The Dark Tower ending (spoiler alert)
 

Ok, so it's been about two years or so since I finished the series, and just to recap, at the end, Roland gets to his destination only to realize he's in a loop until he gets it right, and at the very end he gets spit back into the loop, he becomes self aware of it, and the series ends ostensibly with him back at the beginning of The Gunslinger.
I liked the ending after a few months for this reason, it had been touted as King's magnum opus, and I always had a theory that when you complete your masterpiece you are done as an artist, however he keeps going with great shit, so therefore his masterpiece is done, and yet his creative output continues on, in a continuous loop (until death obviously) so I took the whole work as a commentary on creative output.
Ok so fine, but taking the Dark Tower as a whole, I thought the ending sucked a bag of shit, as cop out. In other words, he was supposed to deliver a climactic final battle between good and evil, but he didn't want to be cliche, so he did what he did. Ok I get it. But after the investment of about 3,000 pages we invested I thought it sucked a bag of dicks.
I bring this up now because I'm really worried Lost will end this way and if it does it will ruin my favorite show forever.
So, my question is, will those of you who liked the ending of the Dark Tower please tell me why it was good, cause most people I've heard about it love it. So maybe I'm missing something and I want to know why I should appreciate it.
Thanks, ka-tet.

the breakers are our legislators. so intoxicating the work , they know not what the do ? roland is liberty who, among other things droped his horn. our legislators have forgotten the face of thier father. perhaps w/ the horn .....
i enjoyed it very much, grateful a ghost writer was not required.
the most disapointing part was when king slipped into clan of cave bears stlye brain slury to finish the skins.

I think the reason I liked it so much was...well let me begin by saying I was fucking livid for about two weeks after I finished this series but after awhile something clicked and I was relieved on some exsistental level maybe our lives are one try and we still have other opportunities to correct what we've fucked this time around...but maybe that's just my wishful thinking and the ending sucked a dead rats asshole

I hated the ending initially, but later I began to really appreciate it. It was a long journey which never gets to the end -- it starts all over again. The important part is the journey: what has been done and what has been learned.

When I first finished the series, I tried to think about what ending would've satisfied me. The truth is that the ending that King wrote is the only way to "finish" the story. Anything else would either be cheezy or wouldn't make sense.

It some ways, the ending was similar to the Wizard of Oz which the Dark Tower frequently paralleled. At the conclusion, Dorothy ends up right back where she started -- but changed. She needed the journey to "nowhere" for that to happen.

Roland's universe is the Stephen King universe. I also like the implication that the universe is eternal.

I wasn't upset by the ending because 1. I know the Robert B Browning poem Childe Roland... so I suspected the book would end the way it did (if you dont know it the poem is about Rolands quest for the holy grail and his long journey to reach the dark tower where it is housed, the poem ends when Roland reaches the tower and blows his horn to announce himself but we dont find out if he even goes in). and 2. I had the luxury of never having to wait for one of the books, I started reading them around when Wolves or Song came out and by the time I finished the last book was out. I liked Wizard and Glass but my dad, aunt, and brother who all read the books as they came out hated it because it was such a digression when they had already been waiting so long for the series to advance.

It's definately not an immediately satisfying ending, but it can be. I think you want Roland to be able to rest after his great task, but it makes more sense that he would have to be vigilant and disciplined throughout his life and basically become a guardian of the beam, walking it forever to keep it safe. Roland also represents order in midworld which is being attacked by chaos. Entropy is ongoing and cant be ultimately defeated, only kept at bay. Also, Roland thinks through repeating his journey he can finally perfect it, but perfection is unattainable so he will always guard the beam while he chases perfection.

Everybody needs closure and this ending dosent provide it. I was sooooooooooooo let down when I finished the last book. I was like "this is it?"

Maybe the "loop" ending with Roland starting over means that we as the "serious reader" are supposed to also start over reading the books and never being able to stop. Thankee Sai.

Has an RF.net book club ever been suggested or attempted?

No and let's do it.

Ron and Fez Chapter Book Club- I'm down.

We probably can't pick super new books so people can get stuff from the library.

I have read the series twice now. I caught things the 2nd time around that I didn't catch the 1st time.
The only way that story could have ended was the way it did. While reading the story, the reader should have known how it would end. Numerous mentions that Ka is a wheel. I'm just glad that he got around to writing the rest of the story instead of leaving us readers stuck where we were in the middle.

Read Insomnia to understand more about Patrick's part in the series.

my favorite part of the end was the letter. " ok, i finished it for you fucko's. if your dissipointed or have any questions regarding the ending; fuck off." or somthing like that.

New Dark Tower Book
Posted on: November 16th, 2009 5:57:03 am
Stephen has announced that he has an idea for a new Dark Tower book, the working title of which will be THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE. He has not yet started this book and anticipates that it will be a minimum of eight months before he is able to begin writing it.

This was on King's Website. For those of you unhappy w/ the ending maybe you'll get your wish with this, although i have no idea where or when this book would take place.

this entire series was life changing for me. i got into it as a freshmen in high school and had to wait for all the books from the 3rd one which was the worst wait ever. 5 years w/ no internet to hear anything and i finally was able to pre-order the Wizard and Glass hardcover for $40 which is the greatest book i've ever read in my life.

As Ocho Cinco i'm glad my 85th post is for this because like Lost i think it's the best work i've read or seen in my entire life. No book or show can compare to either, and the fact that jj abrams signed up w/ King to do the Dark Tower movie or show is the best news ever

Go then, there are other worlds then these

I guess the graphic novels inspired him.
I have no fucking idea where or when this thing would pick up but I love the guy so let's get to it.

When I heard this I assumed it would be along the lines of Wizard and Glass, about the younger Roland, and not augment the end of the story.