MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW
Yeah, real creative titling there King. Naming the last book in your series with the same name as the whole series. That's not confusing. That aside, this last volume encapsulates the entire series. Both its best & worst qualities. King delivers on the promise of the quest and brings us to a controversial ending...
As I was nearing the midpoint of this last book, I realized that this was serving as a novel length representation of King's pacing issues. I mentioned in several of the early write-ups of King's tendency to have terrific buildup and rushed finales, and The Dark Tower kind of does that for the whole series. It's almost like King forgot to include a bunch of important plot points earlier and had to cram them all in here before the end. Most glaringly, it feels like the first 100 pages of this book should have been the last 100 pages of Song of Susannah, as they wrap up most of that book's story threads and set up the final novel better. I understand his decision not to though. The story (not plot, important decision) for this book is about the ka-tet breaking apart as they near the Tower. So I can see the logic in having one last heartfelt reunion for our characters before circumstance destroys them, even if I didn't think it was executed especially well.
But one thing that finally came into understanding for me was King's concept of "Ka". "Ka" has been a recurring element throughout the whole series that I've never really gotten. From Roland's description, it is something close to destiny or fate or even like the Force from Star Wars, a sort of permeating energy that can influence or direct actions. King has deliberately kept "Ka" vague and the closest to a definition he gives is "a place to which one must go". But it was over the course of The Dark Tower I finally got that King more closely means "Being in the right place at the right time" and it's revealed why Roland drew these people to his ka-tet. It's because their "Ka" will put them in place to get him to the Dark Tower. In practice, this means each of the characters gets one last moment of awesome before they exit (by death or otherwise) and our party dwindles as the Tower nears. It's a neat bit of symmetry that by the time we get to the Tower, the ka-tet has broken and Roland has reached it alone. We began the quest with him by himself, and it's how we end the quest. But we'll get to more about that in a sec.
The other most narratively interesting thing about this final volume is the slow decay of the villains' threat. Now, I've been complaining about the Man in Black and the Crimson King's lack of action in the story from the beginning so I appreciated how in the last couple of books they came more to the forefront and their actual plan is revealed. Incidentally, that plan was to hijack Susannah's womb to birth the Crimson King's son (who is also Roland's son, long story) so he could kill the ka-tet while the Crimson King's team of kidnapped psychics bring down the last beam holding up the Tower. When the Tower falls, all of reality will collapse and the Crimson King will create a new reality with himself as God. It's a bit strange then that the birth of Mordred (the King's son), what should have been the killing stroke in the villains' plan, feels more like what causes their downfall. Yes, our heroes still have stop the beam from breaking but it feels more like a formality than a real challenge. Because after Mordred's birth everything goes downhill for the baddies. The Man in Black gets a deservedly gruesome death, the breakers are dealt with easily enough (not without consequence though), and the Crimson King, heart of the infection spreading through the Tower, is reduced to a crazy old man chucking grenades at Roland. Mordred gets the most screen time of any villain in the series, King making him actually somewhat sympathetic, before he too gets a summarily weak defeat. This feels like it should bother me but somehow it thematically makes sense that the closer we get to the Tower, the source of all life and order in the multiverse, the weaker and less powerful the villains become.
Now let's talk about the ending. I... still don't know how I feel about it, but I get why it is so controversial. ABSOLUTE LAST CHANCE FOR SPOILERS: The book ends with Roland ascending the Dark Tower, watching as the tower plays out his life before him. As he climbs higher, Roland comes to understand the Tower (Or maybe Gan the creator, or are they one & the same?) is disappointed with him. That's he missed the point of his quest, it was never about reaching the Tower no matter the cost. So as he reaches the top of the Tower, Roland is punished (or maybe rewarded) by beginning his quest over again. And it's not the first time he has. So we end where we began, with the gunslinger pursuing the man in black across the desert.
Like I said, I get why people don't like this ending. It's basically saying that the whole journey, all seven books we followed these characters through, didn't matter. We went through all of that only to have to start all over again. Those kind of endings always piss people off. But much like the villains' decay, this ending feels appropriate. Throughout the whole series, Roland's primary conflict has always been having to choose between the Tower and his friends. That was established way back in The Gunslinger when he chose to let Jake fall to his death instead of letting the Man in Black escape. But over the course of the series, Roland has had to step into the Obi-Wan role and become a father to his ka-tet. He even says as he reaches the Tower that of all his regrets, opening his heart up and regaining his humanity wasn't one of them. And yet, he still chose the Tower over his ka-tet. He let them all sacrifice themselves or abandon him so that he could reach the Tower. So the Tower makes him repeat his journey. It's trying to get Roland to finally choose his ka-tet over the Tower. At least, that's my interpretation.
It's been a long journey from the desert to the Tower. We've run into some strange things, watched our gunslingers grow, and finally seen the Dark Tower in the field of roses. It feels good to have reached the end, even if we just begin again. I'll see you again when the movie comes around.
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