At one point in this final book of the Dark Tower series, the character Stephen King (added to the plot in Song of Susannah) looks back at the preceding pages and says "when this last book is published, the readers are going to be just wild." And he's not kidding.

After a journey through seven books and over 20 years, King's Constant Readers finally have the conclusion they've been both eagerly awaiting and silently dreading. The tension in the Dark Tower series has built steadily from the beginning and, like in the best of King's novels, explodes into a violent, heart-tugging climax as Roland and his ka-tet finally near their goal. The body count in The Dark Tower is high. The gunslingers come out shooting and face a host of enemies, including low men, mutants, vampires, Roland's hideous quasi-offspring Mordred, and the fearsome Crimson King himself. King pushes the gross-out factor at times--Roland's lesson on tanning (no, not sun tanning) is brutal--but the magic of the series remains strong and readers will feel the pull of the Tower as strongly as ever as the story draws to a close. During this sentimental journey, King ties up loose ends left hanging from the 15 non-series novels and stories that are deeply entwined in the fabric of Mid-World through characters like Randall Flagg (The Stand and others) or Father Callahan (Salem's Lot). When it finally arrives, the long awaited conclusion will leave King's myriad fans satisfied but wishing there were still more to come.

In King's memoir On Writing, he tells of an old woman who wrote him after reading the early books in the Dark Tower series. She was dying, she said, and didn't expect to see the end of Roland's quest. Could King tell her? Does he reach the Tower? Does he save it? Sadly, King said he did not know himself, that the story was creating itself as it went along. Wherever that woman is now (the clearing at the end of the path, perhaps?), let's hope she has a copy of The Dark Tower. Surely she would agree it's been worth the wait. --Benjamin Reese

Visit the Dark Tower store
Over 30 years in the making, spanning seven volumes, Stephen King's epic quest for the Dark Tower has encompassed almost his entire body of fiction. Find every volume of this fantastic adventure, an interview with the master himself, and much more in our Dark Tower Store.

Authors on Stephen King
Mystery writer Michael Connelly thinks Stephen King's "one of the most generous writers I know of." Thriller author Ridley Pearson says "King possesses an incredible sense of story..." Read our Stephen King testimonials to find out what else they and other authors had to say about the undisputed King of Horror.

The Path to the Dark Tower
There are only seven volumes in Stephen King's Dark Tower series but more than a dozen of his novels and short stories are deeply entwined with the Mid-World universe. Take a look at the non-series titles, from Salem's Lot to Everything's Eventual. Can you find the connections?

History of an Alternate Universe
Robin Furth, an expert on Stephen King's Dark Tower universe if ever there was one, has created a timeline of Mid-World, the slowly crumbling world of gunslinger Roland Deschain. Read it and get up to speed on a world of adventure.

The Perfect Ending

Spoiler: Alot of people seem dissapointed by the ending, but I don't think it could have happened anyother way. Roland was the Roland from Browning's poem, and the childe errant from a thousand epics before (and hopefully after). The story in this mode is really the story of quest, not destination.
Of course, for the story to be interesting, the protagonist must believe that gaining the tower may redeem humanity. Perhaps that is one reason the early books in this series were so compelling; as a young man I almost believed that when Roland gained the tower, I would learn something so shocking and profound it would change my life forever.
In the end humanity cannot be saved by one act, however heroic. But we may come to grasp the shocking and profound gradually over the course of such a journey. The journey of childe Roland is one such journey. But it is a journey each generation imagines and follows in their own time.
If Roland had found redemption, King would have denied a fundamental aspect of the epic hero - each generation will reinvent him for their own ends. Whatever respite King could have granted Roland would have been temporary and false, for future writers will be forever summoning Roland to quest anew.
Ironically, although by gaining the Dark Tower Roland was unable to save humanity (or even himself), humanity does save itself in the course of its perpetual struggle for the unobtainable (the dim knowledge that only grows by undertaking such along and hopeless task). In that sense, by gaining the Dark Tower only to lose it, Roland may have found the only salvation available to any of us.

Better than the Lord of the Rings....

I for one applaud Stephen King's talent and imagination.
I have read Roland's adventures since I was a kid, and I always thought that they were stories that could only be appreciated fully only after *sai King's* death, like Edgar Allen Poe's works.
I liked the ending of Dark Tower VII, but wondered of course what would happen at the end of Roland's last quest with the Horn of Eld in hand ... would one more *bauble* really make such a difference to Gan at the end of *another* quest for the Dark Tower??
I hated King's insertion of himself into the story, no matter what explanations ensued at the end of volume VII. I CRINGED at every mention of King's name in the novels. King is better than such lowlives as Clive Cussler, who has no regrets about inserting himself into any story, but King cannot, apparently, help himself. He also begs us not to visit his home in Maine to spare the privacy of his family --- why would I bother? But there are a lot of lunatics out there I suppose, like the *Tick Tock Man* --- why not just leave yourself out of the story altogether and thereby save your privacy? He wants his privacy but broadcasts his existence to any and all readers who follow his tale, without mercy. (Just like KA, and Gan's ARMS I suppose.)
Mordred's death was extremely anticlimatic, as everyone can plainly see. (I can plainly see that.) And King as always, delivers on the *feel good* ending, with Susannah in Central Park surrounded by Eddie (Toren) and Jake (Toren)?? and hot chocolate with nutmeg, etc...
But all in all, this was the greatest tale I have ever read and as King says, it is "not perfect." It IS BETTER THAN THE LORD OF THE RINGS, for example.
STUNNING in its breadth of time and space, STUNNING in its creativity and imagination, STUNNING in its clarity and vision of times to come in this world and others, including other dimensions, STUNNING in its inclusion of many other works by the same author included with closely knit seams of storylines, such as THE STAND for example...
But MOST OF ALL...
STUNNING in the character of Roland himself, that intrepid warrior-knight who never gives up no matter how the odds are stacked against him, more than just a cowboy of sorts, a charcter who spans time like no other. He is a multi-faceted, flawed, complicated, lovable, hateable, wonderful character who is truly the best that King ever created (which is, of course, saying a lot.)
In the end, I can only say that I am very happy to have read the GUNSLINGER at the ripe age of 12, (Jake Chamber's age, mayhap) and to have finished volume VII at the age of 26 (older than Eddie Dean, or at least one version of him.) I have spent more than half my life in Mid-World with Roland of Gilead, and for that I am grateful. Is the story perfect? No. Is it a wonderful story? Yes. Better than the one-sided characters of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Better than most fiction. STUNNING in its breadth and capacity for understanding of history as it spans time. Will I ever bother you at your home in Maine? Never. As you put it, the books are enough communication between us. Just don't spoil that by putting yourself into the story TOO much, that's almost like YOU coming into MY home UNINVITED.

Not that I would ever stop reading, as you well know.

One last plea: PLEASE GET PETER JACKSON TO MAKE SEVEN MOVIES ABOUT THE DARK TOWER, AND DO AS GOOD A JOB AS HE DID WITH THE LORD OF THE RINGS!!! because once he reads each volume, he'll probably understand that your story is better, and more compelling, than Tolkien's masterpiece.
Besides that, Sai King stands to make another heap of money from the exploitation of his GREATEST story on screen.

I'm probably too late as it is, the negotiation is probably already underway. But please don't pick a director less talented than Jackson, or the whole world will suffer from a half-assed version of your wonderful epic.

Roland himself would cringe at such a result.

Naysayers suffering Roland's fate (some spoilers contained)

As I read these horrid low-star reviews, I get the feeling that the reviewers themselves are much like Roland- so fixated on the ending, on the destination, that they fail to see the importance of the journey itself.

King stepped outside the box in the latter part of his series, inserting himself as a character and creating a circular ending that was sure to either fascinate or infuriate his readers. The powerful symbolism in this series is lost on the infuriated ones, for they don't understand that even the killing of Flagg is not sealed in stone once Roland began his journey once again.

It is so easy to get worked up in the details and how the ending just wasn't enough, but keep in mind that King ended his story in a way that was right to him and that he felt was appropriate. He was true to himself and to Roland, leaving open the possibility that perhaps he will follow Susannah, or whomever his companion is, through the door next time and save his soul.

And it would do those disappointed Constant Readers much good to do the same.