This is going to sound like an utterly ridiculous thing for someone reading a series a) called "The Dark Tower" and b) written by Stephen King, for gods' sake, to say, but I could really do with just a tiny smidge less dark in my dark fantasy, thanks.
Actually, that's not quite accurate. I'm perfectly OK with darker things than this - I think it's something about the delivery that makes the dark stuff extra-creepy. Which, well, kudos to Mr. King, because I know that's his specialty, but I'm not generally a horror reader, and perhaps don't have the necessary calluses to withstand the unexpected things-that-go-boo.
...all that was mostly by way of saying that the lobster-monsters are WAY CREEPY, Y'ALL. And I'd forgotten all about them in the decade or so since I first read this, and in fact of the entire book had pretty much only remembered the drugstore holdup (because it's really funny (if improbable, because I'm pretty sure marksmanship is as much in the muscle as in the mind, so the gunslinger possessing the other dude would probably not be able to make those shots)).
Anyway, yeah. Roland collects some henchpersons to take with him on his quest for the Tower, and wacky multiverse hijinks ensue. Good stuff. I highly recommend this series (y'know, so far, because my lack of memory of this one indicates I probably don't remember the third and fourth ones very well either, and have never read the fifth and following), despite the higher dose of heebie-jeebies than I would have strictly preferred.
It's a while yet before I get to the third one, which may be a good thing. Let's spread the creepiness out a bit, yeah?
(See my review of the first one here.)
