I’ve been looking forward to reading this for quite some time, as noted in my review of book 4, the Long Road home. We would finally learn the truth about the infamous battle where Roland lost all of his cribmates – his first ka-tet – and how he was the only one to survive the slaughter.
Like everything so eagerly anticipated, though, it was over far too quickly and failed, ultimately, as the climax to this stage of the quest for the Tower. The taking of Sheemie felt a little perfunctory, and the death of Aileen (granted, not an original King character anyway) felt glossed over. The death of Alain was also disappointing. ANOTHER friend shot by Roland? Come on…
I still love the art - it’s grandiose and striking, despite the lack of detail. The broad strokes work in this format, but the marvelous detail is what makes King such an amazing story teller.
The depiction of the battle itself was disappointing; very little detail, graphically or literally. Many of the frames depicted one side shooting, and the next showed the enemy shooting, which created a staccato pacing that didn’t sit well with me. I love the depiction of Farson, the Good Man – glowing eyes and all – and Marten is suitably oily.
Ultimately, it was a rather readable comic, with beautiful images and less-than-stellar words.
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