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The Dark Tower Series Books Volume 1 - 8 Collection Set by Stephen King
Please Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original ISBN and Cover Image In this Listing shall be Dispatched The Dark Tower Series Books Volume 1 - 8 Collection Set by Stephen King (Gunslinger, Drawing Of The Three, Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah and Many More!):Titles In This SetThe GunslingerThe Drawing Of The ThreeWolves of the CallaThe Dark TowerThe Waste LandsSong of SusannahWizard and GlassThe Wind through the KeyholePlease Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original ISBN and Cover Image In this Listing shall be Dispatched The Dark Tower Series Books Volume 1 - 8 Collection Set by Stephen King (Gunslinger, Drawing Of The Three, Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah and Many More!):Titles In This SetThe GunslingerThe Drawing Of The ThreeWolves of the CallaThe Dark TowerThe Waste LandsSong of SusannahWizard and GlassThe Wind through the Keyhole
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Published January 1, 2012
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About the author
Stephen King
2,499 books886k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 17, 2018
My book that I read was the Gunslinger by Stephen King. I pick this book because I saw the movie. And I love Stephen King. It had a good plot and it was a just right book for me young adult.It was about the Gunslinger alone in a dessert. He was a man he had no family he just fought for survival. He had good reflexes so he can dodge things. And he was so good at guns. When a bad guy was running from him he would shoot him. from far away I Really like this book I would give it five stars. and recommend this book to all the people who really likes stephen king. One of my favorite books of the the year
August 13, 2018
Within these books is an amazing story. There are short lulls which are unavoidable when telling such a long story. I will never forget this story. All time best ending.
July 4, 2017
The series varies from interesting, to weird, to really hard to follow. Without first reading the plot overview, I often don't know what's going on. (love it 5☆, hate it 1☆, or lost in it 2☆)
THE DARK TOWER (stephenking.com/darktower)
series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World’s post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum. It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it.
In Roland’s where and when, the world has already begun to move on. Time and direction are in drift, and the fabric of reality is fraying. However, things are about to get much worse. The six invisible magnetic Beams, which maintain the alignment of time, space, size, and dimension, are weakening. Because of this, the Tower itself is foundering. Unless Roland can find a way to save the Beams and stabilize the Tower, all of reality will blink out of existence.
Inspired in equal parts by Robert Browning’s poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western classics, The Dark Tower series is an epic of Arthurian proportions. It is Stephen King’s magnum opus, and is the center of his amazing creative universe.
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger ■
The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. So begins Book I of Stephen King’s iconic fantasy series, The Dark Tower. Part sci-fi novel, part futuristic dystopia, part spaghetti Western, and part high fantasy vision, The Gunslinger tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is tracking an enigmatic magician known only as the man in black. Following his quarry across the demon-infested Mohaine Desert, Roland confronts a mad preacher woman and her murderous flock, holds palaver with a speaking demon, and finally befriends a young boy from our world named Jake Chambers. Jake joins Roland on his quest, but while Roland travels with his young companion Jake, the man in black travels with Roland’s soul in his pocket. The 2003 revised editon of The Gunslinger contains the essay "On Being Nineteen (And a few other things)" by Stephen.
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three ■
After his final confrontation with the Man in Black in a remote mountain Golgotha, an exhausted Roland awakes on the beach of the Western Sea and is immediately attacked by a shoreline monster known as a lobstrosity. Roland kills the clawed creature, but not before it bites off two of his fingers and half of one big toe. Fighting off the delirium brought on by the lobstrosity’s poison, Roland forces himself along the beach where he discovers three freestanding doorways that lead into our world. The first opens onto New York, 1987, and the mind of a heroin addict called Eddie Dean. The second leads to 1964 and the divided personality of Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker, an African American woman who has lost the bottom half of her legs but gained a second, psychotic self. The third door leads to 1977 and the mind of a psychopath called The Pusher, the very criminal responsible for Odetta’s injuries. Roland’s task is to make Eddie and Odetta into gunslingers before raging Detta destroys them all, and before the Pusher can continue his bloody killing spree.
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands ■
Several months have passed, and Roland’s two new tet-mates have become proficient gunslingers. Eddie Dean has given up heroin, and Odetta’s two selves have joined, becoming the stronger and more balanced personality of Susannah Dean. But while battling The Pusher in 1977 New York, Roland altered ka by saving the life of Jake Chambers, a boy who—in Roland’s where and when—has already died. Now Roland and Jake exist in different worlds, but they are joined by the same madness: the paradox of double memories. Roland, Susannah, and Eddie must draw Jake into Mid-World then follow the Path of the Beam all the way to the Dark Tower. But nothing is easy in Mid-World. Along the way our tet stumbles into the ruined city of Lud, and are caught between the warring gangs of the Pubes and the Grays. The only way out of Lud is to wake Blaine the Mono, an insane train that has a passion for riddling, and for suicidal journeys.
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass ■
Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Jake’s pet bumbler survive Blaine the Mono’s final crash, only to find themselves stranded in an alternate version of Topeka, Kansas, one that has been ravaged by the superflu virus. While following the deserted I-70 toward a distant glass palace, they hear the atonal squalling of a thinny, a place where the fabric of existence has almost entirely worn away. While camping near the edge of the thinny, Roland tells his ka-tet a story about another thinny, one that he encountered when he was little more than a boy. Over the course of one long magical night, Roland transports us to the Mid-World of long-ago and a seaside town called Hambry, where Roland fell in love with a girl named Susan Delgado, and where he and his old tet-mates Alain and Cuthbert battled the forces of John Farson, the harrier who—with a little help from a seeing sphere called Maerlyn’s Grapefruit—ignited Mid-World’s final war.
The Dark Tower IV.5: The Wind Through the Keyhole ■
Although it is officially the eighth book of the Dark Tower saga, Stephen King likes to call The Wind Through the Keyhole book 4.5 of the series, since it takes place after our tet escapes the Green Palace at the end of Wizard and Glass, and before they reach Calla Bryn Sturgis, setting for Wolves of the Calla. The Wind Through the Keyhole is a story within a story within a story. At the outset, Roland and his American tet are traveling toward the River Whye in Mid-World. A great storm, called a Starkblast, is about to blow. While our tet is sheltering from the storm, Roland tells a story about his younger days, when he and his tet-mate Jamie DeCurry were sent to Debaria to investigate reports of a skin-man, a kind of dangerous shape-changer. While trying to comfort a young boy named Bill Streeter—the only survivor of a particularly brutal attack by the skin-man, and Roland’s only witness to the crime—Roland recounts yet another story. This time it is a sinister fairytale drawn from the book Magic Tales of Eld. The three stories are woven together by the freezing, howling winds of the Starkblast.
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla ■
Roland and his tet have just returned to the path of the Beam when they discover that they are being followed by a group of inexperienced trackers. The trackers are from the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, and they desperately need the help of gunslingers. Once every generation, a band of masked riders known as the Wolves gallop out of the dark land of Thunderclap to steal one half of all the twins born in the Callas. When the children are returned, they are roont, or mentally and physically ruined. In less than a month, the Wolves will raid again. In exchange for Roland’s aid, Father Callahan—a priest originally from our world—offers to give Roland a powerful but evil seeing sphere, a sinister globe called Black Thirteen which he has hidden below the floorboards of his church. Not only must Roland and his tet discover a way to defeat the invincible Wolves, but they must also return to New York so that they can save our world’s incarnation of the Dark Tower from the machinations of the evil Sombra Corporation.
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah ■
The Wolves have been defeated, but our tet faces yet another catastrophe. Susannah Dean’s body has been usurped by a demon named Mia who wants to use Susannah’s mortal form to bear a demon child. Stealing Black Thirteen, Mia has traveled through the Unfound Door to 1999 New York where she plans to give birth to her chap, a child born of two mothers and two fathers who will grow up to be Roland’s nemesis. With the help of the time-traveling Manni, Roland and Eddie plan to follow Susannah while Father Callahan and Jake will find Calvin Tower, owner of the vacant lot where a magical rose grows: a rose that must be saved at all costs. But despite our ka-tet’s intentions, ka has its own plans. Jake, Callahan, and Jake’s bumbler companion are transported to New York to follow Susannah, while Eddie and Roland are tumbled into East Stoneham, Maine, where they are greeted by Eddie’s old enemy, the gangster Balazar. But it isn’t just bullets that Roland and Eddie must brave. Soon they will meet their maker, in the form of a young author named Stephen King.
The Dark Tower VII ■
At the outset of the final installment of our saga, Roland’s ka-tet is scattered across several different wheres and whens. Susannah Dean (still in the clutches of the demon Mia) is in End-World’s Fedic Dogan: a chamber of horrors where magic and technology can be merged and where a monstrous half-human child can be brought forth into the world. Eddie Dean and Roland Deschain are in Maine, 1977, searching for the site of otherworldly walk-in activity, and a possible doorway back to Mid-World. Jake Chambers, Father Callahan, and the bumbler Oy are battling vampires and low men in New York’s Dixie Pig Restaurant, circa 1999, a place where long pig is definitely on the menu. As soon as our tet reunites, they must journey to the headquarters of Thunderclap’s Wolves in order to discover exactly why the Crimson King’s minions have been culling the brains of young children for twin-telepathy enzymes. The answer is more horrible than they realized, and bears directly upon Roland’s quest to reach the Dark Tower.
Little Sisters of Eluria (Short Story) ■
“The Little Sisters of Eluria” is a prequel to the first volume of the Dark Tower saga. Roland’s beloved city of Gilead has fallen to the Good Man’s forces, and the Gunslingers have been slaughtered at the Battle of Jericho Hill. Roland is now a lone wanderer, searching for the trail of the elusive sorcerer known as the Man in Black. On a hot day during the season of Full Earth, Roland enters a deserted town in the Desatoya Mountains. The town is called Eluria, and it is empty except for a lame dog, a drowned boy, and the eerie sound of tinkling silver bells. As Roland searches for the town’s missing inhabitants, he is attacked by the slow mutants known as the Green Folk. Our unconscious hero is rescued by an itinerant band of female healers who call themselves the Little Sisters of Eluria. But Roland’s rescuers are not what they seem, and our gunslinger must fight their narcotic potions to stay awake, and alive.
THE DARK TOWER (stephenking.com/darktower)
series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World’s post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum. It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it.
In Roland’s where and when, the world has already begun to move on. Time and direction are in drift, and the fabric of reality is fraying. However, things are about to get much worse. The six invisible magnetic Beams, which maintain the alignment of time, space, size, and dimension, are weakening. Because of this, the Tower itself is foundering. Unless Roland can find a way to save the Beams and stabilize the Tower, all of reality will blink out of existence.
Inspired in equal parts by Robert Browning’s poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western classics, The Dark Tower series is an epic of Arthurian proportions. It is Stephen King’s magnum opus, and is the center of his amazing creative universe.
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger ■
The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. So begins Book I of Stephen King’s iconic fantasy series, The Dark Tower. Part sci-fi novel, part futuristic dystopia, part spaghetti Western, and part high fantasy vision, The Gunslinger tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is tracking an enigmatic magician known only as the man in black. Following his quarry across the demon-infested Mohaine Desert, Roland confronts a mad preacher woman and her murderous flock, holds palaver with a speaking demon, and finally befriends a young boy from our world named Jake Chambers. Jake joins Roland on his quest, but while Roland travels with his young companion Jake, the man in black travels with Roland’s soul in his pocket. The 2003 revised editon of The Gunslinger contains the essay "On Being Nineteen (And a few other things)" by Stephen.
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three ■
After his final confrontation with the Man in Black in a remote mountain Golgotha, an exhausted Roland awakes on the beach of the Western Sea and is immediately attacked by a shoreline monster known as a lobstrosity. Roland kills the clawed creature, but not before it bites off two of his fingers and half of one big toe. Fighting off the delirium brought on by the lobstrosity’s poison, Roland forces himself along the beach where he discovers three freestanding doorways that lead into our world. The first opens onto New York, 1987, and the mind of a heroin addict called Eddie Dean. The second leads to 1964 and the divided personality of Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker, an African American woman who has lost the bottom half of her legs but gained a second, psychotic self. The third door leads to 1977 and the mind of a psychopath called The Pusher, the very criminal responsible for Odetta’s injuries. Roland’s task is to make Eddie and Odetta into gunslingers before raging Detta destroys them all, and before the Pusher can continue his bloody killing spree.
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands ■
Several months have passed, and Roland’s two new tet-mates have become proficient gunslingers. Eddie Dean has given up heroin, and Odetta’s two selves have joined, becoming the stronger and more balanced personality of Susannah Dean. But while battling The Pusher in 1977 New York, Roland altered ka by saving the life of Jake Chambers, a boy who—in Roland’s where and when—has already died. Now Roland and Jake exist in different worlds, but they are joined by the same madness: the paradox of double memories. Roland, Susannah, and Eddie must draw Jake into Mid-World then follow the Path of the Beam all the way to the Dark Tower. But nothing is easy in Mid-World. Along the way our tet stumbles into the ruined city of Lud, and are caught between the warring gangs of the Pubes and the Grays. The only way out of Lud is to wake Blaine the Mono, an insane train that has a passion for riddling, and for suicidal journeys.
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass ■
Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Jake’s pet bumbler survive Blaine the Mono’s final crash, only to find themselves stranded in an alternate version of Topeka, Kansas, one that has been ravaged by the superflu virus. While following the deserted I-70 toward a distant glass palace, they hear the atonal squalling of a thinny, a place where the fabric of existence has almost entirely worn away. While camping near the edge of the thinny, Roland tells his ka-tet a story about another thinny, one that he encountered when he was little more than a boy. Over the course of one long magical night, Roland transports us to the Mid-World of long-ago and a seaside town called Hambry, where Roland fell in love with a girl named Susan Delgado, and where he and his old tet-mates Alain and Cuthbert battled the forces of John Farson, the harrier who—with a little help from a seeing sphere called Maerlyn’s Grapefruit—ignited Mid-World’s final war.
The Dark Tower IV.5: The Wind Through the Keyhole ■
Although it is officially the eighth book of the Dark Tower saga, Stephen King likes to call The Wind Through the Keyhole book 4.5 of the series, since it takes place after our tet escapes the Green Palace at the end of Wizard and Glass, and before they reach Calla Bryn Sturgis, setting for Wolves of the Calla. The Wind Through the Keyhole is a story within a story within a story. At the outset, Roland and his American tet are traveling toward the River Whye in Mid-World. A great storm, called a Starkblast, is about to blow. While our tet is sheltering from the storm, Roland tells a story about his younger days, when he and his tet-mate Jamie DeCurry were sent to Debaria to investigate reports of a skin-man, a kind of dangerous shape-changer. While trying to comfort a young boy named Bill Streeter—the only survivor of a particularly brutal attack by the skin-man, and Roland’s only witness to the crime—Roland recounts yet another story. This time it is a sinister fairytale drawn from the book Magic Tales of Eld. The three stories are woven together by the freezing, howling winds of the Starkblast.
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla ■
Roland and his tet have just returned to the path of the Beam when they discover that they are being followed by a group of inexperienced trackers. The trackers are from the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, and they desperately need the help of gunslingers. Once every generation, a band of masked riders known as the Wolves gallop out of the dark land of Thunderclap to steal one half of all the twins born in the Callas. When the children are returned, they are roont, or mentally and physically ruined. In less than a month, the Wolves will raid again. In exchange for Roland’s aid, Father Callahan—a priest originally from our world—offers to give Roland a powerful but evil seeing sphere, a sinister globe called Black Thirteen which he has hidden below the floorboards of his church. Not only must Roland and his tet discover a way to defeat the invincible Wolves, but they must also return to New York so that they can save our world’s incarnation of the Dark Tower from the machinations of the evil Sombra Corporation.
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah ■
The Wolves have been defeated, but our tet faces yet another catastrophe. Susannah Dean’s body has been usurped by a demon named Mia who wants to use Susannah’s mortal form to bear a demon child. Stealing Black Thirteen, Mia has traveled through the Unfound Door to 1999 New York where she plans to give birth to her chap, a child born of two mothers and two fathers who will grow up to be Roland’s nemesis. With the help of the time-traveling Manni, Roland and Eddie plan to follow Susannah while Father Callahan and Jake will find Calvin Tower, owner of the vacant lot where a magical rose grows: a rose that must be saved at all costs. But despite our ka-tet’s intentions, ka has its own plans. Jake, Callahan, and Jake’s bumbler companion are transported to New York to follow Susannah, while Eddie and Roland are tumbled into East Stoneham, Maine, where they are greeted by Eddie’s old enemy, the gangster Balazar. But it isn’t just bullets that Roland and Eddie must brave. Soon they will meet their maker, in the form of a young author named Stephen King.
The Dark Tower VII ■
At the outset of the final installment of our saga, Roland’s ka-tet is scattered across several different wheres and whens. Susannah Dean (still in the clutches of the demon Mia) is in End-World’s Fedic Dogan: a chamber of horrors where magic and technology can be merged and where a monstrous half-human child can be brought forth into the world. Eddie Dean and Roland Deschain are in Maine, 1977, searching for the site of otherworldly walk-in activity, and a possible doorway back to Mid-World. Jake Chambers, Father Callahan, and the bumbler Oy are battling vampires and low men in New York’s Dixie Pig Restaurant, circa 1999, a place where long pig is definitely on the menu. As soon as our tet reunites, they must journey to the headquarters of Thunderclap’s Wolves in order to discover exactly why the Crimson King’s minions have been culling the brains of young children for twin-telepathy enzymes. The answer is more horrible than they realized, and bears directly upon Roland’s quest to reach the Dark Tower.
Little Sisters of Eluria (Short Story) ■
“The Little Sisters of Eluria” is a prequel to the first volume of the Dark Tower saga. Roland’s beloved city of Gilead has fallen to the Good Man’s forces, and the Gunslingers have been slaughtered at the Battle of Jericho Hill. Roland is now a lone wanderer, searching for the trail of the elusive sorcerer known as the Man in Black. On a hot day during the season of Full Earth, Roland enters a deserted town in the Desatoya Mountains. The town is called Eluria, and it is empty except for a lame dog, a drowned boy, and the eerie sound of tinkling silver bells. As Roland searches for the town’s missing inhabitants, he is attacked by the slow mutants known as the Green Folk. Our unconscious hero is rescued by an itinerant band of female healers who call themselves the Little Sisters of Eluria. But Roland’s rescuers are not what they seem, and our gunslinger must fight their narcotic potions to stay awake, and alive.
May 24, 2021
Not worth the time to read. I love Stephen King's writing and have read a ton of his books. After having unsuccessfully tried to get through this series a few times before, I decided to make it one of my Covid projects. I managed to finish it this time, although there were a couple of times when it got so bogged down that I had to take long breaks.
Ultimately, I'm glad that I finished it, just to have the feeling of accomplishment and no longer wonder whether it eventually gets better.
Minor spoiler alert:
The first book is the best, by far. It's only downhill from there. I found it very annoying how Mr. King wrote himself into the series as a character. It seemed very narcissistic to me. I also didn't like being beaten over the head with the cross-references to his other novels. It's a shame, because that is usually one of my favorite things about his books. I love it when he includes subtle cross-references. It feels like a special little treasure--like the book version of a video game's Easter egg. But having it be SO heavy-handed like in this series takes away all the enjoyment.
I have a couple other Stephen King novels sitting on the shelf waiting to be read. But after wading through this mess, it's probably going to be awhile before I want to read anything else by him.
Ultimately, I'm glad that I finished it, just to have the feeling of accomplishment and no longer wonder whether it eventually gets better.
Minor spoiler alert:
The first book is the best, by far. It's only downhill from there. I found it very annoying how Mr. King wrote himself into the series as a character. It seemed very narcissistic to me. I also didn't like being beaten over the head with the cross-references to his other novels. It's a shame, because that is usually one of my favorite things about his books. I love it when he includes subtle cross-references. It feels like a special little treasure--like the book version of a video game's Easter egg. But having it be SO heavy-handed like in this series takes away all the enjoyment.
I have a couple other Stephen King novels sitting on the shelf waiting to be read. But after wading through this mess, it's probably going to be awhile before I want to read anything else by him.
February 18, 2020
If you are a fan of King’s work: read this. If you dislike horror and all things Stephen King but are a fan of epic fantasy: read this. The Dark Tower series is King’s self-proclaimed “life’s work” he was inspired to write after finishing Lord of the Rings as a child. It took decades for him to complete.
My genre of choice is fantasy woven into mainstream life as we know it. On that note, a dear friend begged me to give this a try. Her suggestion was to “suffer” through The Gunslinger (book 1) until things got very interesting in the first pages of book 2. For me, there wasn’t an ounce of suffering. The Gunslinger is strange, obscure but with a pinch of familiarity in the form of pop culture to keep you reeled in.
These books will introduce you to a cast of characters that will enter your hearts forever. For diehard King fans, you will see some familiar characters and storylines.
I wish I could go back in time to those 6 months it took to complete the series just for the sake of having the first-time experience all over again.
My genre of choice is fantasy woven into mainstream life as we know it. On that note, a dear friend begged me to give this a try. Her suggestion was to “suffer” through The Gunslinger (book 1) until things got very interesting in the first pages of book 2. For me, there wasn’t an ounce of suffering. The Gunslinger is strange, obscure but with a pinch of familiarity in the form of pop culture to keep you reeled in.
These books will introduce you to a cast of characters that will enter your hearts forever. For diehard King fans, you will see some familiar characters and storylines.
I wish I could go back in time to those 6 months it took to complete the series just for the sake of having the first-time experience all over again.
April 20, 2021
This is the first King book I've read in decades. The first book hooked me and I dove in and couldn't stop until I finished the last one. I am so very glad I did not have to wait decades for the stories to be completed. King is an amazing writer in both his storytelling and the speed in which he pumps out his stories.
Excellent read and would highly recommend to anyone remotely interested in westerns, fantasy or sci fi. It's got the best of them all
Listen to the Kingslingers - A dark tower podcast by doof media for an in depth investigation into the writing. Highly recommend both together. It got me through a lot of the pandemic!
Excellent read and would highly recommend to anyone remotely interested in westerns, fantasy or sci fi. It's got the best of them all
Listen to the Kingslingers - A dark tower podcast by doof media for an in depth investigation into the writing. Highly recommend both together. It got me through a lot of the pandemic!
September 6, 2019
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
One of the greatest opening lines at least to me of just about any series of books that I've read. I loved being in Mid-World. The world of the last gunslinger of Gilead Roland Deschain. King built a rich, deep, and dying world. A Nexus for many of his other characters to pass through. Now, I've finished my journey. Though I will probably travel through again. These books are like no other books of Stephen King and yet they are.
One of the greatest opening lines at least to me of just about any series of books that I've read. I loved being in Mid-World. The world of the last gunslinger of Gilead Roland Deschain. King built a rich, deep, and dying world. A Nexus for many of his other characters to pass through. Now, I've finished my journey. Though I will probably travel through again. These books are like no other books of Stephen King and yet they are.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2025
I must admit, my first reading of the first book didn't go so well. I was thoroughly confused and didn't know if I liked it or not. Then I read The Drawing of the Three and there, finally, I got into the rythm of the series.
After finishing the last book, I gave it a few months and read the whole series again. Then a few years later I read it again. With every re-read I find something new to love in the series. Over the years of my life, I've come to see this series for the gem that it is. And I love it.
After finishing the last book, I gave it a few months and read the whole series again. Then a few years later I read it again. With every re-read I find something new to love in the series. Over the years of my life, I've come to see this series for the gem that it is. And I love it.
October 5, 2019
I typically don’t like to rate books bad. However this one was so awful I’m writing my review to remind myself not to read any more books in this series. It was so awful. I kept reading because usually Stephen King books are captivating. And I was hoping this one would turn around. But it never did. There was just no story at all.
October 23, 2021
Probably as a whole my absolutely favorite King book/series. Had not read it in many years so decided to reread it.
The in-betweenquel of (The Wind Through the Keyhole) is actually one of the best in the series.
The in-betweenquel of (The Wind Through the Keyhole) is actually one of the best in the series.
June 21, 2022
for anyone trepidatious about diving into king's magnum opus, the dark tower series, (8 books), read "the little sisters of eluria" in king's Everything's Eventual. it's the same main character in the same universe, so if you want more of it/them, the tower series is more.
May 6, 2023
Favourite series, Eddie was my favourite character. This character reminded me of a loved one who has now passed, it was great to see able to see a person who struggled with addictions become more than that of a tagline.
August 6, 2019
Realy hard to top! Love it!
October 25, 2019
The greatest story ever told. I find myself in Roland's world quite often. Eddie's and Jake's too.
July 10, 2024
Probably the longest series I have ever read, glossing over typical stephen king-isms, however i enjoyed the journey and it kept me gripped.
August 10, 2022
I’ve been trying to read these books for years and they were definitely worth the wait. Brilliant storyline and characters that I fell in love with. Some parts I found were dragged out but overall I loved the whole series of books.
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