Ana V.

INITIAL IMPRESION
Damn it, I knew this would happen.

I can't believe this ended. I was 16 when I started this series. Two years later, I managed to own all the seven books plus "The Wind Through The Keyhole", even though four of them are in Romanian and four in English.

Now, with this installment finished... a part of my heart will relocate itself on the shelf on which they are placed. And every time I will pick up the series for another read I will find myself, aged 16 and in love, between its pages.

A part of me will still walk along Roland on his road.. many miles and many wheels, as ka wills it.

Serious review to come, commala come-come.

REVIEW

Attention - listen to this while reading.

From time to time, because of how much literature you consume on a daily basis, you forget the miracle of it. You forget how much magic stories contain, you lose the sense of mystery that they bring and it's sad, how you can pass over so many works without ever thinking: this is amazing. I blame this on how literature evolved. Like many (if not all) other art domains, it lost its soul over money. It became an industry, and as always, serializing something and making it a consumer good diminishes its value. This is why older literature is still going strong, it's still being read and people come back to it and compare everything else to it. Because back when Dostoievski was writing his works in order to pay his dues, he had stories to tell. And he had the mind to tell it. Nowadays, anyone can be a writer. And I really mean anyone. It's not hard - you jam up a few words in a Word document, place a title, a subtitle and an awesome quote by a long-dead figure and you give it to an editor. That editor (as many editors do, there's few that are different) will not evaluate the book based on its substance or its meaning, but by how much profit it will bring. (Look at Fifty Shades of Grey (and I quote myself, haha): Stephen King started writing this when he was 19. I'm almost 19 and still haven't learned how to wipe my ass properly, so to say. (metaphor here, guys. don't take it literally).. HE finished publishing the main body of the series in 2004. BUT! There is a but. At the end of this installment right here, there is a little line saying:

June 19, 1970 - April 7, 2004: I tell God thankya.

34 years. Thirty-four years. Do you understand? The magnitude? The scale of this? Do you? Do you really?

King calls this the magnum opus of his life.

I couldn't agree more. This is what King was meant to write. Anything else, his novels, his short stories, his collections, his poems, his essay, his comics, his theatre work, anything else fades away, when compared to this.

Because he didn't just write a single-standing story, on itself. No. He combined a massive amount of his own work in this. Let's just start with the Crimson King. Raise your hands if anyone here has ever read[b:The Stand|149267|The Stand|Stephen King|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1213131305s/149267.jpg|1742269]. Yeah? Sounds fammiliar now? Do you remember Pere Callahan, a character from the book, which we meet in the 5th installment? Have you ever hear of [b:'Salem's Lot|11590|'Salem's Lot|Stephen King|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327891565s/11590.jpg|3048937]? Mmmyeah, me too, sounds like I know it. Might these all be King's own books?

They fucking are. They are his own writings, which he has combined into this massive, multiple-thousands page work. And the best thing about it is it all makes sense. It does. It's logical.

I've come to wonder if King has wrote everything else because he needed them for the Dark Tower series or wrote the Dark Tower series because he could comprise all of them in this one.

Mindfuck...

But, wait, there's more! Not only did he place his works in this, he even put himself there. Yes. It's not the first time he's done this, or anyone, for that matter, but his version is downright creepy. He inserted himself, as a character, by his own name, with his own traits, he gave himself the role of author of Roland's world (which he is) and he then made Roland confront him in the made-up world of the series.

Makes you wonder if the man is completely sane.

I have to thank an entity I don't believe in that he is not. Bless his madness, because his madness changed the face of literature for good.

This review it (not surprinsingly) extremely fragmented. I can't seem to pull myself together in order to write something serious, because seriousness would just take out of how GOOD this work is. GOOD, as in with caps lock, because I need you to hear it booming in your head, like the voice of the Crimson King in Roland's head...

Now, see? Everything is a refference to this book after finishing it...

If you already read the series(and you liked it) and you're reading this review, please know I love it as much as you do. Maybe more.

If you already read the series(and you didn't like it) and you're reading this review, please know that the exit is towards the left of the stage.

If you haven't read this series and you want to, I tried to make this spoiler-free, but hear me out: your life will become a smoldering ruin of emotions after you read the last line of the last book of The Dark Tower series. If you're up for that, go on. If you can't stand emotional damage.. don't you even get close.

All that being said, I'll find a dark corner and slowly collapse with my back to both walls, hugging my knees and wailing for what Stephen King can do to me. I was just an innocent little girl before I met him... .

Comma, commala come
This review is done.
I say thankya ...
Long days and pleasant nights
But may you have twice the number.


My heart...