It was the middle part of the first book (the 'action scene) and the 'almost-end' of the first one that had me hooked, without going into anything other than completely vague detail so's to not spoil anything for Dave and any non-readers of the series.
It was probably the opening line of the book which kept me going back to it the first couple of times I failed to read through it - 'The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed' - never been so interested in a story from a single line of text data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Finished number 4 on holiday and whilst I was a bit let down by the ending I did go out a buy number 5. Not going to read it yet though as I think I'm getting Dark Tower fatigue.
I think he may have been referring to a different character?! One that is a wee bit more strange that the one on your spoiler data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I don't agree with that anyway, the books are a fictional piece of writing to start with and a lot of his books have connections between them with the Dark Tower series connecting and ending them all, I thought it was done really well and the last 3 books are as good as the others in my eyes.
I have to confess I didn't even get as far as opening book one as I just didn't get much of a chance to read this holiday and never even finished the book I was already on when we went.I suppose that means I must have been too busy enjoying myself doing other thingsdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
And here was me just popping back into this thread to see how you got on and what you thought of the book data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Sorry 'bout that data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I'll let you know when I do read them data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
After reading The Gunslinger I took a break from the series, but now I've read The Drawing of the Three and made a start on The Waste Lands.
Drawing of the Three was interesting, I actually didn't enjoy it much to begin with and preferred the story of the first book. There is just something about the supernatural in a lot of Stephen King stories adapted for Film/TV - I rarely find it engaging. I started to think I would quit reading Dark Tower after this one because the story was going in a direction I expected not to like. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but in the end it did hold my attention enough that I changed my mind about reading something else next and instead picked up The Waste Lands.
EDIT: Waste Lands is my favourite so far, this one I couldn't put down until was finished and I'm really hoping my copy of Wizard and Glass arrives in the next few days!
Dark Tower future film's and TV series info here
The Dark Tower - Film and TV News Tracker
lets hope they do the books and stories justicedata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
The Wind Through the Keyhole
A new Mid-World / Dark Tower book is being written by Stephen King - possibly not directly related to the 7 books of the Dark Tower series, but set between the events of books 4-5 (Wizard and Glass - Wolves of the Calla) That doesn't really narrow the time frame much...
------------------------------
I finished reading Wolves of the Calla last night, I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to end. I didn't feel there was any dip in quality compared with the first 4 books, and I will definitely be buying the Song of Susannah & Dark Tower (though I will probably take another little break from Dark Tower in order to read something else) Now that I have finished Wolves of the Calla and seen some of the things that the reviewer I mentioned earlier criticised, I was finally able to read ArrBee's spoiler comments. I'm very glad I had the discipline not to read those spoilers until now.
*** If you haven't read Wolves of the Calla yet, just move along. No need to look at anything here, the comments below could be a terrible spoiler data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 ***
This sentiment is how I feel about most of my previous exposure to Stephen King's stories. I think the worst may be the Langoliers, which was roughly on par with the Lamp Monster from the Family Guy sketch data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 but the entities in IT or Desperation were not much better. In sci-fi and fantasy there are plenty of weak and poorly used ideas: Indian burial grounds, flying through black holes, multiverse etc that get recycled over and over again. If the author uses any of these things in the plot then everything else better be pretty damn good to make up for the lazy ideas.
There are obvious clichés in Dark Tower, and some pretty patheticbut I've been able to let it go and maintain the suspension of disbelief because of the hints at the way all of these things relate to the story and Dark Tower universe.In the user review, the guy absolutely ripped into Stephen King for the arrogance of placing himself in the story. Toward the end of the book I was thinking the reviewer was an extrordinarily petty twerp - because the only mention of Stephen King himself was on the 'menu' board at the Manhattan bookstore. Of course in the final pages of Wolves of the Calla, Roland picks up the copy of Salem's Lot - so I wonder if my reviewers ire is directed more at the final books in the series. I'm willing to take the chance and see how it pans out.
As for Father Callahan and his recounting of his tale, I don't mind at all, except for the fact that I haven't read Salem's Lot and it was in my short list of Stephen King novels to try data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 I may still read it, but I my enthusiasm for that one has been severly dented.
It took a little while, but I finished reading all the Dark Tower books data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I liked the story, and I'm pleased to say that the final three books are compelling. I can understand why some people don't like these, and/or hate the ending, but I think if you can keep an open mind and enjoy it for what it is, then it's very much worth taking the time to read the complete series.