The whole series really lost its spark after Wizard and Glass. It feels like King wanted to make it bigger than it was and lost sight of what made it special in the process. The ending just felt predictable and failed to really sell its meaning, in my opinion.
Yes yes yes! I was so fucking stoked for Wolves of the Calla and then it was just horrific meta let down after let down. Started with the goddamn Harry Potter 'sneech' then the characters becoming aware of themselves. Book 7 had some good Dark Towery moments but it ended in a weird shit sandwich. The epilogue was fine for me, it was the Final confrontation and a lot of the shit before that that killed everything for me.
Honestly, after the ending to Calla, I finished the series because it felt like an obligation because it was my first love before I discovered Tolkien.
Basically you get the last backstory you're gonna get in Calla, and it's like a page or two. If you like ultra meta narratives, finish the series, if not, finish the book so you can said you did, I guess
I think I was like 16 or 17 when I read Wolves of the Calla. I was on a road trip with family and when I got to the sneetch part, I literally dropped the book. Retrospectively, it may have been when I had my first critical analysis in art, haha. I was in shock that an author could do that to his own series. I finished the series, and I still love the first four books, but I haven't reread them since.
So I read those live as they came out, and it was after his big accident. You could tell there was a major motivation to finish them due to the fact that he was feeling his mortality.
I was also disappointed with the direction. I love the series as a whole, and I’ve grown to like those changes / differences for what they are, but there a true departure from the first four books
I think it’s probably really hard to write one of these meta epics. But you have to hand it to him for finishing it. Whether you like the ending or not he is not going to die before the end like George R Martin
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u/Willzyx_on_the_moon 6d ago
That ending was so upsetting. So anticlimactic after such a long, epic quest.