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Reviews
I heard from a friend at Publishers Weekly:
Just wanted to let you know that we will be reviewing your book sometime in the near future, most probably in our online reviews annex.
Comments
Break a leg!
Agrees!
nervousness has no room on this train
predicts a massive hit too
Hint, hint!
if I only had my book.
Lin
Tobey, please pardon my ignorance, but what is this book or guide?
Lin
::) <--- you :-/ <-- me...
Sorry Bev, I wasn't thinking in a "singular section" way.
Lin
Needs to get me copy too
Bev, do you want to proofread the reviews from us, so we can see if they praise you enough, or if it needs layering on thicker, or maybe you can give us a guidleine by which to write our reviews
hehe - this will be so cool writing a book review
Usually I get told off by amazon for my reviews, cause I forget to give reader's the option to grade them, lol
Wasn't this what the whole forum was about? I have the right book right?
Lin just got momentarily confused.
Lin
(I also actually apologized earlier to Bev
According to this web page, it's the #6 bestseller at Amazon in Biographies and Memoirs / Arts and Literature.
Without getting into spoilers I applaud the fact that you called King on withholding some information in WOTC.
You also forced me to look up the Weltschmerz reference! I am embarassed to admit I understand the concept but never knew it had such a name.
What else can I say - a well laid out, entertaining and informative read. My one qualm is a layout issue. I prefer footnotes to be at the bottom of the page they are referring to instead of the end of each chapter. Too much page flipping.
Other than that, what can I add? A Thomas Convenant and a Star Trek 2 - Wrath of Khan reference solidified for me that you are well rounded and grounded in the type of story roots the Dark Tower was working from.
Congrats Bev and much success on your future endeavours!
Thanks for your comments, Lou. I think the argument against footnotes was pure marketing--it would have made the book look scholarly and thus intimidating. My big push was to get the endnotes at the end of the chapters instead of gathered together at the back of the book, which I dislike.
I got my first negative review on Amazon today. I'll survive.
Vincent's expansive synopsis of horrormeister King's Dark Tower saga arrives nipping the heels of its seventh and last volume, The Dark Tower [BKL S 1 04]. Besides recapping the epic itself, Vincent points out the most germane aspects of other King novels and stories that touch upon it, sketches its leading characters, notes influences on it, and discusses its creation and the layered, self-consciously reflexive concept (King himself is a character in it) that animates it. Appended are chronologies of the saga's writing and publishing and of events in its main setting, Mid-World, and in "Keystone Earth" (i.e., our reality from the 1950s on, but including the saga's characters' doings when, at various times, they enter it), a too-small Mid-World glossary, and the Robert Browning poem that initially inspired King. The large and perdurable King fandom should embrace Vincent's effort and spur him to correct misstatements about the Odyssey and Dante's Commedia, in particular, in the chapter on influences and explain the saga's many pop-cultural references (e.g., the Crimson King) in future editions.
Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Bev Vincent. NAL, $14.95 paper (368p) ISBN 0451213041
How does one determine what the greatest work of an author's career is? The answer to this query, posed in the final pages of this book, can be found throughout Vincent's in-depth analysis of King's seven-volume Dark Tower epic (The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, etc.). Making sense of a story that switches back and forth through time, across multiple universes, and involves the safety of a tower that represents the fate of all existence is no easy task. Kudos to Vincent for even trying. But readers beware-the work is analyzed in its entirety, so expect spoilers galore. Vincent-whose column on Stephen King, "News from the Dead Zone," appears in Cemetery Dance magazine-tracks the evolution of both King's three-decade avocation (the very first line was written in 1970) and the development of the saga's characters and plot. Most importantly, Vincent shows how the few members of gunslinger Roland's fellowship, recruited to help him protect the Tower, slowly evolve from reluctant participation to resolve about their leader's quest. Former cocaine addict Eddie, for example, puts his sarcasm and skepticism aside and learns to embrace the dream of his surrogate father. As Vincent writes, "If Roland were to die on their journey, Eddie would continue with the others, for having dreamt of the Tower and the field of roses, the compulsion to reach the Tower claims him, too." Vincent also devotes a full chapter to discussing some of King's other works that are related to the Dark Tower series, such as Hearts in Atlantis and Insomnia. In light of King's own admission that the Dark Tower epic is the nexus of all his books-"The Dark Tower finishes everything that I really wanted to say"-Vincent asserts, "What else, then, is a magnum opus if not something that both ties together and summarizes a person's life's work?" With this thorough analysis of King's epic, Vincent proves himself a master of the Dark Tower world. (Oct. 5)
_________________
Dena Croog
Assistant Editor, Forecasts
Publishers Weekly
He says, in part "A thorough, eminently readable exploration of King's fantasy epic, THE ROAD TO THE DARK TOWER combines telling insight with a true fan's appreciation of the series, and will surely enhance your enjoyment of subsequent re-readings."