Lilja's Library

by Hans-Ake Lilja

  Posted: November 21, 2004

  So, I just finished The Dark Tower VII on CD. As usual, George Guidall is doing a good job reading about Roland and his gang. He has now narrated The Gunslinger (the new edition), Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower. During this time he has gotten a lot of negative comments about his reading as well as good comments (the positive have been a bit fewer though). Many critics are comparing him to Frank Muller, who narrated The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands and Wizard and Glass. Personally, I think they are both good narrators, but I’m going to stick out my chin here by saying that I actually think George is a little bit better (guess how much mail I’m going to get about this)…

  But then on the other hand, if you’re going to look for the best narrator of them all it would have to be King himself. He has narrated versions of The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands.

  OK, with that said, back to my review. The Dark Tower VII consists of twenty-four CD’s and is approximately twenty-nine hours long, and as I said when I reviewed the book, this is one of King’s best books to date. It has everything in it and, of course, it has the ending to a story that has been in the making since the 70s. What more could you possibly ask for? Not much.

  Earlier, King said that he would retire after The Dark Tower VII (something he has now taken back) and that (and the fact that parts of The Dark Tower VII are really sad) made the experience of reading the book quite sad. You didn’t want it to end.

  Well, it did end. And even though it didn’t put an end to King’s career, it did (at least, according to King) put an end to The Dark Tower saga. But, then again, you can never know with King. I wouldn’t bet that this is the last we have heard about the characters or the Dark Tower itself…

  Lilja’s final words about The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (audio)

  I’m going to say just about the same thing I said when I reviewed the book. If you haven’t read it already you should listen to it. This is one of King’s best books and it would be a pity to miss out on it. But, before you listen to this one, you should listen to parts one through six if you haven’t already, and that’s an order!

  ****

  The Road to The Dark Tower

  Posted: December 21, 2004

  I have just finished The Road to The Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King’s Magnum Opus, or as I want to call it, The Dark Tower 8. Let me explain.

  The Road to The Dark Tower is not a continuation to the seven books King has written, but it’s still the thing to read after you have finished The Dark Tower 7. Bev Vincent has done a tremendous job in reading all seven books, and all books and short stories that are connected to The Dark Tower series, and he has then put all the information in this book. First, there’s a summary of all seven books; no, summary isn’t the right word for it. A summary is something that you can find on the back of a book. What we get here is so much more. Bev has provided his own thoughts and connections as well as other important things he noticed while reading the books. For some of it, you think, “Yeah, I saw that,” while the rest you are totally clueless of until he spells them out. King himself has commented on the book with these words: “Opens doors to Roland’s world that not even I knew existed,” and it really can’t be said better!

  But there’s more. As I mentioned earlier, Bev has looked at all connections to other books by King. (Each of the books with connections has its own chapter in the book, and the connections are explained and put in perspective.) Some are more vague than others though.

  All of the main characters are documented extremely well in another chapter where we get all of the information we could possibly need and more.

  There is also a timeline for both the fictional world and real world connected to The Dark Tower. In the timeline for the real world, we get the history of everything that is connected to The Dark Tower—when King wrote what, when it was published and so on. In the fictional timeline, we get the history of Roland’s ka-tet and all the events that took place during the saga listed in chronological order.

  Along with other information, we also get a Mid-World glossary where a lot of strange words are explained as well as a list of important websites. I was very pleased to see my own listed there.

  All in all, The Road to The Dark Tower has everything you could possibly need to know about The Dark Tower series. It’s very similar to Robin Furth’s book, The Dark Tower Concordance, with the difference that where Robin’s book is more like a dictionary, Bev’s book is more like a discussion (or a friendly talk) with the reader. It’s a very easy and relaxed read.

  Lilja’s final words about The Road to The Dark Tower

  So, as you might have guessed by my alternative title to the book at the beginning of the review, I think that The Road to The Dark Tower is a book that you have to read after you have finished the seven books in the series. But please don’t read it before you have finished all seven parts. It’s crawling with spoilers.

  If you loved the series you’ll find some new connections that you didn’t know about (I can promise you that you didn’t catch all that Bev did), and if you didn’t like the series I bet you’ll appreciate it more after you have gotten a little inside information about the story.

  There is only one thing that I didn’t like about The Road to The Dark Tower, and that’s the endnotes. They are placed at the end of each chapter, which results in a lot of flipping back and forth. If I had been able to decide where they went, I would have used footnotes at the bottom of each page.

  OK, I’m done. Go out and get the book if you haven’t already!

  ****

  The Dark Tower – Concordance, Volume 2

  Posted: April 9, 2005

  Volume two of The Dark Tower Concordance is finally out. It was supposed to be out back in November of last year, but for some reason it was delayed and not released until now. I don’t know why, but I do know it was worth the wait. It’s almost twice as big as volume one and has an introduction by the author, Robin Furth.

  One of the things I wondered about before it was released was how the information about the different characters would be displayed. I thought volume two would only cover the last three books, but it actually has information about what happened to the characters during the first four books—it’s like a shorter summary of the first four books and then more in-depth information regarding the last three. While this setup works, it won’t be easy if they get the idea to put both volumes in one book.

  Otherwise, volume two contains much of the same as volume one…but, for the last three books and together with volume one, they cover everything you need to know about The Dark Tower series very well. Remember, though, that this isn’t a book you read from cover-to-cover (if you want a book like that, check out Bev Vincent’s The Road to The Dark Tower). This is the kind of book you take out to look things up while you read the books or when you have a discussion about the series with a friend.

  This one also has something called Reading Group Guides for all seven volumes. Personally, I didn’t have a clue as to what that meant before I looked it up in the book. Let me tell you what they are if you don’t know either. They’re a bunch of questions about each book that you can talk about when you get together with other fans. They’re a way to get a reading group discussion going. Nice!

  Like volume one, it also has some maps, and even though they cover most of the important places, I think there could be more. Still, though, it’s nice to see how things stick together.

  Lilja’s final words about The Dark Tower – Concordance, Volume 2

  If you have volume one and think that it’s a good book you should definitely get volume two as well. You will get what you expect with no surprises. (Not that it’s something I wanted or expected, but it gives you a feeling of what kind of book it is.)

  ****

  The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

  Posted: June 21, 2005

  The Good, The Bad And The
Ugly: Secondary Characters In The Dark Tower Series by Bev Vincent is a signed limited edition chapbook featuring material which does not appear in Bev Vincent’s book, The Road to The Dark Tower. It was limited to five hundred copies which you could only get through buying books from Cemetery Dance. My guess is that it’s now sold out.

  In it we get eight chapters that were originally cut from The Road to The Dark Tower before it was released. In the eight chapters we get to know more about five good, two bad and one ugly guys. The good ones are Calvin Tower (Toren), Aaron Deepnau, John Cullum, Irene Tassenbaum and Ted (Theodore) Stevens Brautigan; the bad ones are Enrico Balazar and Jack Mort; and last, but not least, the ugly—Jack Andolini.

  As in The Road to The Dark Tower we get all of the information we need about these characters, and it’s a nice but short read at thirty pages. They are all important characters in The Dark Tower saga and it’s pretty sad that these chapters aren’t in The Road to The Dark Tower. Maybe they will be included in the paperback if/when that’s released. We can only hope. The style of these chapters is the same as that in The Road to The Dark Tower, so it shouldn’t be a problem to incorporate them. After all, they were ones cut from that exact book.

  The book is pretty simple for a limited—it’s more like a folder than a book, actually, but it doesn’t matter that much. It’s actually rather fitting. It feels like the right way to publish this book.

  Lilja’s final words about The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

  Everyone who enjoyed Bev’s book, The Road to The Dark Tower, and King’s Dark Tower saga will enjoy this one as well…if they can get it, that is.

  ****

  The Gunslinger Born 1

  Posted: February 5, 2007

  I have just put down the first issue of The Gunslinger Born and I was blown away by it. The first thing that hits you is how good the illustrations are! In fact, they are more than just good—they are fantastic. Jae Lee and Richard Isanove have done a marvelous job with them. It’s just as good as I was hoping for…if not better. The drawing and the coloring are superb! My favorite character is Cort. He is so powerfully drawn that he almost jumps right out of the pages and grabs you by the throat.

  I’m also very pleased with Peter David’s scripting. I feel that he has really captured the spirit of King’s saga in the comic. It’s the same language as in the books and it fits the images very well.

  The first issue gives us some background. It’s adapted from King’s book and shows how Roland becomes a gunslinger. The comic is very true to the book and it really doesn’t give you any ideas on how the team (Robin Furth, Peter David, Jae Lee and Richard Isanove) will do when it comes time to make stories that aren’t a direct adaptation from King’s books. If they do it as well as when they adapted this, there won’t be a problem, though, and we will all be very happy. I personally have faith in them and think they will pull it off…but that still remains to be seen.

  The only thing that throws me off a bit is the section called “The Sacred Geography of Mid-World.” I thought those parts would be more like reading from a history book. Now they are told like a story in the story and I’m not sure that is the best way to do it. I feel that there might be too much story and too few facts about the issue at hand when it’s done that way.

  It’s not that I don’t enjoy it. It’s very well-written (by Robin Furth) and it explains what it’s supposed to explain…It’s just that I always saw it as pieces from a history book. I think, however, that I’ll get used to this way of doing it once I get to read more of it. It’s just not the way I imagined it would be…which doesn’t automatically mean it’s not good, I assure you. I’ll get back on this subject in my review of issue 2.

  After I finished issue 1, I really wanted more and felt it was way too short—the same I felt after finishing each of King’s seven books—and I think that might be a problem when it comes to non-King fans who read this first issue. Let’s face it, The Dark Tower is a story that takes some time getting into, and if you don’t know King’s books I’m not sure this first issue is going to do it for you. I hope it will, but I’m not sure…

  Besides the thirty-one pages that the comic itself takes up, this first issue also includes a one-page letter from the series editor, Ralph Macchio, a map over Barony of New Canaan, six pages of “The Sacred Geography of Mid-World” and four pages of previews for issue 2.

  In the preview for next issue it’s hinted that we’ll get to see more of the Big Coffin Hunters, and that’s something I personally look forward to a lot; that, and getting the chance to meet Susan…Roland’s true love.

  Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger Born 1

  As I said in the beginning of this review, I was totally blown away by the first issue. Yes, it is that good! So, if you’re one of those waiting for the collection with all seven issues, you have a lot more patience than I do, I can tell you that. I’m going to be like a hawk over each issue of this series, and not waste any time reading them. That is a promise!

  ****

  The Gunslinger Born 2

  Posted: March 1, 2007

  Issue 2 of The Gunslinger Born takes off right where issue 1 ends. As you might remember, issue 1 ended with Roland being woken up his first day as a gunslinger by his angry father. From there, issue 2 gives us our first glimpse of Eldred Jonas, Roy Depape and Clay Reynolds, also known as The Big Coffin Hunters, and let me tell you, they look mean!

  We also get to meet Rhea and the Crimson King. Rhea, the Crimson King and The Big Coffin Hunters are all breathtakingly done. I can’t help being blown away when I see what Jae and Richard have done with the illustrations. I thought I had gotten a little warning from issue 1 on just how good they are, but they just keep impressing me. After finishing issue 2 there isn’t anything that I don’t think those two can’t illustrate. Nothing at all.

  Issue 2 covers the event where Susan, Roland’s true love, visits Rhea to get the examination that will determine if she is spiritually intact and fit to marry Mayor Thorin. It ends when Roland is about to find her.

  As with issue 1 and all of the upcoming issues as well, the comic is done in a “widescreen” mode. That means the illustrations cover the entire page from left to right and there aren’t two frames beside each other at any time. This gives the comic a special look compared to more “cheap” comics, for lack of a better word to use. I think you understand what I mean though…right?

  The history lesson in issue 2 is about Maerlyn’s Rainbow and the Prim—a very interesting story about Arthur Eld, the Tower and the Old People. It also tells us more about Roland and the Crimson King’s origin.

  This one isn’t written like an excerpt from a story, but more like a section out of a history book, as requested in my review for issue 1. So, I’m very happy with this one. It’s a good story that is well-written by the very talented Robin Furth.

  As an extra bonus we get a map over Barony of Mejis and some of the pages in issue 2 from Jae’s sketched versions. And what can you say? The man is very talented. I heard that the original plan was to release one regular issue and one with just the sketches. Even though I like the colored ones the best, it would have been very interesting to see such an issue.

  We also get an open letter from King in the back of issue 2 in which he talks about turning Firestarter into a comic and about writing an original comic for Marvel. I’m not sure how serious he is about all this, but as usual, he’s full of ideas, and I wouldn’t be surprised if more stuff appears in a not-so-distant future…

  Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger Born 2

  Issue 1 was good, but this issue is even better. It looks great and is a pure joy to read. Everyone involved in this comic should feel proud. It’s everything we could have hoped for and then some.

  ****

  The Gunslinger Born 3

  Posted: April 3, 2007

  I have just finished reading issue 3 of Gunslinger Born and I have to say that they have done it again. Once again the illustrat
ions by Jae capture the characters perfectly. Once again Richard’s coloring hits the mark right on. Once again Peter’s text matches the illustrations and The Dark Tower feeling perfectly. And once again King’s story has been perfectly transformed from the book to the comic by Robin.

  They have all stepped up and again delivered a superb issue of the comic. Issue 3 deals with Roland, Cuthbert and Alain’s first meeting with Mayor Thorin as well as their standoff with The Big Coffin Hunters. As usual, they are all very well-illustrated, but I feel a little extra for Reynolds; I really like the way Jae has drawn him. I don’t know why, but I like him a little more than the rest…

  We also get a first look at Farson where he looks really evil and acts even worse. I can’t wait to see more of him. In issue 3 we really just get a short introduction, but I bet we’ll get to see a lot more of him.

  The history lesson in issue 3 has the title The Guns of Deschain and deals with how Arthur Eld gets his guns and how he almost loses them fighting Saita, the giant snake. This one is written by Robin, and again she has done a wonderful job in catching that Dark Tower feeling in the story, even though it’s not about Roland. You can really tell she knows the story inside and out.

  Besides this we also get to see Jae’s original drawings of the introduction of Farson. Jae later rejected them himself and redid them. We also get the first part of a transcript of the panel discussions at the Comic-Con in February, where the entire gang, including King, participated. It’s nice to see how all these people look.

  Lilja’s final words about The Gunslinger Born 3

  I just have to say again that issue 3 looks incredibly good. It’s fresh and its color is extremely balanced. At first I didn’t think they could do it, but they prove again and again that they have the ability to surprise you with each issue. As much as you thought they had given you all they could when you closed issue 2, you’re surprised when you open this issue and see that this one is even better. If they keep it up, I don’t know where it’ll end. The sky is the limit.