The Little Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King (.5 The Dark Tower)

The Little Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King

 Published: 2009

 

 

The Little Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King is a short story in The Dark Tower Series.  It is a stand-alone story, which does not require knowledge of the series.  That being said, any reason to enter Roland’s world is a reason to read this, and possibly re-read the series for the umpteenth time.

It has been published in a few anthologies.

This story takes place before Roland meets Jake, Eddie and Susannah.  He is still looking for Walter.  He and his dying horse enter the small town of Eluria, where the only living creature seems to be a somewhat crippled dog, gnawing on the leg of a corpse.  He scares away the dog and finds a medallion around the dead boys chest, which he vows to return to the family.  Suddenly he is confronted with a number of “slow-mutants”, who beat him up.  When he awakes, he is in a tent-like structure, suspended from the ceiling and wrapped in silk.  There are bells ringing, and he is a great deal of pain.  The “Sisters of Eluria” and the doctors will heal him.  But their methods and motives may not be to his benefit.

I’ve read this a couple of times (as I’ve re-read the series), and it is always a treat.

 

Re-Read: April 2017

 

Favorite Quotes from The Little Sisters of Eluria:

“Jamie DeCurry had once proclaimed that Roland could shoot blindfolded, because he had eyes in his fingers.”

“Surely ka could not be so cruel.”

 

About the Author:   Nothing can be said that hasn’t been said.  If you are not familiar with Stephen King,  and if your rock is secure, crawl back under it.

The Dark Tower by Stephen King (#7 Dark Tower)

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Published: 2004

 

The Dark Tower by Stephen King is the 7th and final book in the series of the same name.

Okay, I generally do not write a review with spoilers.  I see no way out of it unless I write “Roland Reaches his Dark Tower”, and that’s all.  I can’t do that, so be forwarned, although I do not tell everything, a lot of information follows:

It has been a long road.  The road gets really bumpy now.  A lot of losses and tears to follow.

This last book starts with Jake and Father Callahan battling the vampires/low men in the Dixie Pig, and Callahan sacrificing himself so that Jake can escape.  Mia has separated herself from Susannah and has given birth to Mordred whose lineage is a little strange.  He eats his mother.  Susannah, Jake and Oy meet in Fedic with Roland and Eddie.  The ka-tet is alive and well. (Losing Callahan and Mia is no big loss, as they were not really part of the ka-tet).  Mordred is following them.

The group travels to Thunderclap and meet Ted Brautigan (from another King book), who is being forced to work as a breaker (to break the remaining beams which holds the Tower up).  The ka-tet loses a member here.

They leap into the future to save the life of Stephen King.  They lose another member here.

They rescue a young man being held prisoner named Patrick Dunville, who will help them on their journey, through pictures.  Susannah asks him to draw a door, and she leaves of her own will (to a rather nice surprise).  So we have lost another one.  Mordred attacks and we lose another.

Roland continues on alone and enters The Dark Tower.

At this point, the author advises readers to consider the book finished in a relatively “happy” ending.  (Personally I’ve now cried so much I don’t think King understands the word “happy”.)   Or you can continue reading……….

I am not going to say I loved the ending. I didn’t hate it either, as the outcome is probably as it should be, but….

Overall, I loved this series, and read it again and again. I find I miss the characters, so as unhappy as I am with the ending, the books are still wonderful, and deserve a second, or third….reading.

Long days and pleasant nights, Sai King

 

Favorite Quotes from The Dark Tower:

“I used to work for this guy before I came here…He used to tell me that ‘never’ is the word God listens for when he needs a laugh.”

“May you find your Tower, Roland, and breach it, and may you climb to the top!”

“The road and the tale have both been long, would you not say so? The trip has been long and the cost has been high… but no great thing was ever attained easily. A long tale, like a tall Tower, must be built a stone at a time.”

 

Re-Read: April 2015

Song of Susannah by Stephen King (#6 Dark Tower)

Song of Susannah by Stephen King

Published: 2004

 

 

Song of Susannah by Stephen King is the 6th in the Dark Tower Series.

Susannah is on her own, fighting Mia, the demon within her who wants to give birth to her “chap”.  Using the power of Black Thirteen, Susannah has transported them to New York City in the year 1999.  Both of them are terrified.  Mia knows where they have to go…a seedy restaurant called the Dixie Pig, where the Crimson King’s men will deliver the child Mordred.  Jake, Oy and Father Callahan are going to be the ones to attempt the rescue.  Besides the more obvious threats to Susannah, they are afraid that the child itself may harm its mother.

Meanwhile, Eddie and Roland travel to 1977, where they need to get Calvin Tower to now deed over the vacant lot to them.  However, thanks to Mia, Balazaar’s men know they are coming.  After a rather intense battle, arrangements are made with Tower.  When they learn they are near the home of Stephen King (the author of the book that Father Callahan discovered), they decide to pay him a visit.  Apparently King has been writing their stories, which freaks them out…just a bit, until Roland hypnotizes him and realizes he is not a God, but only the means for telling the tale of The Dark Tower.  They convince him to get back to it.

As always, the characters are wonderful, and so powerful.  Everything is done with one goal in mind. Save The Dark Tower.  I love when King tosses them into different time frames, and we get to remember what was happening in the world in those decades.

Although this was not my favorite, the only reason it doesn’t get 5 stars is this:  In the last book I thought it was great that King brought in Father Callahan, a character from an old book.  However, having King throw himself into the mix in this one bothered me.

 

Favorite Quotes from Song of Susannah:

“Anger is the most useless emotion,” Henchick intoned, “destructive to the mind and hurtful to the heart.”

“I am Mia, daughter of none, mother of one. I care for my chap and nothing more.”

 

Re-Read: March 2015

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King (#5 Dark Tower)

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

Published: 2003

 

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King is the 5th in The Dark Tower Series.

There are three important story lines in this one.

In the first story line, while dreaming, Eddie and Jake go “todash”, and end up in New York.  They see Balazaar’s men threatening Calvin Tower (the man who Jake got the Charlie book from).  Apparently Tower owns the land where the rose is growing, and Eddie knows that if it is sold to the Sombra Corporation, not only the rose, but the tower itself will be destroyed.

In the second story line, the ka-tet meet Father Callahan and a group of men from a farming village who want to hire them to stop the Wolves.  The townspeople of Calla Bryn Sturgis give birth to more twins than “singles”, and once every generation, the Wolves come and take one of the twins.  When the twin is returned,  he or she is “roont” – mentally challenged, growing to an enormous size, and dying young.

In the third story line, Eddie and Roland start to see that there is something wrong with Susannah. Although she eventually opens up to them, she is going to handle things on her own.

Stephen King has kept this saga going by creating many twists and turns, and the development of his characters has been amazing.  Since meeting Roland, Eddy, Susannah and Jake have adapted to so many changes,  adapted and embraced them.  Oh, and I loved the fact that he brought Father Callahan back from a very old novel so he could play a part in this one.

 

Favorite Quotes from Wolves of the Calla:

“It’s a problem, isn’t it?” “It’s an opportunity,” Roland corrected.”

“No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves.”

“If,’ Roland said. ‘An old teacher of mine used to call it the only word a thousand letters long.”

 

Re-Read: March 2015

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King (#4.5 Dark Tower)

The Wind Through The Keyhole by Stephen King

Published: 2012

 

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King is a short-story in the Dark Tower Series, which takes place after the ka-tet escape the Green Palace (Oz).

A ferocious storm is brewing (a starkblast), and the group must hunker down and ride it out.  

While they are resting, Roland tells them a story about his long ago journey to Debaria with Jamie, shortly after the death of his mother.  His father sends them on the hunt for a dangerous “shape-changer”, who is victimizing a small community.   On the way there, they stop at the town of “Serenity”,  a refuge for women, which is where his mother stayed while she slowly loses her mind over the affair with Marten.  Roland eventually learns more about his mother here.  Jamie and Roland arrive in Debaria, and the next morning a second attack occurs.  While comforting the sole survivor, he tells the young boy another story.  This story is a rather scary fairy tale about a small boy who leaves his home in search of a cure for his mother’s blindness, which was caused by her brutal second husband.  Dragons and swamp creatures abound.

This is just pure entertainment – Stephen King style!  Stories within stories, each a little creepier than the last.  A little break along the path of the beam.

 

Favorite Quotes from The Wind Through The Keyhole:

“Time is a keyhole, he thought as he looked up at the stars. Yes, I think so. We sometimes bend and peer through it. And the wind we feel on our cheeks when we do – the wind that blows through the keyhole- is the breath of all the living universe.”

“A person’s never too old for stories. Man and boy, girl and woman, we live for them.”

“The stories we hear in childhood are the ones we remember all our lives.”

Re-Read: February 2015

Wizard And Glass by Stephen King (#4 Dark Tower)

Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

Published: 1997

 

 

Wizard and Glass by Stephen King is the 4th in the Dark Tower Series.

We had left our “ka-tet” on Blaine the Mono, the train bound for insanity.   This talking train agrees to let them off if they can beat him at “riddling”.  A surprise winner in this one!

So they are on the road again, and a great time for stories.  Finally we hear about Roland’s past.  We hear about his first ka-tet, how he earned his guns, his love for Susan Delgado, and Sheemie.  We also learn about the thinnies, and wizard’s glass, and Rhea, and the Coffin Hunters.  We hear about his highs, and his lows.  And then we move on.

We move on to the “Emerald City”.  Can we say Oz everyone?  Here we learn a little more of Roland’s past.

We move on again, always following the path of the beam.

I love how King often brings in elements already famous from his other novels.  Randall Flagg, and Captain Tripps are both mentioned in this one.

This was a good book, but long.  I realize we had to find out Roland’s back story sooner or later, and although it apparently only took him one night to tell it, the read time was a whole lot longer….guess I’m not living close enough to a thinny.

 

Favorite Quotes from Wizard and Glass: 

“Long days and pleasant nights, sai,”

“If it’s ka it’ll come like a wind, and your plans will stand before it no more than a barn before a cyclone”

“See the BEAR of fearsome size!
All the WORLD’S within his eyes.
TIME grows thin, the past is a riddle;
The TOWER awaits you in the middle.”

 

Re-Read: April 2015

 

The Waste Lands by Stephen King (#3 Dark Tower)

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

Published: 1991

 

The Waste Lands by Stephen King is the 3rd in the Dark Tower series.

After saving Jake’s life in 1977,  Roland had to leave him behind.  Now Jake is struggling in his world.  He is losing his mind.  Is he dead?  He was sure he died.  Life is not the same anymore.  School is suddenly not going well.  His dad is not happy.   Then he finds a key.  He knows where it fits, but going into that haunted mansion is not something he wants to attempt.

Roland too is losing his mind.   After saving Jake, and yet dropping him off a cliff after that, his mind seems to be shutting down.   Meanwhile, Eddy, Susannah and Roland have found one of the beams that hold the world and are headed to mid-world.  Eddy has something else on his mind.  He thinks he may be able to get Jake.  He is whittling a key.  He knows it will have to be perfect.

This is a very “busy” book.  A lot of little things happen in addition to pulling Jake back into Roland’s world.   Some are pertinent to the continuing story, some not so much.  I could have done without Susannah having sex with the demon, but would never give up the billy-bumbler Oy.  The visit to the town of Lud was scary.

The worst part was that they end up on a train, a very intelligent train, a train that has it’s own mind, and it is going insane.  And THAT is how the book ends.  A cliffhanger????

Classic King in this one!  

 

Favorite Quotes from The Wasteland:

“Ka was like a wheel, its one purpose to turn, and in the end it always came back to the place where it had started.”

“All things serve the beam”

“See the turtle of enormous girth, on his shell he holds the earth. If you want to run and play, come along the beam today.”

 

Re-read: April 2015

 

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (#2 Dark Tower)

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

Published: 1987

 

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King is the 2nd in the Dark Tower Series.

This may be my favorite of the series.

This book starts on the beach, where Roland wakes up after his palaver with The Man in Black.  He is attacked by some “lobstrosities”, and loses a few fingers, which is going to prove interesting for the gunslinger, and most of a toe.  Roland is sick.

This book has Roland “draw” three people from our world.  

He draws Eddie Dean, a drug pusher, from 1987.  When Roland finds Eddie, there is cocaine taped to his body, he is on an airplane, and the stewardess is already suspicious.

He draws Odetta Holmes, a black woman in a wheelchair from 1964.  Odetta/Detta seems to be two people, and one of them is stealing from a fancy store and about to be caught.

And he draws Jake, a young boy from 1977, who he already met in the waystation.  We meet Jake this time, just before he will be pushed in front of a car by the same man who is responsible for Odetta’s missing legs.

These four will be travelling companions in search of the dark tower.  They will learn to love, respect and fight for each other.  They will become a family.  But they have to learn to like each other first.

 

Favorite Quotes from The Drawing of the Three:

“Eddie was doing well. The gunslinger measured just how well by the fact that he was fighting naked. That was hard for a man. Sometimes impossible.”

“What’s ka?” Eddie’s voice was truculent. “I never heard of it. Except if you say it twice you come out with the baby word for shit.”

 

Re-Read: 2015

 

The Gunslinger by Stephen King (#1 Dark Tower)

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Originally Published: 1982

 

The Gunslinger by Stephen King is the 1st in the Dark Tower Series, an epic tale of good vs evil.   Part western, part fantasy, part science fiction, it is hard to classify.

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”  And so begins the tale of our hero Roland, whose search for the Dark Tower will take him to many worlds.  It will show him love and loss, friendship, hardship, hatred, fear, good and evil.  It will test him.  Sometimes he will fail.

In this opening book, we are introduced to Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger, who lives in a world that has “moved on”.  It is a world closely related to ours, with common elements such as the song “Hey Jude”, but in which things like gas pumps are worshiped.   But the world he lives in is dying.   And if the Dark Tower falls, all worlds fall.  So he must reach and save the Dark Tower.  This is his quest.

Roland’s backstory is told through flashbacks and conversations he has with people he meets on his journey, like farmer Brown and his crow Zoltan.  Farther along, he meets a boy named Jake  Chambers at a waystation. Jake has died in our world, when pushed in front of a car.  He may not survive this world either.  

We learn of Roland’s early gunslinger training by Cort, of his best friends Cuthbert and Alain, his parents Steven and Gabrielle, who had an affair with Marten.

Roland eventually catches up with the Man in Black (he is known by many names), who tells his future with a deck of tarot cards, and when he cannot convince Roland to give up his quest for the Dark Tower, he puts him to sleep.  When Roland wakes up there is a skeleton bedside him, who he decides is the Man in Black.

This book was not the easiest read.  The first time I read it (as a teenager), I wasn’t sure what to think, as it was not King’s usual style (Carrie, The Shining…).   It seemed…boring. But as a King fanatic, I stuck with it, and re-read it when the next one came out, and again and again.  Each time it gets better! 

 

Favorite Quotes from The Gunslinger:

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”

“The hawk does not fear you, boy, and the hawk never will. The hawk is God’s gunslinger.”

“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”

 

Re-Read: 2015