Just Finished Rereading The Dark Tower by Stephen King

For the second time I've been reading through Stephen King's seven-volume fantasy series The Dark Tower, published over a period from 1982 to 2004.  I just finished the final book, also titled The Dark Tower, and am not exactly sure about how to write about it...much as is the case with any longstanding series.  Since the characters in previous books are usually in a state of dire danger, then even bringing up one of their names is liable to unduly tip off any interested reader, so I by necessity will be sparce in my description of this concluding book.  The series premise has Roland Deschain, a hardened noble gunslinger from Mid-World (an alternate reality from ours), on a quest with his diverse "ka-tet" (fellowship) to find the Dark Tower, which holds all of reality together in light through beams, and which is in danger of being taken over by the evil and probably insane Crimson King.  Since the book is titled "Dark Tower" and Roland is the main character, I don't think it will be giving much away to say that he reaches his destination.  But beyond that, I think I'll just let you, the prospective reader of this series, find everything else out for yourself.  I will mention, though, that it is a symptom of these long, drawn-out series to have, in my opinion, too many characters and subplots...this one is no exception.  But I don't recall reading one in which the author had the nerve to place himself within the story.  Stephen King's 1999 accident in which he was seriously injured by a van that veered off a rural Maine road while he was out walking, in our real world as well as the story's, prompted him to speed up writing this series, putting out the final three volumes within a span of two years.  That in itself is quite an accomplishment.  Yet I had a problem with the easy way that characters could even defy death by slipping into different realities, and the very ending of the series has never satisfied me either...although someone with ties to Eastern religions and philosophies might identify with it.  Reading the Dark Tower series is a big undertaking, but overall, I think the reader who ventures out with Roland on his adventures will be rewarded.  By the way, there is a later book in the series, titled The Wind Through the Keyhole, that came out in 2012 and features a flashback story from Roland's youth...it doesn't figure in the flow of the original series, though...