Lilja's Library (47 page)

Lilja’s final words about
Duma Key
 

Duma Key
is a very good book, and John’s narrating does the audio edition justice in a very satisfying way. It’s not only a ghost story, but also a rather sad horror story that really shows King’s strength as a writer and storyteller.
Duma Key
is a book you don’t want to miss! 

“God punishes us for what we can’t imagine.” 

—Wireman (Duma Key) 

Section 2—The Dark Tower  

The Gunslinger - Revised Edition 

Posted: August 24, 2003  

When
Wolves of the Calla
was announced, King also announced that he would re-release the first four installments. And that wasn’t enough. King also said he had re-written installment one,
The Gunslinger
. It’s supposed to be about nine thousand words longer and almost every page has been changed in some way. This was done to make the book connect more with the rest of the series and also to make it easier to read. Originally,
The Gunslinger
was written as five separate novels (even though they were obviously connected to each other) and therefore there wasn’t a one hundred percent seamless flow when they were put together. 

So, what has King done, and has he succeeded in making the book easier to read and more in sync with the rest of the series? The answer is yes to both questions.  

When it comes to the ease of reading the book there is a significant difference! Now it feels more like a whole book instead of segments placed within the same covers. The flow of the book is a lot better.  

King also uses words and people that he hasn’t used before (so early in the story) to give the book a more Dark Tower feel and to connect it to the other books. I suspect that we will get the explanation of words like “bolt” and “bah” and also learn more about the Manni people and how to dance the Commala in upcoming books. To give the book the right atmosphere, King has also added phrases like “Long days and pleasant nights” and “Thank ya” to the characters’ vocabulary.  

To further connect
The Gunslinger
with the other installments, King mentions a billy-bumbler, which before this edition we didn’t hear about until later on. King also connects
The Gunslinger
with
Wizard and Glass
by putting the piano player in Tull (Sheb) at the scene of Susan’s death. We didn’t know about her death until
Wizard and Glass
before now. Further, Sylvia (also from Tull) claims to have the child of the Crimson King. The Crimson King didn’t enter
The Dark Tower
universe until later before this edition.  

This goes on and on. We get to know that Roland will lose his fingers. Roland gets to know about Eddie, Detta and Jack from the oracle. The same oracle also tells him about his betrayal of Jake before it happens. We learn more about Gilead and how it looked when Roland left. He tells Jake he “sees” an invisible man hanged for rape and that he left a girl in a town called King’s Town. All in all, we get to know more about what’s in store for Roland than we did before, all to make
The Gunslinger
connect more with the other books.  

The biggest addition is that King has added the number nineteen to the story. I personally believe that it will play a big role in the future books. Here, the character Allie from Tull gets a note from the man in black that says she should ask Nort (the man who is brought back to life) about death, and all she has to do is mention the number nineteen. This is just one example… 

Other interesting information we get is that Marten and Farson are one and the same, that Roland’s parents had chosen a wife for him, her name was/is Aileen Ritter. We also get the names of Roland’s friends. This we had before, but I think/hope we will learn what happens to them later on since we don’t know at this point. Therefore, it can be a good idea to keep their names fresh. They are Jamie DeCurry, Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns and Thomas Whitman.  

Lilja’s final words about
The Gunslinger - Revised Edition
 

Even if you have already read the original version of
The Gunslinger
, you will want to read this one. Not only is there a better flow in the book now, but you also get more information about a lot of things. So, in other words, get it now and start reading! 

**** 

The Dark Tower – Concordance, Volume 1 

Posted: October 10, 2003  

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Concordance, Volume 1
must be one of the longest titles of a book in a very long time. I will therefore call it
The Concordance
from here on out. Please don’t let the long title scare you though. It’s a really superb book—if you’re a
Dark Tower
fan like me, that is. If you’re not, this is probably not the book for you. 

Originally,
The Concordance
was done just for Stephen King himself. He was to use it when he wrote
Wolves of the Calla
,
Song of Susannah
and
The Dark Tower
to avoid errors when it came to people’s names and places. King did, however, feel that it was so good that he wanted the author, Robin Furth, to publish it.  

If you have ever seen Stephen Spignesi’s book
The Stephen King Encyclopedia
you know what kind of book this is. While Spignesi listed all the places, things and people in all of King’s books, Furth does the same with just
The Dark Tower
books. She takes it a bit Furth(er) though. She also lists languages, maps and holidays from the series. Since it was originally intended to be used only by King, it is incredibly detailed and has information about everything you could ever want to know…except the conclusion of the tale. This is (as the long title implies) the first volume. There will also be a second volume, but that one won’t be out until November 2004 when the last book is out.  

So, this is a book to look things up in. It’s not the type of book that you read from cover to cover even if you could do that or wanted to. I imagine that it’s directed to the really hardcore King fans out there and not the average reader, even though they also could have use of it from time to time.  

One thing that I found very nice about
The Concordance
was that Furth has separated the original
Gunslinger
and the revised one that was released earlier this year. She lists things from both editions with a comment that clears up what was in the original and what has been changed for the revised one. Good job!  

What about negative things about
The Concordance
? Are there any? Well, there are some, even though they aren’t big ones. Some pages look like they are overcrowded with information, which makes them somewhat difficult to read. Maybe it’s just me who isn’t that used to reading these types of books, but some of the pages could have used a bit more space between the lines, if you ask me. I was also hoping for a few more maps. As it is now, there are only three, which isn’t much considering all the places Roland and his ka-tet have been to in the first four volumes.  

Another thing I hope for is that when both volumes one and two have been released, there will be a single volume. Why? Well, I imagine that there will be a great deal of things, places and people that appear in both, say, books three and six. Will they then be mentioned in both volumes or just in one? Will you have to first look in volume one and then volume two to get the whole story, since nothing from books five through seven are revealed in volume one? Lots of questions, and I guess we’ll have to wait and see. What’s certain is that volume one is out now and a second volume will be out in November 2004.  

Lilja’s final words about
The Dark Tower – Concordance, Volume 1
 

If you’re a die-hard fan of
The Dark Tower
series you should definitely get
The Concordance
. If you think the books are a good read, but nothing more, you should definitely consider getting
The Concordance
. If you haven’t read any of
The Dark Tower
books and don’t plan to, don’t get
The Concordance
. In other words, most of you should go out and get this book right now!  

Oh, one last thing. If you haven’t read the first four parts in the series you should read them before you read
The Concordance
. Otherwise, things might be spoiled for you…and we don’t want that to happen, do we? 

****

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla 

Posted: November 3, 2003  

So, it’s finally here: the fifth installment of
The Dark Tower
…six years after
Wizard and Glass
was released. Luckily, it will only be about nine months until installment six is in our hands. 

The plot of
Wolves of the Calla
is that Roland and his ka-tet are asked to help the folks at Calla Bryn Sturgis to stop the Wolves from stealing their children. Every twenty (or so) years the Wolves come for one child in a set of twins. The children are later returned “roont,” stupid and destroyed. They grow to abnormal size and they die early.  

The problem is that the Wolves seem impossible to kill and they have weapons that the folks of the Calla don’t. It seems like an uneven battle until Roland and his ka-tet find the wolves’ secret… 

In
Wolves of the Calla
we also get to meet Father Callahan (notice the similarities between his name and the town’s name) from
’Salem’s Lot
. There is quite a lot about Father Callahan and about what he has done since
’Salem’s Lot
in the book. It’s interesting to read, though, so it’s no problem. Callahan is also woven into the bigger plot when King places him at the waystation in
The Gunslinger
(book one). 

Something that plays a really big role in
Wolves of the Calla
is Black 13. This is one of the glass balls that make up The Wizard’s Rainbow that is mentioned in
Wizard and Glass
(there, Reah of the Coos has one of the glass balls, not Black 13 though). Black 13 is the most powerful of them all, and it makes Roland and the others go todash. To go todash means that they travel without going through a door, but enter other worlds like ghosts. The gang returns to New York around the time Jake finds the rose (book three).  

We also get to meet Andy the Messenger Robot. This is a robot that has survived through time and now mostly runs errands, tells the folks of Calla their future and sings songs. I say mostly because Andy has one really important task. He is the one that tells the folks of the Calla when the Wolves are coming… 

Besides the battle with the Wolves, we also learn more about Susannah’s pregnancy (which we got a hint about in book three) and, as usual, the book ends with a cliffhanger. The questions after reading
Wolves of the Calla
are many, and hopefully they will be resolved in the next book. 

King also provides some interesting background information to the story in general in
Wolves of the Calla
. We get to know a bit more about what happened to Roland’s childhood friends.
Wolves of the Calla
also ties a lot of the early events together, and it feels like King is making an effort to make all five of the books feel like one story; it’s done in a superb way. I really like it!  

As usual, King is also adding in connections to himself and other books. 

On the menu at The Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind, King himself is mentioned as one of today’s specials. King said he would be a character in the series and this might be it, but there may also be a lot more of King in the upcoming books. My guess is that we will see more of Stephen King as a character in the two last books but…as I said, that is just me guessing. There is also mention of
’Salem’s Lot
as a book by none other than Stephen King. 

Further connections to King’s work are:  

Claudia y Inez Bachman is now the author of Charlie the Choo Choo. She is, of course, the wife of the late Richard Bachman. Low Men, Regulators and Big Coffin Hunters are also mentioned.  

Lilja’s final words about
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
 

After reading
Wolves of the Calla
I feel that this is one of the strongest books in the entire series. I know, I know, that is how you feel about most books just after you have read them, right? But I have a feeling that this time it’s true.
Wolves of the Calla
is a really strong book and probably one of King’s best ever.