Roughly 18 years ago, when I first laid eyes on the line The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. in the first of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, I had no idea I would ever get so drawn into a story. If you've never read any of them, you probably can't relate.

But for years, Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah and Oy have ruled my imaginary universe, leaving me yearning for more with every last word, on every last page, of every volume. King seemed to take *forever* in finishing up the story.



:: SPOILER ALERT ::

And now that it's finally over, I feel strangely sad and satisfied. Eddie, Jake and Oy are dead, but Roland reached his goal (sort of, anyway). There was a moment in time, when I thought he never would: The day Stephen King got hit by a car.

Don't get me wrong - I felt for King. But honestly, upon hearing the news, I thought to myself: He can't fucking die on me now. He has to finish the Dark Tower series! I know that's selfish, but King had only just finished the fourth book, and Roland was still a long ways away from the Tower. The world would have been a sad, wrong place if it had to all end there. Like Tolkien never finishing his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

On the other hand - genius that King is, he took the experience and rolled it into the last book in the most masterful way (you just have to go read it for yourself if you want to know how ...). All hail to him for that. What an extraordinary way to immortalize yourself via your own story.

Plus, Marvel Comics just finished the prequel graphic novel series The Gunslinger Born, so Roland lives on after all ...

Yay.

>>He can't fucking die on me now. He has to finish the Dark Tower series! <<

I am totally sending this quote and your blog addy to Mr.King. I've been sending him postcards every year on his birthday, and you are now officially mentioned in the next one. He'll crack up, I know it!

Heh. Go ahead, Keeneye. Send away! I bet I wasn't the only one thinking those exact thoughts...

When's King's birthday anyway?

A good friend of mine, a Stephen King nut, said the exact same thing when King got in that accident. I haven't read the series at all, nor much of his stuff, but I remember laughing my tail off when she said that -- she was honestly calling the hospital and such that he was at, making sure he was going to pull through, etc... .