Started reading The Dark Tower series and I'm getting a really bad vibe from the first chapters.
King spends a lot of time explaining and describing meaningless things in painful detail, while simply refusing to explain anything about the world, its people, time period, or anything else that might put things into perspective.
In order for it to become a big mystery, no doubt, but there's like 10 things that have been foreshadowed or hinted at by this point, only to be dropped with the next sentence, for no reason other than the author deciding that this is just the way it's going to be.
What I assume is supposed to be clever or subtle world-building, only comes off as a contempt for the reader, and an author who's too far up his own ass to notice or care. Usually if something makes me angry, I don't bother to continue reading, but since I haven't read anything by Stephen King before, and this is a long series after all, I'm wondering if this is just what he does, or if the style changes later on.
Does it get better? I would rather quit now if it's going to stay like this.
I'm sorry if this is considered this place's equivalent of a request thread, I don't have anywhere else to ask.
that first books writing is strange to say the least. i think he mentions in the foreward for my edition that he was all hyped up off of lord of the rings and star wars or some shit and wanted to make his own fantasy masterpiece, which resulted in a lot of pretentious writing. i personally liked the ending of the book. everything else was pretty bad.
ive only just finished reading the second, which i think was even worse, honestly. but his writing in the second book isnt at all like the first, its more like regular king writing. so who knows, you might like it.
if the third book is total shit i think im just going to drop the dark tower.
Josiah Sullivan
On a recommendation from a friend who swears it's the best fantasy story written after Lord of the Rings I bought the entire series because I saw a cheap deal for them.
I've tried reading the first book and ran into many of the problems you've brought up, namely that things are brought up and then dropped immediately. I'll read them all eventually because I stupidly bought the books, and this too is the only King book I've read.
I'm pretty please that at least covers don't have his name printed like that in gigantic capital letters, what the fuck.
William Rodriguez
>On a recommendation from a friend who swears it's the best fantasy story written after Lord of the Rings It's funny because that is the exactly what happened to me.
Thanks for the replies, I guess I'll finish this book and then tell my friend that it simply wasn't for me.
Andrew Thompson
The Drawing of the Three > The Gunslinger > The Wastelands >>>>>>> the rest of the series
Nathan Cruz
Dark Tower 1-4 is pure king kino
Everything else should be ignored.
Brody White
You're right that Stephen King is arrogant and that this series isn't worth your time, but this is just nonsense. Why does the setting need to be explained so early on? Why does anything being foreshadowed or hinted at need to be resolved within the first book that only has ~200 pages?
You're just making up reasons to hate the book. Complain about this series if you want, it certainly deserves the hate, but you could at least come up with actual reasons why you didn't like it.
Jose Fisher
The point he made wasn't that there shouldn't be foreshadowing or hinting at a bigger picture, just that it's done in such a incredibly lazy way that the reader may feel insulted by it. About how much is explained about the setting in the first book, well, that is neither here nor there; but if there's enough time to explain how empty a desert is, repeatedly, or time for the incredibly detailed reports of the lighting in any given place—how many lights, what type and which colour, etc.—you can't really expect the reader to just sit there and not wonder why this gets airtime and the interesting stuff doesn't.
I enjoyed the book (and the series) despite its many flaws, but that doesn't make them any less obvious, or any less grave. I have a high tolerance for these sort of things, but I understand that more sensible people could find the book unbearable because of them.
My advice would be to just give this a pass, there's no point in reading anything you don't enjoy. There's many other fantasy books that want for reading, and better ones, if you're looking for more "balanced" narratives.
Michael Phillips
ok. ok. wow. just... ok. put the fucking stephen king book down faggot. get rid of it. throw it in the fucking garbage.
Mason Gray
but the first two books are garbage. and im not even that much of a king critic
Leo Gutierrez
I tried, but couldn't finish it. Stopped at the fifth. Too much filling.
I think the best of King is the shining and pet sematery.
Nicholas Rogers
If you're already irritated at not having answers in the first few chapters of the first book, give up now. You have to be in it for the long haul, and not give a damn when he will explain stuff. It doesn't interfere with your understanding of the current plot events in the slightest.
Josiah Richardson
This. The series goes completely off the rails by book 5. And that ending was pure shit. Wind Through the Keyhole was a surprisingly nice read tho. I liked the Russian Doll structure of the book.
Eli James
I enjoy stephen king books
Ian Cruz
Stephen King is for /v/ how the Meme Trilogy authors are for Veeky Forums
Justin Flores
The series is often obtuse as shit, deliberately vague, *very* pretentious, and wastes a lot of time with filler. I have hopes for the upcoming film because the books are the antithesis of a "tight" narrative, and maybe the film will cut it into shape. I'm just finishing book #5 now, and the general feeling I have is that the series is about storytelling, it introduces plot devices that effectively control the actions of the characters in a kinda bullshit way that is analogous to plot-handholding, and the meandering nature of the story reminds me of people just telling stories. All in all I'd say if you feel like continuing read roundabout half of book #2 to make sure, because it's quite different from the first.
Xavier Ross
I've read The Stand and only the Stand but I had the exact same problem you're describing.
Going by that, it doesn't get better. It'll probably get so much worse that you'll feel a sort of frustrated, aching hollowness in your skull as you read. I remember dozens of pages, dozens, small type, detailing an old women slowly making her way from one farm house to another miles away, to get a chicken, staying overnight, making the whole journey back, and it was so awful that it was genuinely exciting when she got attacked by weasels along the way.
There was one cool moment where she sees an apparition of the main villain and blood starts running out of it's hands and he says what should be dumb but actually is one of the most memorable lines: 'your blood is in my fist.' Like just the right blend of sinister and confusing.
I think that's maybe king's longer books in a nutshell. Dozens of pages with half a page of kinda interesting action and one cool monologue from a villain to keep you going.
Don't even get me started on two of most boring characters getting snowed into an abandoned town on their way BACK HOME after the climax, and that also being described in numbing detail.
Levi Ross
I have tried reading the first book around 6 or 7 times over the past decade, I cannot stand King's writing
Jose Richardson
I've read them both. Misery and The Long Walk are way better.
Alexander Walker
You should have just read IT. Best book worth the 1000+ page read
Daniel Moore
just watch The Shining, Stand By Me, etc... like a normal person
