The magnum opus of Stephen King's career first began with the Browning poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, and then with what would become his own quite famous first line of The Gunslinger, a line written in 1970 shortly after finishing college.

A Long Journey (Intro & Chapter 1)

When King started The Dark Tower, he'd always believed (or thought) that the whole story, if ever finished, would be epic in scale. Early in, he wondered if it could even be finished. Being a fantasy, a genre outside his norm, his publisher sold the parts of the story, as they came, to The Magazine of Science & Fantasy. Five separate installments, issued between the years of '78 to '81. These made up the whole of The Gunslinger, and King had no plans to issue as a whole. If it hadn't been for a casual dinner conversation with Donald M. Grant, the story may never have been made in book form at all. And when it did, it came in a small press run consisting a total of 10,000 copies. It's then only due to the author ad-card (“Also by”) page in the book, Pet Sematary, that the majority of fans even came to know about it. Listed there between Cujo (1981) and Christine (1982), were the words The Gunslinger (1982). WTF!? - fans wrote to the publishers and King himself in an uproar of letters. And so began the story behind our gunslinger's beginnings.

The book didn't make it into the mainstream until a paperback was okay-ed and issued by Plume in 1988, one year after the second dark tower book, The Drawing of the Three, had been published (again only offered in limited edition hardcover format by Grant in 1987). Each of the first four novels would come out this way (limited hardcover first – then paperback a year or so later). I still wish I'd known about those limited editions then. Even so, it's the story that was most important to me, and I read each as they were released to the masses. Like every other Dark Tower fan, I would then patiently/impatiently wait for the next book. Know that before there were those who harped at George R.R. Martin about The Song of Ice & Fire, there were those who griped to King.

Four years would pass before DT #3 The Waste Lands was completed. Readers ate it up. And then nothing for 6 long years. Letters from fans poured in again, “When will we see the next book?!!”. Note: the cliff-hanger ending of “The Waste Lands” had not helped with readers need for answers, nor the fact that King produced another six (mostly unrelated) novels between 1991 and 1996. Always on his mind, thoughts about the Dark Tower had begun to bleed into some of these other non-series books – very much so in Insomnia; and a little bit in Rose Madder, until he committed himself to finishing DT #4 Wizard and Glass, releasing in 1997.

King's accident in 1999 almost spelled the end of the Dark Tower. Many fans, King included, thought he would never write again. But we know he did. When Straub suggested incorporating the Dark Tower mythos into their second collaboration, Black House in 2001, King said he was glad, ”I don't know if I can keep it out. At this point, everything I write is connected to it. The six-year gap between DT #4 and #5 was eased by the fact that King had committed to completing the remainder of Roland's story in one go. Wolves of the Calla in 2003; Song of Susannah in 2004, followed closely by The Dark Tower later that fall. The long road had come to its end.

n  (Can you tell I found the section above to be the most interesting? It covers only the first 27 pages.)n

From The Gunslinger to The Dark Tower (Chapters 2 – 8 Clues & Notes)

I've now read n  The Gunslinger (DT1)n twice, and yet still I've missed some of the many subtle, but important clues that tell of Roland's journey ahead. What I probably couldn't have seen the first time is the cyclical nature of Roland's quest (if you've read the entirety of the series, then you'll know what I'm speaking of). Look for clues in the beginning, like the reverse-time nature of Roland's story telling.

Bev Vincent follows by individually analyzing each Dark Tower book from beginning to end. I found his notes on DT1 – The Gunslinger to be most helpful in terms of understanding. That's probably because it is easily the most misunderstood, and puzzling of the 8 DT books. From there, Vincent's notes on each are mostly a timeline rehash. It is good for understanding terminology and connecting the series as a whole, but kind of tedious.


The Related Works (Chapter 9)

Did you know that Stephen King's other works are interconnected with the worlds of the Dark Tower? Of course you did. Some of his books loosely connect to the DT series with little more than character name, a place, or a car. Others are much closer. They actually break the plane of the fourth wall and enter into those other worlds. Many a fan are dedicated to finding and discussing these cross-references. Myself, I've never been the best at remembering connections and terms while reading so tend to have missed many. But, some connections are completely obvious, like The Man in Black (Randall Flagg/R.F./Walter O' Dim) who walks the books of n  The Standn, and n  The Eyes of the Dragonn, among others. King came much closer to the world of Roland Deschain when writing n  Insomnian, at one point nearly calling it a Dark Tower novel before completion. Patrick Danville does walk with Roland in DT7, and Ralph Roberts sees The Crimson King via the effects of sleep deprivation. If you decide to read the books closely related to The Dark Tower, don't forget n  Salem's Lotn, n  Hearts in Atlantisn, and n  Black Housen and others too.


Etcetera (Chapters 10 thru Appendices)

The remainder of the book takes a look at individual main characters; the influences to King's writing of the series, timelines, a short glossary, and whether this truly is the magnum opus defining his career.

A note about reading this book: If your just starting your trip to the Dark Tower, or even somewhere in the middle of that venture, I'd advise waiting until completion before reading this book to avoid the spoilers. For Dark Tower junkies, add it to your collection.

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

Looking for a way to revisit Roland and his ka-tet without reading the entire 4000 pages of The Dark Tower series?

Read The Wind Through the Keyhole.

Then here is the place to go. It's a great overview to the characters and story of King's masterpiece.

Do not read this book unless you have finished all 8 7 Dark Tower books. It will spoil it, otherwise.

While now outdated, given the number of novels and short stories that have been published since this was written, its still a useful resource. Even having read the Dark Tower saga back-to-back, this helped clarify some of the story's details that otherwise get lost in the sheer volume of content.

Great

This is neat, a lot of interesting information, Easter eggs, connections to various other themes and characters within the series and from other novels entirely.

I'm a giant DT dork, though, so I love this nerd stuff.

This was a pretty large book, dealing with all things about "The Dark Tower." The first half of the book dedicates a chapter to each story in the series. Usually I enjoy recaps, but with this book I found it a little dull to read 300 pages summarizing the seven Dark Tower books. The length is what got to me, and it was hard to keep interested in these recaps.

The second half of the book deals with everything else. How other books are connected to The Dark Tower series and world. Also, where King got his influences, and what the meaning of the books were. There is a section detailing the linguistics of the High Speech used in the books. And of course, Robert Browning poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is included. As this poems was the genesis of the idea for this series. This was the interesting and beefy stuff. This was where I learned a good deal about the books that I missed, while reading through these stories. As a result, this was the part that I liked. The only fault is the extrapolation. Bev Vincent tries to summarize what King was thinking, while writing a certain section of text, by inserting his own views on what King was trying to say. And, I just didn't buy into all of it. But, that's what this book is about. In essence, it's a critical review, and the reader can choose to share or not share in the beliefs of the author.

All-in-all, since I am a Dark Tower fan, I enjoyed this book, and the second half of this book is invaluable. I also liked going back to this world setting, without having to read all seven of the books again. But, I must be honest in saying that a lot of this book was very dry, especially the individual book summarizations.

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

This book was a moderately interesting read. Having read through all of the Dark Tower books, I did enjoy revisiting them. That being said, I felt like this book was less of an exploration and more of an outline of each book. There was some exploration in the end, but I was hoping for more; a deeper dive into the characters, the settings, the plot, and the connections throughout the King universe of books, and I was expecting that to be present throughout the entirety of the book. There were a lot of quotes and comments pulled from other sources, but what would have greatly benefited this book would be a discussion between Stephen King and the author of this book, Bev Vincent. Basically, I enjoyed the read and it has made me want to reread the Dark Tower series (this time I'm opting for audio versions.) But, I don't feel like I would have missed anything by not reading it. If you aren't a reader of Stephen King's books, you might find more value in this than I did. If you struggled with understanding some of the themes and character arcs, then this might also help you comprehend a little more. I did find the little bit of history regarding the writing and publishing of the series to be interesting. (If the internet has shown us one thing, it's that fans of anything can be toxic AF. I'm looking at you, Star Wars fans.) I'll be passing this book onto my aunt who brought it to my attention to begin with and I won't miss it in my collection.

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

Exhaustively comprehensive, but in the best possible way. This is the deepest dive down The Dark Tower rabbit hole. Contains, history, analysis, theories, influences, etc. Fans of King and the DT would be hard pressed to find a better companion.

A must read for any one who is interested in learning all there is to know about The Dark Tower series.