The Dark Tower (Dark Tower book 7)

The Dark Tower (Dark Tower Book 7)
by Stephen King
book impressions

Significant spoilers in this post, for those who care about that.

The Dark Tower is the conclusion of the series. It’s long. And tragic. I cried at every death and every parting.

I did feel that the characters’ intuition influencing decisions was a little overused as a plot-advancing device – I got a little tired of hearing that someone just made an unexpected decision because they “just felt it was the right thing to do”. It’s an interesting concept, but I thought Stephen King was a little too free in using it as a get-out-of-jail free card to drive the plot forward artificially.

In spite of that, I really enjoyed the story. The plot did not go as I was expecting, which was refreshing, since the surprising events did seem fitting and appropriate when I read them — the plot itself did not feel contrived. The deaths especially happened abruptly, and sometimes, mundanely, which made the story actually seem more realistic.

When I first read the ending, I felt it was jarring and dissatisfying. Susannah leaves her still-living, real friends for a chance at finding shadow versions of her dead friends. Seemed like a poor choice to me, but the ending left her in a very hopeful situation. Roland reaches and ascends the Dark Tower at last, only to realize that the peak is unattainable to him – all he finds is a doorway to his past, and he’s cursed to repeat the same long sad journey. Upon digesting it further though, I felt more comfortable with it. In actuality, Susannah’s situation is fraught with pitfalls – she’ll have to re-bond with the shadow friends, and learn to accept that they’re truly not the same people she once knew and loved – though she has some chance, some ray of hope.  Similarly, Stephen King gives Roland a ray of hope as well, something slightly different through the doorway to the past that could change everything, making this the last iteration. I still don’t love it, but I can accept it. It fits.

Song of Susannah (Dark Tower book 6)

Song of Susannah (Dark Tower Book 6)
by Stephen King
book impressions

In Song of Susannah, Stephen King writes HIMSELF into the story! As Stephen King the famous author! What nerve!

Actually, I thought it was clever and effective. He writes himself in as a legitimate character, that happens to be the famous author, and happens also to be the creator (or at least the recorder) of the story of Roland’s adventures. It didn’t break the flow of the story at all; instead it added an interesting element of self-awareness in the characters. They begin to expect coincidences, and events that seem too pat, and they begin to make decisions based on ‘information from the beyond’, which comes in various forms, often just intuition.

Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower book 5)

Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower Book 5)
by Stephen King
book impressions

I was wary of continuing in the Dark Tower series after reading Book 4 (Wizard and Glass), which I decidedly disliked. However, after reading Books 5-7 (Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower), I am glad I chose to keep reading! As I was hoping, these books really did redeem the series in my eyes.

Books 5-7 read as if they were meant to be one long book, and I found myself reading them one right after the other because I just couldn’t put them down! I really couldn’t wait to find out what would happen to Roland and his friends.

Wolves of the Calla especially has an exciting and high-tension story with several interesting and engaging characters and relationships. The book also further develops Stephen King’s concept of the Dark Tower universe as an amalgam of worlds. We’d seen in previous books that the universe contains recognizable elements from our modern-day world; now, we see that it also draws content from other well-known fantasy worlds and stories. It’s a neat concept, and is well-integrated into the story. It’s a good example of how one can take inspiration and even borrow content from other works, and still produce a creative and original book.

While I was reading it, I had an amusing experience: at one point in the story, a villain is introduced that I swore I remembered from a book I’d read before. But before I could really feel any indignation at Stephen King’s borrowing someone else’s characters, I realized that the book I remembered was Hearts in Atlantis…. by Stephen King. Hah. Guess you can’t be accused of being derivative of your own work, now can you?

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
by Susannah Clarke
book impressions

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly.

The book is set in nineteenth century England, where two magicians are trying to revive English magic. The style of the book though resembles a Jane Austen novel – the language is a little flowery, and there are a seemingly inordinate number of dinner parties and socials. Overall there is less action than one might expect from a story about reviving magic, and using it to fight against Napoleon – the action is practically glossed over while the story focuses on developing the characters and relationships. Although the pace of the plot is slower, but the characters are engaging, original, and realistic. Mr Norrell, for instance, is no stereotypical dark, handsome, flashy magician – he’s a snobby middle-aged English gent who is frankly a little boring. One thing I found especially refreshing was the inclusion of a black character whose race is not his primary character trait. His race is often noticed, as is appropriate for the setting, but he is a fully developed character, not a symbol at all, and he just happens to be black. The aspect of the book that I liked best was how immersive it was. Clarke develops a very convincing world because as the author, she takes the world for granted, never breaking character to explain how the world works, instead letting the reader discover it slowly as he reads. This was really effective and made me feel really captivated by the world and the cast of characters.

The Stars My Destination

The Stars My Destination
by Alfred Bester
book impressions

I really liked this book. It completely captured me, and I read it cover-to-cover in one sitting.

The story is about a man with no special traits or ambitions… until he finds himself the sole survivor of a spaceship accident, surviving alone in space for months. When finally a ship approaches, he looks to it for rescue, but it chooses instead to pass him by and leave him to die. Incensed, he rescues himself, and embarks on a mad single-minded quest for revenge. In doing so, he becomes embroiled in a plot involving all the most-powerful people in civilization. All the while, his consuming hunger for vengeance eats away at his humanity.

Also, the edition I read features an excellent introduction by Neil Gaiman. It is a respectful interesting introduction that really made me interested in reading the book, and afterwards, made me appreciate the book even more. It discussed how difficult it is for science fiction to age well, and how remarkably successful The Stars My Destination, written in 1956, really was at remaining relevant and engaging even decades later. The book also contains many concepts and character models that have now become classic prototypes in the sci-fi genre.

But even discounting its place in sci-fi history, The Stars My Destination is a compelling read. The plot is exciting and draws you in. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down! Worth reading.

Downbelow Station

Downbelow Station
by C.J. Cherryh
book impressions

Downbelow Station is about a war between two factions of humans – those living in space colonies and planets near Earth, and those living in outer regions. The war comes to a head at a space station on the border of these two territories; the station is a critical strategic location because it is associated with a planet that has many resources… and also an alien population.

The book features a complicated political plot full of alliances, schemes and backstabbing. Human characters from both factions, as well as alien characters, are all portrayed fairly; no one point of view is favored. Each characters is given believable strengths, weaknesses, motivations. Downbelow Station is good in a lot of ways, especially the interesting and complex plot, but somehow it didn’t really capture me. Even though the characterization was competent, I felt like I didn’t really develop any emotional attachment to the characters, mostly because I thought the writing style was a little dry and distant. Also, I thought the ending was too abrupt; the resolution seemed too simple compared to the complexity of the conflicts in the story.