Would King have ever finished the series without the accident? *spoilers*

[Sickrose]

This is really interesting question. When the narrative 'breaks the fourth wall' and discusses the accident and King makes an appearance it gives the impression of realty because it has the effect of removing the author I think. If King is in the book who is writing the book? I loved that idea when I first read it.

I think he would have taken longer to finish it but the story would have been different. Maybe he liked being with the Ka-tet as much as we have?. The accident is one of many things which made the book what it is. Maybe the fate of the characters would have remained the same but arrived at in a different way

Spoiler:

because it made sense I think that Roland climbed the tower alone. It felt right

[RoseMadder]

He would have finished, would be different I am sure, but amazing still. And who knows? With String theory it is scientifically feasable to say that there is a dimension where it never happened, the accident, and he finished his opus in an entireley different fashion.

[BillyxRansom]

To put it this way: I'm glad I started reading the books after he had finished them all!

Me too!!

I've thought long and hard about this since King's near death experience, and since the release of the final three books. In the afterword of The Wastelands SK kind of apologizes for the book ending where it did. He says that these books are writing themselves, and he implies that finding the keys to Rolands world is difficult for him, and it requires him to "set his wits to it". He talks about Rolands world holding him "in thrall" maybe more than any of the other worlds he's created in his imagination. He alludes to this in the foreward of W&G as well. I think he meant for this to be epic, that maybe this was THE series of books which was the quilt that all his other books combined made up. That every single character he ever dreamed up lived someplace along the path of the beams. I think that SK, always had a basic outline for where Roland and his Ka-Tet were going, and what would happen to them, but that it took time for the stories to flesh themselves out, like a fine wine that must be allowed to sit and ferment. The first four books have a very different feel to them, than the last three books do. The first four books feel as though they've simmered to perfection. That they came when it was their time. The last three books have a lot more of an assembly line feel to them. They feel like that stew that's fresh off of the stove. It's good, but it'll be WAY better tomorrow, after it sits in the fridge overnight. I've also noticed a lot of the comments about the last three books seem to indicate that there is some discord for others here as well (Walters death). To sum it up, I kind of wonder if prior to his accident SK really allowed the books to simmer to perfection, and after the accident he rushed them. Didn't allow them to evolve completely in his mind, and pushed them to come out before they were really ripe. I'm kind of torn between wanting to know what Roland's fate would be, and King taking to time to allow each story to fully develop in his mind. I would almost rather he had taken the time to allow the books to "write themselves", and take the risk that we might not ever know the final fate of Roland.

Well put. I tend to agree with that. Dont get me wrong, I still love all the books, but I think maybe King realised he may not have had as much time as he thought after his accident and rushed things a bit.

Well technically, we still don't know his fate!

And now that he's possibly writing an eighth novel, I can imagine some fans are probably tapping their foot, going, "You're going to write an eighth book, yet you had to make us go through Wolves through TDT, which were clearly not up to par! Naughty naughty, Mr. King!"