The Dark Tower (2004 novel)

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The Dark Tower VII -
The Dark Tower

Author	Stephen King
Cover Artist	Michael Whelan
Language	English
Genre(s)	fantasy, horror, science fiction
Publisher	Donald M. Grant
Released	2004
Pages	845
ISBN	ISBN 1-880418-62-2
Preceded by	The Dark Tower VI - Song of Susannah

For other uses of The Dark Tower, see The Dark Tower (disambiguation).

The Dark Tower is the seventh and final book of novelist Stephen King's Dark Tower series, published September 21, 2004 (King's birthday) by Donald M. Grant Publishers, and illustrated by Michael Whelan. Fans worldwide, concerned that King would never finish the series, especially after the author was nearly killed in 1999, breathed a collective sigh of relief at the long awaited completion of the epic story that took King more than thirty years to write.

[edit] Plot

Beginning where book six left off, Jake and Father Callahan battle the evil infestation within the Dixie Pig, a vampire lounge featuring roasted human flesh and doors to other worlds; Callahan sacrifices himself so Jake can survive. Mia, her body now physically separated from Susannah, gives birth to Mordred Deschain, the biological son of Roland and Susannah. The Crimson King is also a "co-father" of this prophetic child, so it is not surprising when "baby" Mordred's first act is to shapeshift into a spider-creature and feast on his birth-mother. Susannah fails to kill Mordred, but eliminates other agents of the Crimson King, enabling her to escape and meet up with Jake. Aging at an accelerated rate, Mordred later stalks Roland and the other gunslingers throughout this adventure, shifting from human to spider as the need arises, seething with an instinctive rage toward Roland, his "white father".

Roland and Eddie make their way back from Maine to Fedic, where the ka-tet, now reunited, must stop a group known as Breakers (they include Dinky Earnshaw and Ted Brautigan), who continue to use their telepathic abilities to break away at the beams that support the Tower. If the Tower falls, the Crimson King believes he will rule the ensuing chaos. Similarly, Walter (a.k.a. Randall Flagg) has dreams of grandeur in which he plans to slay Mordred, using the birthmark on Mordred's heel to gain access to the Tower. The Gunslingers free the Breakers from their captors, but Eddie is mortally wounded in the battle and dies a short while later. Roland and Jake pause to mourn and then jump back to Maine along with Oy in order to save the life of Stephen King (who is a secondary character in the book). Jake pushes King out of the way of a speeding van in 1999, but is killed in the process. Roland, heartbroken, buries Jake and returns to Susannah in Fedic, where they depart and travel for weeks across the freezing badlands toward the Tower.

On the way they find Patrick Danville, a young man imprisoned by a someone who calls himself Joe Collins but is really a psychic vampire named Dandelo. Patrick is freed and soon his special talent becomes evident: his drawings and paintings have the strange tendency to become reality. He draws a magic door for Susannah; once it appears, she says goodbye to Roland and crosses over to a New York similar to her own, where different versions of Eddie and Jake are waiting for her. Mordred, who easily manipulated and killed Walter, finally reaches and attacks Roland. Oy viciously defends his dinh, providing the extra seconds needed to exterminate the were-spider. Unfortunately, Oy is impaled on a piece of kindling and dies. Roland continues on to his ultimate goal and uses Patrick's special abilities to defeat the Crimson King, gaining entry into the Tower. The last scene is that of Roland crying out the names of his loved ones and fallen comrades as he had vowed to do. The door of the dark tower closes shut as Patrick watches from a distance. Here the story ends... almost.

In the afterword, Stephen King warns readers to close the book at this point -- not to venture inside the Tower with Roland. If the reader does not heed the warning, the story resumes with Roland climbing to the top of the Dark Tower. He encounters various rooms with siguls or signs of his past life. He reaches the top and opens the final door; to his horror, he realizes he has reached the Tower countless times before. He is sucked through the door only to be teleported back in time to the desert, ending the series where it began in the first line of book one: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." There is a slight twist, however; the memory of reaching the Tower quickly fades, yet Roland now somehow possesses the horn he had foolishly lost long ago during the battle of Jericho Hill. This subtle but significant change from the previous timeline further enforces the implication that Roland still has the opportunity to make different decisions and possibly break the cycle and find salvation.

[edit] Criticism

The novel came under criticism by fans who felt let down by the ending. Stephen King himself admitted in the afterword that he "wasn’t exactly crazy about the ending, either, if you want to know the truth," although King later said it was the right one. Charges against the ending included the fact that the Dark Tower did not contain what Walter originally promised at the end of the first book of the series, The Gunslinger. Walter made reference to Maerlyn, The Beast and the Godhead, none of which appeared, however, each of these can easily be attributed to various characters with different names. King had already rewritten portions of the original book in order to accommodate this.

Other complaints came from the lackluster fate of Randall Flagg. Flagg, who was one of King's most popular villains and had appeared in two other novels prior to Dark Tower, was dispatched rather easily by a new character, Mordred, early in the book with little fanfare. Although supporters suggest that this is due to Flagg's arrogance and weakening powers, others thought that it was just a cheap ploy to give Mordred credibility.

Pre-existing material from other works was either ignored or retconned. The characters of Rhea of the Coos and Dennis and Thomas (from Eyes of the Dragon) were left with unfinished plotlines. The plotline concerning Roland's mother's belt, established in Wizard and Glass was also left unfinished.

Much of what was established in Insomnia was also ignored or retconned. In that novel, the Crimson King was shown as a godlike being of immense power locked at the top of the Dark Tower. It was foretold that Patrick Danville would die in the future while saving two important men, one of whom must not die. However it is revealed that Ves-Ka Gan's song that delivers the story to King was muddled, and that much of the information in Insomnia was false. For example, the character of Ed Deepneau, a psychotic who crashes his plane into a building, is really a harmless distant relation to an inoffensive lawyer, Aaron Deepneau. The Crimson King is shown as a screaming old man who is reduced to throwing robotic 'sneetches' at Roland. And Patrick Danville, while succeeding in defeating the Crimson King, does not die saving two people.

Stephen King
Bibliography
Novels: Carrie (1974) • ’Salem's Lot (1975) • Rage (as Richard Bachman) (1977) • The Shining (1977) • Night Shift (stories) (1978) • The Stand (1978) • The Dead Zone (1979) • The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman) (1979) • Firestarter (1980) • Cujo (1981) • Roadwork (as Richard Bachman) (1981) • The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982) • Different Seasons (novellas) (1982) • The Running Man (as Richard Bachman) (1982) • Christine (1983) • Pet Sematary (1983) • Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) • The Talisman (written with Peter Straub) (1984) • Thinner (as Richard Bachman) (1984) • Skeleton Crew (stories) (1985) • The Bachman Books (novel collection) (1985) • It (1986) • The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) • Misery (1987) • The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987) • The Tommyknockers (1988) • Dark Visions (cowritten with George R. R. Martin and Dan Simmons) (1988) • The Dark Half (1989) • Dolan's Cadillac (1989) • My Pretty Pony (1989) • The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990) • Four Past Midnight (stories) (1990) • Needful Things (1990) • The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991) • Gerald's Game (1992) • Dolores Claiborne (1993) • Nightmares & Dreamscapes (stories) (1993) • Insomnia (1994) • Rose Madder (1995) • Umney's Last Case (1995) • The Green Mile (1996) • Desperation (1996) • The Regulators (as Richard Bachman) (1996) • Six Stories (stories) (1997) • The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997) • Bag of Bones (1998) • The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) • The New Lieutenant's Rap (1999) • Hearts in Atlantis (1999) • Dreamcatcher (2001) • Black House (sequel to The Talisman; written with Peter Straub) (2001) • From a Buick 8 (2002) • Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales (stories) (2002) • The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (revised edition) (2003) • The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003) • The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004) • The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004) • The Colorado Kid (2005) Cell (2006) • Lisey's Story (2006)
Non-fiction: • Danse Macabre (1981) • Nightmares in the Sky (1988) • On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000) • Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season (cowritten with Stewart O'Nan) (2005)
Original ebooks: Riding the Bullet (2000) • The Plant: Book 1-Zenith Rising (2000)
Audio Recordings
Audiobooks: L.T.'s Theory of Pets • Blood and Smoke (2000) • Stationary Bike (2006)
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