I am in awe... My journey through The Dark Tower: The Wolves of the Calla has come to a close and I feel like the finali was blow after blow of sophisticated story telling. I feel the need to be reading this with someone just so we can marvel together at the clever use of intertextuality and how rich and expansive the story has become...
The last stand of the book references Star Wars, Marvel Comics and even Harry Potter and has utterly blown my mind. The relationship between the Gunslinger's world and our own is blurring and the nature of reality itself is unfolding.
Many of King's previous novels are overlapping and the author has just stepped into his own story I am marvelling at King's genius. I don't choose that word lightly. I mean it. The man is displaying real story telling genius.
From the rich world and characters he's created to his clever use of Post-Modern writing devices King is a competent craftsman, this is truly his Lord of the Rings. What will the katet find on the top layer of the Tower (the centre of the existance of all universes and time itself)? Will they find God? Will they find nothing at all?
Though these books are not written from the purspective of a Lord-lover they capture the spiritual dissonence of our time. Our need to belong, to pursue something greater than ourselves, to know we serve a purpose and seek the centre of it all, the nature of existance itself.
If I wasn't waiting to begin the inheritance trilogy I would dive straight into Song of Susanna but I must demonstrate restraint. The quest for the Tower must wait a little longer. For now I want to basque in the glow of the Wolves of the Calla. Truly brilliant. xc