The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Title:  The Dark Tower
Author:  Stephen King
Pages:  845
Genre:  Fantasy
Series:  The Dark Tower, Book 7

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

Synopsis: All good things must come to an end, Constant Reader, and not even Stephen King can make a story that goes on forever. 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. But attend to it a while longer, if it pleases you, for this volume is the last, and often the last things are best.

Roland's ka-tet remains intact, though scattered over wheres and whens. Susannah-Mia has been carried from the Dixie Pig (in the summer of 1999) to a birthing room -- really a chamber of horrors -- in Thunderclap's Fedic; Jake and Father Callahan, with Oy between them, have entered the restaurant on Lex and Sixty-first with weapons drawn, little knowing how numerous and noxious are their foes. Roland and Eddie are with John Cullum in Maine, in 1977, looking for the site on Turtleback Lane where "walk-ins" have been often seen. They want desperately to get back to the others, to Susannah especially, and yet they have come to realize that the world they need to escape is the only one that matters.

Thus the book opens, like a door to the uttermost reaches of Stephen King's imagination. You've come this far. Come a little farther. Come all the way. The sound you hear may be the slamming of the door behind you. Welcome to The Dark Tower.

Because when ka-tet breaks, the end always comes quickly.

Review:  The last book in The Dark Tower series is just plain incredible and scary and sad.  It's a wonderful story.  I can't say too much because I'm afraid I'll give spoilers, but rest assured that this book is an epic ending to an incredible series.

Ted Brautigan (from Hearts in Atlantis) makes an appearance, as does Patrick Danville (Insomnia).  There are so many completely happy and completely horrible moments in this story that I found myself crying one moment and laughing the next.

Now that I've re-read the entire series, I remember why this is (and always will be) one of my two favorite series of all time.

Rating:  10 / 10