Tower, Dark, One Each
Anybody else reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series?
Travis turned me on to them a while back, and I just finished the fifth book, Wolves of the Calla. I am hungering for book six, and the seventh and final book will be released next month sometime. I am not a Stephen King fanboy - in fact, these are the only books of his I've read - but I am really enjoying this series. The characters are real enough that I'm willing to accept some very strange situations as plausible - such as three people with revolvers fighting a gigantic cyborg bear.
I will be happy to check one of the "unfinished series" slots off my reading list. Soon all that will remain are George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series and (along with the rest of western civilization) Harry Potter.
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I remember Stephen King having book called The Dark Tower years ago, but one could never find it (I think it was a very limited release publishing). It was always listed as one of his other books on the inside of the books I did read.
I have no idea if it's related to any of the newer Dark Tower stuff or not...
I have not read the Dark Tower series, but I have a shelf of King at home. I've always liked his writing and I prefer his collections of short stories.
BUT the most fun for me is pointing out the King stories that have been made into really good movies: The Green Mile, Stand By Me (derived from "The Body") and Shawshank Redemption are good examples.
Ok, ok there are some real turkeys too, like Pet Cemetary.
Yes, the "years ago" Dark Tower (actually, Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger, published in 1982) was the first in the series Brad refers to. As you'll see from the list below, the novels in the series have been well spaced:
1982 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Novel
1987 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
1991 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
1997 The Dark Tower IV: Wizard & Glass Novel
2003 The Dark Tower V: Wolves of The Calla
2004 The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
Love the series. A distinct departure from King's style. Much less of the humans as innocent (ok, sometimes not-so-innocent) victims of the macabre; much more humans as heroic protagonists against daunting odds. Also, without giving too much away, there are some interesting twists in the latter titles of the series which tie together some of the hanging questions from his other works.
Not great works of literature, by any means, but this series works for me on an emotional level.
One word of warning: despite the long wait between novels in the series, you really need to start from the beginning to enjoy it.