions, drop me a note.

I borrowed Bev Vincent's The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus from the library. It's due back Sunday, and I'm not planning to buy a copy, but I thought I would make notes from it (now completed) for things to keep in mind when I re-read the series.

There will be ULTIMATE SPOILERS for the series underneath the cut.

( This will be both uninteresting and INCREDIBLY SPOILY if you haven't finished the Dark Tower series )

Finished book seven. Have a question on the very ending [*]. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK—not that there would be any reason for you to, since you couldn't answer the question.

( I'm really not kidding, you don't want to click this if you haven't read the book )

[*] Yes, I read it, even though Chad had marked it off for me, because I'd already been spoiled for it in casual conversation in a random forum, so I figured I might as well get the full story before it completely becomes part of general cultural knowledge.

( silliness, and reading books five and six of the Dark Tower series (spoilers only by the broadest definition of the word) )

There is much to tell about the last couple weeks, and I was going to tell it tonight, but I decided instead to treat my tired self to a novel. After some deliberation, I went back to reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

I'm not done yet. I made myself stop reading most of the way through. But I would just like to say that it is much more disconcerting than I would expect to find that Wolves of the Calla uses the same font for chapter titles as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did.

That's all. Good night.

I'm currently four books into Stephen King's seven book Dark Tower series, completed this September. I'd read these first four previously, but had been holding off on the most recent three, each released six months after the other. My re-read of the first four is complete, and it's prompted a couple of thoughts about reading.

( I'm oddly reluctant to keep reading. )

But how about you? If you had the long, long-awaited conclusion of a sequence before you, one you'd given up hoping for—would you jump right in, or would you hold back, a little fearful of what you might find? Have you already experienced this situation, and with what?

( Also, I feel rather betrayed by King's revision of the first Dark Tower book. )

I might not be able to fully articulate or justify this feeling of betrayal, but I feel it keenly all the same. As readers, writers, critics, what do you think? Am I overreacting, discounting the author's interest? Is this just not a question most readers have occasion to confront? If you were Stephen King, would you have done it?

Profile

Kate

Outside of a Dog

January 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

a vid daydreaming post
The Dark Tower (2017 movie)
Readercon: "Stephen King's The Dark Tower Completed." (discussion)
A Readercon waaaah
Notes on Vincent, Road to the Dark Tower (SPOILERS)
Q. on ending of the Dark Tower series (ULTIMATE SPOILERS)
NaNoKateMo and the Dark Tower
Cognitive Dissonance
King's Dark Tower series: reader reluctance; reader betrayal

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

incidents and accidents, hints and allegations

Entries tagged with books: dark tower series

a vid daydreaming post

The Dark Tower (2017 movie)

Readercon: "Stephen King's The Dark Tower Completed." (discussion)

A Readercon waaaah

Notes on Vincent, Road to the Dark Tower (SPOILERS)

Q. on ending of the Dark Tower series (ULTIMATE SPOILERS)

NaNoKateMo and the Dark Tower

Cognitive Dissonance

King's Dark Tower series: reader reluctance; reader betrayal

Profile

January 2025

Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

Syndicate