The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
Preceded by | Song of Susannah |
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The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower is a 2004
Plot summary
Beginning where book six left off, Jake Chambers and Father Callahan battle the evil infestation within the Dixie Pig, a vampire lounge in New York City featuring roast human flesh and doors to other worlds. After fighting off and destroying numerous "Low-Men" and Type One Vampires, Callahan sacrifices himself to let Jake survive.
In the other world—Fedic—
In
Roland and his ka-tet travel to Thunderclap, then to the nearby Devar-Toi, to help a group of psychics known as Breakers who are allowing their telepathic abilities to be used to break away at the beams that support the Tower.
They discover King about to be hit by a van. Jake pushes King out of the way but Jake is killed in the process. Roland, heartbroken with the loss of his adoptive son, buries Jake and returns with Oy to Susannah in Fedic, via the Dixie Pig, after paying a visit to the Tet Corporation. They are chased through the depths of Castle Discordia by an otherworldly monster, then depart and travel for weeks across freezing badlands toward the Tower.
Along the way they find Patrick Danville, a young man imprisoned by someone who calls himself Joe Collins but is really a psychic vampire named Dandelo. Dandelo feeds off the emotions of his victims, and starts to feed off of Roland and Susannah by telling them jokes. Roland and Susannah are alerted to the danger by Stephen King, who drops clues directly into the book, enabling them to defeat the vampire. They discover Patrick in the basement, and find that Dandelo had removed his tongue. Patrick is freed and soon his special talent becomes evident: his drawings and paintings become reality. As their travels bring them nearer to the Dark Tower, Susannah comes to the conclusion that Roland needs to complete his journey without her. Susannah asks Patrick to draw a door she has seen in her dreams to lead her out of this world. He does so and once it appears, Susannah had a bittersweet goodbye with Roland and crosses over to another world.
Mordred, now dying due to food poisoning, finally reaches and attacks Roland while he sleeps. Oy viciously defends his dinh, providing Roland the extra seconds needed to exterminate the were-spider. Oy is impaled on a tree branch and dies. Roland continues on to his ultimate goal and reaches the Tower, only to find it occupied by the Crimson King. They remain in a stalemate for a few hours, until Roland has Patrick draw a picture of the Crimson King and then erase it, thus wiping him out of existence except for his eyes. Roland gains entry into the Tower while Patrick turns back home. 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.
The story then shifts to Susannah coming through the magic door to an alternate 1980s New York, where Gary Hart is president. Susannah throws away Roland's gun (which does not function on this side of the door), rejecting the life of a gunslinger, and starts a new life with alternate versions of Eddie and Jake, who in this world are brothers with the surname Toren. They have only very vague memories of their previous journey with Susannah, whose own memories of Mid-World are already beginning to fade. It is implied that an alternate version of Oy, the billy-bumbler, will also join them.
In a final "Coda" section, King urges the reader to close the book at this point, consider the story finished with a happy ending, and not venture inside the Tower with Roland. For those who do not heed the warning, the story resumes with Roland stepping into the Dark Tower. He realizes that the Tower is not really made of stone, but a kind of flesh: it is
Reception
The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 2005.[4]
Film sequel
On May 18, 2016, Stephen King tweeted a photo of the Horn of Eld with the caption 'Last Time Around', referring to the end of the final book and revealing that the upcoming 2017 film is a sequel to the book series rather than a direct adaptation. In the beginning of the film, Roland has the Horn of Eld, which he received at the end of The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower.[5]
References
- ^ "THE DARK TOWER VII: The Dark Tower Stephen King, Author, Michael Whelan, Illustrator". Publishers Weekly. publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
- ^ "The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower : (Volume 7)". bookdepository.com. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
- ^ AGGER, MICHAEL (October 17, 2004). "'The Dark Tower': Pulp Metafiction". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
- ^ "2005 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- ^ Stephen King [@StephenKing] (May 19, 2016). "The Dark Tower is close, now. The Crimson King awaits. Soon Roland will raise the Horn of Eld. And blow" (Tweet) – via Twitter./photo/1
External links
- The Dark Tower official website
- TheDarkTower.org
- The Dark Tower at Worlds Without End