The Gunslinger: Oh, Roland he of many whens

I've started reading The Dark Tower again, I may have mentioned it. I'm just so in love with the story being told and I'm so attached to everyone involved.

I'm reading The Gunslinger right now and within the next handful of pages he will let the boy drop, no matter how much I dread it. There are other worlds, yes, but I remember when I first read this book and I didn't even know it was part of a series and these words of other worlds fell dead in my ears because I just didn't understand.

This series is so underestimated and its so unfair. So many who have read it condemn King for his ending and I can't understand that. Did he not say from the beginning that Ka was a wheel? I was surprised by the end, I won't lie, but it was beautiful in its own way with its many implications. I did not read these seven books to arrive at the end of the journey anyway. In fact I put off reading the last book for a couple of years because I didn't want it to end. The joy was in the journey itself, the joy was in sharing the secret world of Roland and his mismatched Ka-tet and even though most of them meet fates that leave me in tears I know they'll still be there full of life every time I re-open these books and I'm only about a hundred or two pages away from meeting Eddie Dean again, my favorite character in any book I've ever read. I can't wait. Even though it means Jake dying to get there. I also know that only a few hundred pages lie between his rebirth into Roland's world. Because, as he keeps telling us, Ka is a wheel. And of course, Jake is a major part of Roland's Ka.

*sigh*

I know, I'm a geek sometimes, but everyone has that one book, or that one series, you know? The one that draws them in and wraps them up and refuses to let them go. Thats what The Dark Tower is for me.