Entertaining the Alien

42. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, Stephen King

Now, honestly, when I said in my Livejournal entry that I needed to think a little while before I wrote about this book, I didn't mean a week--but RL concerns (and a week spent recuperating from a back injury) got in my way.

This book broke my heart and blew my mind all at the same time. As I mentioned, it's not a perfect book, but so much about it--even the parts that I absolutely hated--was completely right. It's what Jo Walton calls the "weight of story", and what I usually call "dramatic inevitability". The "metafiction" from Song of Susannah continues here, but to me, that's what gave the story (and Roland's quest) so much of the pure heft it had.

This is one of those books that you're either going to absolutely love or absolutely hate, especially if you've followed the series passionately. I don't think you could be completely neutral. The last line of the novel just doesn't let you be neutral. You're either going to feel cheated or you're going to sit back and go "whoa". I was one of the latter. A bunch of y'all need to read this book so I can find out what you thought.

(Interesting aside about metafiction, spec fic, and authors: isn't it funny that Philip Roth can write what is essentially a spec fic alternate history novel with himself as a main character--The Plot Against America, it just came out recently--and receive widespread critical acclaim, while Stephen King makes some pretty profound statements about the role of the creator and the created by making himself a vital character in his own spec fic novel, on top of telling a damn good story, and still be largely dismissed just because he is Stephen King. Which isn't to say he hasn't gotten good reviews, but still.)