Read: The Dark Tower–“Callahan and the Vampires”; “Lifted on the Wave”; “Eddie Makes a Call”

Three elements combined to put me in a good mood in starting to read this, the final volume in the series. (The journey’s almost over.)

1) The last quarter of Song of Susannah was really good.

2) The inside front jacket copy starts thusly:

All good things must come to an end, Constant Reader, and not even Stephen King can make a story that goes on forever.

Despite appearances to the contrary, it only feels that way!

The tale of Roland Deschain’s relentless quest for the Dark Tower has, the author fears, sorely tried the patience of those who have followed it from its earliest chapters.

You don’t say! All kidding aside, this level of self-awareness is refreshing, as well as funny.

3) In addition to a passage from Robert Browning’s “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” (obviously) and Bad Company’s “Bad Company” (knowing King’s taste in music, also obviously), the epigraph page also contains this:

What have I become?

My sweetest friend

Everyone I know

Goes away in the end

You could have it all

My empire of dirt

I will let you down

I will make you hurt

–Trent Reznor

I did not see that coming! NIN quotes always put me in a good mood.

Now I’m three chapters deep, and so far, so good. I’ll admit that I wanted to see Callahan go down in a bit more of a blaze of glory. His demise was fun and dramatic, but it might have been nice to see him take the whole room full of Grandfather Type One vampires (and by the way, how fucked-up and awesome are they?) with him. As far as the wonky todash concept goes, the “todash tidal wave” that Roland and Eddie get swept up by ain’t half-bad. And I even kind of dig the idea that this random John Cullum guy (note the initials) will suddenly step up and save the day, like the Arliss Howard character in Natural Born Killers. Would I spend so much time in the conclusion of my epic Western sci-fi/fantasy quest series arranging land deals and organizing corporations? That’s a big negatory, but, y’know, it’s not super-distracting at the moment.

More monster shoot-outs, more unimaginable battles, more winding of horns and storming of towers, kthx. But so far so good.

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