The quest ends. Roland's ka-tet reassembles for the final push toward the Tower while a new and dangerous hunter from the events of Song of Susannah tracks them across a dying Mid-World. King himself, injured in the story as in life, must be saved before the Tower can be reached. The seventh and final novel is the series at its most emotionally unguarded, willing to take real losses, delivering answers to questions posed twenty years earlier, and ending with a conclusion that divided readers sharply. King was unapologetic about it. A British Fantasy Award winner, it was published simultaneously with Song of Susannah after King completed both novels in a sustained burst of writing following his near-fatal road accident in 1999.
