I wish that Stephen King would stop doing interesting things with Roland because then I could pull out of the series and not care. But there are occasional snippets of him – glimpses of why I love the character, that make the book worth reading overall.

It makes the garbage stand out more though. I read through the whole thing thinking “Sneetches… that word sounds familiar.” And if you think so too, when you’re reading it, there’s a completely unnecessary punch in the nuts coming your way at the end of the book.

I like the idea of the Dark Tower being about a series of worlds crumbling together as things go faster and faster out of control. When it becomes a pastiche of pop culture references (particularly when the author tries to tie all his books together into this overarching story) it just seems cluttered and forced. Ugly.

And man, are there some dumb ideas coming in the next book. But… closure. I must have closure, and add to the millions of people on the internet deliberately doing things that make them complain loudly.