7. Final Thoughts

[Emily Cait]

What did you think about the conclusion to this series?!

[Ľudmila]

I had a few issues in the beginning of this book and was disappointed for a while but I loved almost everything in the second half of the book. I am glad I sticked to it and I feel like it was really worth it. I'm not sure if I ever will read the series again but I am glad I did read it at least once :)

[Peter]

I'm so glad that I read this series. It has been a blast getting to know these characters and being immersed in Mid-World. To me, living with and dying with the characters themselves have been the biggest joy of the series, much like it was with The Stand and Salem's Lot. Based on this small sample size (it's amazing to me that one must consider nine entire novels, some well over a thousand pages in length, and a few short stories, a brief glance into a particular artist's oeuvre), I would say that his ability to create truly organic characters, coupled with his unhinged imagination, is this author's most compelling item in his toolkit.

As far as the ending itself, I thought it was the best (and the only satisfying) way Stephen King could have ended it. Knowing everything that happens in this tale makes me want to read the whole series again sometime. I know that I will pick up on/appreciate new things that I would have missed the first time through, since I was mostly just trying to wrap my mind around whatever was going on at the time. This story really reminds me of shows like LOST and Westworld, in that finishing the narrative made me want to revisit the material and see what value it has from a new perspective.