I'm never going to be a big Stephen King fan; I like his stuff, but I don't love it. Constant Readers, I cry your pardon! However, this sixth volume of the Dark Tower series had some amusing moments. Although focusing largely on Susannah Dean, my favourite part happens late in the book when Roland and Eddie decide to go visit an author, namely Stephen King.
We learned of King's presence in this fictional world in book five, when a character from Salem's Lot showed up and told enough of his story to fill in the folks like me who hadn't read that novel. And then a rare book dealer insisted that Eddie take a case of his books to safety in his timeline and Pere Callahan gets to hold a copy of the novel which features him.
So I guess it's no surprise that Randall Flagg from The Stand stomps into the story, too. I'm sure that if I'd read more of King's many books, I would have recognized many more Easter eggs like these. (Incidentally, why do so many authors want to somehow tie together all of their fiction, like it needs to be a unified thing?)
It's very meta for King to write himself into the action. He gives a very self deprecating performance, acknowledging many of the facts of his life that many people know: booze and drug problems, his reputation as the author of uncanny fiction, and in the very last chapter, he works in his brush with death when he was struck by a vehicle while walking on the side of the road near his house. He has given his past self a sense of feeling threatened, perhaps by the forces faced by Roland & Co. whenever he is writing these novels. Presumably the accident was part of the threat by the Crimson King. Way to use a difficult experience to good effect.
Well done, Mr. King! I award an extra half star for this amusing conceit!
Book Number 450 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
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