i skipped a whole book in the dark tower series because wading through a part of the narrative that doesn't connect to the current plot bothers me that much. it is a matter of personal preference I know, but that preference is fun to complain about, so.

on the one hand i totally understand this but on the other hand wizard and glass is my favourite so i feel personally insulted

hdu

XD well in my ideal universe it is a side book. good in its own right but plopped right in the middle of the plot of the series it gets to me

That or the framing would be rewritten so the memory tied directly into something the tet had to do in the present, but that might change the story itself a lot

I agree, tbh

I think W&G works best on the same basis as the Wind Through the Keyhole - side story, like you say. It's a bit fucky that the whole story stops for an entire book so we can get Teenage Angst Drama: The Novel

but i will take the jarring pet peeve for the sake of also having my best girl on the page as much as possible

But it is really weird that it's framed when it is, and not at any of the many, many points before or after that when the main story is actively mirroring it

I think the series as a whole would lose something from not having W&G integrated into it, because so much of the thematic stuff is about reflecting the details of W&G that don't necessarily come across from Roland's random vague memories, but there are places where it would have fitted a hell of a lot better. Or it could have been woven in.

One of my pet peeves is when a story that makes sense to unfold in pieces throughout the narrative is instead lumped together like that

I tend to assume holding back on the backstory of his boy for that long just finally got to King and it all just came out XD i do wish we could have gotten more of the characters in a different way - woven in like you said, or some other weird shit

King did do short flashbacks before that too, I guess he just couldn’t hold back

Like, it's not like there aren't flashbacks elsewhere in the novels. A lot of W&G could be

...yes that

beat me to it

I honestly do tend to read W&G as a side book anyway, it's much easier than doing a full reread and it gives me that DT fix without having to go through seven whole books

Yeah that’s a good way to look at it

(I think this is probably why I play so many characters from W&G and so few from the rest of the series, canon review is just infinitely easier)

(playing Roland was just a five-year run of my brain screaming at me that i had to canon review, and my heart screaming at me THERE ARE SEVEN MASSIVE NOVELS)

XD that’s a good point, that’s part of what stopped me from really considering playing ax, I’d have to read or at least skim the whole Animorphs series. Like it’s easier to love some characters from a distance

yeah, Wizard and Glass is my favorite too, but I think it benefited from having an ending that was set and stuck to, which King doesn't always do well

god yeah, I love King but endings are... not his strong suit

looking at you, The Stand

isn't the stand that really long one too? I never read it but imagine plowing through all that to a disappointing ending

it sure is, and it should have ended 1/3 of the way through fight me

i love me some supernatural shit but "plague destroys humanity, survivors try to rebuild society" is a premise that 1000% does not require it, steve

it also 10000000% does not lend itself to a happy ending epilogue, STEVE

steve does what steve wants

it is both his blessing and his curse

XD yeah that is probably true