Book Review: 3 Treasure Boxes
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
Publisher: Donald M. Grant/Scribner; 1st Trade Ed edition (June 8, 2004), Hardcover: 432 pages, Language: English, ISBN-0-7432-6679-X

This book is the final book in the series and it pulls all the storylines together.  It starts out with an exciting battle scene where Jake and Callahan are fighting against the Crimson King’s minions in order to find and save Susannah. Meanwhile Roland and Eddie are attempting to save the selfish writer, Stephen King.

This is the seventh book in the Dark Tower series, there are currently a total of seven books, and Stephen King announced in 2009 that he has plans for an eighth book, The Wind Through the Keyhole which he plans to write at some point in the future.  Stephen King is primarily known as a horror author, and this book certainly does have aspects of horror in it, it also falls into the fantasy genre and sometimes it can be considered a western.  In fact this book is closest to horror of all the books in this series. The story is told with a third person narrative and focuses primarily on the characters who are on the quest to find and heal the Dark Tower.

They are all Gunslingers and they are Roland Deschain of Gilead (from time unremembered,) Eddie Dean of New York (from 1987) and his wife Susanna Dean of New York (from 1964) as well as their adopted son Jake Chambers of New York (from 1977.) The story has also added Pere Callahan from one of Stephen King’s previous books, Salam’s Lot and Stephen King himself (from 1977,) is a character in this book.  The Dark Tower is at the centre of the universe and connects all the varying worlds and time-lines together. Most of the books in the series take place in a post-apocalyptic world where things are running down and time has become weird.  Some of this book takes place in our world in 1999.

This is the darkest of the books in the dark tower series. It also has the most horror in it. The story is sad at times and brought tears to my eyes, yet it also brings joy and hope to the reader.  The ending is unique and somewhat ambiguous, in some ways it is a beginning and not an ending. By the end of the book, Roland is truly a different person. This was a series that I did not want to end and found myself turning pages to look for more.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to follow Roland on his journey, but please read the prior books first as this book is not really a stand-alone book.  If you enjoy reading fantasy/science fiction books then you should enjoy this book since it has a bit of both within it.