Roland’s journey is coming to an end and he can hear the song from across the Field of Roses. The ka-tet that he was involved with along the road is no more and the tower with its secrets is only his to witness. But first he must fight the Crimson King who has been locked out of one of the tower balconies. The Crimson King possesses powerful forces – forces Roland hadn’t dare dream of.
Another danger is also lurking in their tracks, one that can barely wait to sink its teeth into Roland – the son of the Crimson King, who also happens to be Roland’s. This son was born with the single purpose of destroying Roland.
For any reader there is bound to be a lot of impatience now just to see how King ties up the knots. The 7th and final book in the series offers up one surprise after another and ends unexpectedly. Without disclosing too much, some readers would probably have preferred a different ending, as this one is certainly not your average “hero saves the day”-type, but leaves some room for the thought process to kick in.
To quickly recap the entire series: as a fantasy reader I have a weakness for attaching myself to an epic plot spanning thousands of pages. Stephen King has been known to drag it out, but never for this long. For those accustomed to King, there are lots of references to his other works – not just glimpses here and there but actual names and places. It doesn’t matter if you’re a King fan though; this story is worth your time.
Susannah became pregnant when she stopped a demon to save Jake in book two. This is the story of Susannah’s struggle for her own body – a body which is now occupied by the entity known as Mia. Mia is a spirit without a body that has been promised a physical body provided she gives birth to a child, her “chap”.
The child she carries is the Crimson King’s, who is destined to kill Roland according to the prophecies. Mia is in control at night, while Susannah retains control during the day. At first Susannah is oblivious to Mia’s existence, but as the child grows inside her, Mia grows exceedingly powerful and eventually it becomes impossible for Susannah to ignore the truth. A drawn-out battle for control of the single body begins, and this of course makes Susannah an unreliable gunslinger.
Song of Susannah picks up the main plot where Wolves of the Calla left off – it is somewhat chaotic at times, but manages to keep some amount of focus. There’s a lot going on right now, and jumping into this book without having read its predecessors is definitely not recommended. It’s almost hard to give a quick summary of the book, but it is still a story that needs to be read and is worth reading, even if it occasionally feels like a bump in the road on the way to the grand finale.
The companions are nearing Endworld and have reached a rural peasant village named Calla Bryn Sturgis. Callas is haunted; every generation or so, immortal beings in wolf masks raid the village to abduct some of its children. The children are later returned, but “roont” as they call it – they have been stricken with horrific diseases and are growing so fast that you can hear the bones stretch, only to die early and painfully.
Roland and his friends promise to put a stop these so-called wolves, which are expected to return within a month. The villagers are hesitant, because should they fail, the wolves will punish them, burn their houses to the ground and take all their children. Slowly but certainly Roland persuades the villagers to join him, but among them is a traitor. Finding out the traitor turns out to be a no less demanding task than stopping the wolves.
Parts of the story are a bit slow, even if it the novel as a whole is exciting. Somehow it seems to drift too far outside of the main storyline and feels by and large unnecessary to complete the journey to the dark tower. There’s an overall impression the story has escalated beyond a point where King no longer drives the plot forward.
This might sound disastrous but it really isn’t. The story in itself is interesting even if it takes a detour around the central plot – it stands on its own with a vivid and compelling story.
Wizard and Glass is the fourth installment in King’s The Dark Tower series. It is something as unusual as a fantasy love story written by the master of horror himself, Stephen King. But even if it’s a theme the author rarely touches, he does it exceptionally well.
Here’s a quick recap (with some spoilers!): Eddie finally outsmarts Blaine – the mad monorail – with a riddle it cannot answer. Blaine becomes so infuriated by the question that the computer that controls it explodes and brings the train to a stop. When the companions get off, they discover that they’ve ended up in a city where a terrible plague swept through, killing all the inhabitants of the formerly great city of Topeka.
The path or the beam travels along a highway, making it easier for the band to get around with the wheelchair-bound Susannah. During Roland’s poisoning by the lobstrosity and subsequent delirious fever, he often talked about Cuthbert, Alain and Susan. Along the highway, Roland tells more of this story and his first mission as a gunslinger.
To summarize, this book was the best so far in the series. It paints a captivating picture of a world that feels something like a post-apocalyptic version of the Shire. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s the first by King (at least to my knowledge) that’s essentially a pure love story. It’s beautiful and sad all at the same time. At any rate it’s great, and fits perfectly into the middle of the series – now it’s impossible to put it away.
And so I’ve reached the third book in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. Roland, Eddie and Susannah continue their journey towards the tower, and this time they add two new companions to their merry band of travelers (yeah that’s irony for you; this band is anything but jolly). The road is full of demons and strange disfigurations of would-be humans – a classic Stephen King setting in other words.
In this desolate country – aptly named The Waste Lands – things are starting to clear up as to why they have to reach this tower and what exactly is wrong with Roland’s world. True to the Stephen King spirit, explanations are vague to keep the mystery alive, which makes you want to keep reading just to see what’s on the next page. The characters’ personalities start to emerge and some of the pieces of the puzzle start to come together. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that King has left nothing to chance.
Something that is somewhat unusual with these books is Roland’s companion Susannah and her legs – or lack thereof. It’s more than rare to read about disabled people in the fantasy genre, which is a welcome change. She’s not portrayed as a victim either, but rather as a strong heroine type. Her disability is only mentioned when it has an impact on the plot. Anywoo, now it’s on to the fourth book in short order.
The Drawing of the Three is the second book in Stephen King’s epic fantasy series The Dark Tower, following the first part The Gunslinger.
It continues right where The Gunslinger left off. Roland has to keep traveling and find the three people who are key to his quest for the tower. He finds a door in the middle of a beach that leads to a completely different realm, which happens to be our world. Through it he is able to see through the eyes of Eddie and take over his body. When Roland brings Eddie back to his own world, they are able to continue on and locate next door, and the tale continues.
There’s a major difference between The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three. While the former borders on lackluster, the second book is much more appealing. It also feels like King is back to his customary style, even if it’s certainly no horror story.
Unfortunately, the book loses some of its initial pace in the second half. The stepping through the first door and the subsequent encounter with Eddie is described in depth, whereas the other two characters do not get the same treatment. Even so, I still enjoyed the book and I’m actually looking forward to the third one.
The Gunslinger opens up Stephen King’s fantasy epic The Dark Tower, a series in seven parts of which the first four are the most unswerving. Since the entire series is now complete, my plan is to read all of them in more or less rapid succession. This is something you don’t normally do with fantasy novels, since there is usually a few months (or even years in some cases) between the parts.
Stephen King is an old favorite of mine, and being a fantasy geek I particularly enjoyed The Eyes of the Dragon. The series on the Dark Tower has long been on my horizon, mostly because I heard so much good about them, but I’ve also had a trove of other books to plow through. In other words, it was about time I took on King’s fantasy epic.
The book is set in a post-apocalyptic future. Our achievements and technology are almost completely gone barring a few relics here and there. The most advanced piece of technology is the revolver. The world has moved on and left the land barren save for various mutated creatures. It is a dark but magical world that suits the characters well. We are introduced to The Gunslinger in the middle of the desert, and he is searching for the man in black. What follows is mainly about this hunt and the events that push the Gunslinger and his companion forward.
King himself has allegedly claimed that the series is inspired mainly by Tolkien’s books, but there is a very minute amount of classic Tolkienesque fantasy to be found in The Gunslinger. Surprisingly there’s not much of the horror genre either. It is more of an allegorical novel in a style unique even for the multi-faceted King.
Still I’m undecided about The Gunslinger – the story in this first part is somewhat weak. Although narration is first rate the story so far fails to captivate. On the other hand, both its characters and the interesting post-apocalyptic setting are aspects that make me want to keep reading.
Yes, you have to be a bona fide fantasy geek to enjoy Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms novels, but since you made it to this page you probably are, so let me just say this: If you haven’t read any of the Drizzt books yet you definitely should.
After reading all the Drizzt novels (now rebranded as The Legend of Drizzt series) up to The Orc King, including a few short stories, a summary of the experience is that they never fail to impress. Ok, some are better than others – the Wulfgar-centered and low paced Spine of the World wasn’t a favorite, but there’s very little Drizzt in it anyway. Salvatore is at his best when he has the opportunity to put battles and fighting scenes in writing, and The Orc King has no shortage of either.
Not that the novels lack depth; on the contrary, both Drizzt, his companions, and what goes on in the world around them is much more complex than what you see in the bulk of fantasy novels out there. There is no pure black-and-white or good vs. evil distinction in Salvatore’s novels, and The Orc King is a prime example of this. This first book in the ongoing Transitions trilogy deals with the rise of an orc kingdom in the north of Faerun. If you’ve read the Hunter’s Blades trilogy you know that the protagonists have been fighting this orc uprising in the past, but now it’s time to decide whether to accept the orcs as a race among the others or to push them back into the holes from whence they came.
Obould, king of the orcs (and much smarter than the average orc, I might add) seeks peace with the neighboring kingdoms of the Silver Marches, but this turns out to be a harder than expected task due to rivalry in is ranks. A new, ambitious, and less peaceful tribe appears in Obould’s kingdom and puts his plans on hold. Meanwhile the nearby dwarf kingdom and its allies disagree on whether or not to launch an attack on Obould’s army. Now it’s up to Drizzt to scout the area to find out more about the orc’s intentions. In a side plot, Wulfgar the Barbarian sets out to find a better life for his adopted daughter, accompanied by an injured and somewhat reluctant Cattie-Brie.
The Orc King surprisingly starts out a century into the future, where Drizzt fights to defend a band of orcs from marauding elves and dwarves, but I won’t delve deeper into that and spoil the surprise. In short, the novel is a good continuation of the Drizzt saga. It’s not the most suspenseful or action-packed in the series, but as usual it’s still a page turner.
Albert Spangler is about to be hanged. So far he’s been a successful counterfeiter and overall swindler but in spite of changing his identity countless times, justice has caught up with him. Justice in Ankh-Morpork, however, is a relative concept and ultimately controlled by the city’s permanent ruler, the always cunning Lord Vetinari. Vetinari happens to see potential in this particular young criminal and grants him a pardon in his real name – Moist Von Lipwig.
Naturally it’s not an unconditional pardon – Vetinari intends to use Moist to restore Ankh-Morpork’s postal service back to its former glory, which is no easy feat. The post office is a complete mess, run down and covered in old letters. Besides, the city’s postal service has more or less been replaced by the new and wondrous Semaphore Towers, also known as the Clacks. Even when Moist manages to breathe some fresh air into the postal service, he still has to deal with the evil conglomerate running the Clacks, who don’t take too kindly to the new competition.
That’s the premise for Going Postal, one of Terry Pratchett’s more recent additions to his fantastic and long-running Discworld series. Personally I’m a huge fan of the Night Watch characters (from the novel with the same name and several others), and this novel features some cameo appearances by the watch. While this makes it an even better read, the cast of Going Postal definitely holds its own. Moist Von Lipwig is a really amusing character, but it gets even better when he runs into a Miss Adora Bell Dearhart – the Golem rights activist.
Pratchett’s ability to convert real-life events and objects into his own humorous Discworld counterparts is brilliant as usual. The Clacks, for example, is his fantasy interpretation of the Internet and in one episode, Moist hires “hackers” to get to the semaphore towers. The list could go on, but let’s just say that there are very few things in the Discworld that hasn’t been translated from the real world.
This lovable underdog story is another great fantasy novel in the Discworld series. I loved it and read it with a constant smile on my face, and I’m sure you will too.
After ecstatically speed-reading the first few books in the Wheel of Time series, I have found myself increasingly disappointed with the latest novels in Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy saga. Every new part of the series have been excessively drawn out and lacking much of the substance that made literature critics hail Jordan as the next Tolkien after the first novels. Now, after he’s passed away we will never know exactly what Robert Jordan had in mind for the concluding parts of the series, but part 12 of Wheel of Time is finished and scheduled for release by year’s end.
Anyway, to remind myself why The Wheel of Time used to be brilliant, I had to track back to the first novel , The Eye of the World, and reread it to recapture the introduction to The Wheel of Time world. The first novel in the series is without a doubt a great read from cover to cover, introducing the cast of a handful of instantly identifiable characters including of course the protagonist Rand al’Thor (who is mysteriously absent in the latest novels).
In this book, though, you really get to know and like Rand, as he’s still far from the Messiah character that he’ll eventually become. Instead, he’s entirely human and caught by a sudden attack of Trollocs that he has to evade with the help of a mysterious, magic-wielding Aes Sedai. Matt, Perrin and the others are also masterfully depicted and feel very human throughout The Eye of the World novel.
On the other hand, the best part about the first novel is the constant page-turner experience that so many recent fantasy novels fail to achieve. From page one, Jordan manages to catch and hold on to the reader right until the final chapter is over and done with, and you’re back at the book store looking for the next one in the series.
I still wouldn’t hesitate recommending The Wheel of Time series to new readers, but i would also recommend that they stay away from the latest novels in the series because they suck, plain and simple. Also, at this time it doesn’t feel all that important to endure these newer in-between books as there’s no way of knowing if we will ever see a conclusion to the series.
Roland’s journey is coming to an end and he can hear the song from across the Field of Roses. The ka-tet that he was involved with along the road is no more and the tower with its secrets is only his to witness. But first he must fight the Crimson King who has been locked out of one of the tower balconies. The Crimson King possesses powerful forces – forces Roland hadn’t dare dream of.
Susannah became pregnant when she stopped a demon to save Jake in book two. This is the story of Susannah’s struggle for her own body – a body which is now occupied by the entity known as Mia. Mia is a spirit without a body that has been promised a physical body provided she gives birth to a child, her “chap”.
The companions are nearing Endworld and have reached a rural peasant village named Calla Bryn Sturgis. Callas is haunted; every generation or so, immortal beings in wolf masks raid the village to abduct some of its children. The children are later returned, but “roont” as they call it – they have been stricken with horrific diseases and are growing so fast that you can hear the bones stretch, only to die early and painfully.
Wizard and Glass is the fourth installment in King’s The Dark Tower series. It is something as unusual as a fantasy love story written by the master of horror himself, Stephen King. But even if it’s a theme the author rarely touches, he does it exceptionally well.
And so I’ve reached the third book in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. Roland, Eddie and Susannah continue their journey towards the tower, and this time they add two new companions to their merry band of travelers (yeah that’s irony for you; this band is anything but jolly). The road is full of demons and strange disfigurations of would-be humans – a classic Stephen King setting in other words.
The Drawing of the Three is the second book in Stephen King’s epic fantasy series The Dark Tower, following the first part 
The Gunslinger opens up Stephen King’s fantasy epic The Dark Tower, a series in seven parts of which the first four are the most unswerving. Since the entire series is now complete, my plan is to read all of them in more or less rapid succession. This is something you don’t normally do with fantasy novels, since there is usually a few months (or even years in some cases) between the parts.
series) up to The Orc King, including a few short stories, a summary of the experience is that they never fail to impress. Ok, some are better than others – the Wulfgar-centered and low paced Spine of the World wasn’t a favorite, but there’s very little Drizzt in it anyway. Salvatore is at his best when he has the opportunity to put battles and fighting scenes in writing, and The Orc King has no shortage of either.
After ecstatically speed-reading the first few books in the Wheel of Time series, I have found myself increasingly disappointed with the latest novels in Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy saga. Every new part of the series have been excessively drawn out and lacking much of the substance that made literature critics hail Jordan as the next Tolkien after the first novels. Now, after he’s passed away we will never know exactly what Robert Jordan had in mind for the concluding parts of the series, but part 12 of Wheel of Time is finished and scheduled for release by year’s end.