Great!

Had to read this after reading the series and was not disappointed. The author saved me from rereading all the books (I am actually reading "The Gunslinger" again) and taking a lot of notes.... A lot of things became much clearer, some things surprised me.
I think this is a great supplement to read after (!!!!) the series, again thanks Tiffany!

Indispensable for anyone who has just finished the series, this companion piece answers most questions and fills in any gaps you might have upon completion. Especially important for me are the connections of Dark Tower elements to other King works I was unfamiliar with. There are explanations of each of his other books having relations to DT, so I was able to get the whole picture of "Hearts in Atlantis" and "Insomnia," since I haven't read those but feature characters who appear in DT. I skipped other chapters like "The Talisman" and "Rose Madder" because I haven't read those either, but they didn't play as big a part, so there weren't spoiler aspects like the stories told by the characters from Hearts and Insomnia in the actual DT books they appeared in.

Each of the DT books is summarized and analyzed, including a lot of literary and philosophical references, some of which I had picked up on, others that were surprising and added to the richness of a series so deep in ideas, characters, and events. I read all the footnotes but skimmed most of the synopses except for "The Gunslinger" which I had to read all of because I read the original version and wanted to see the specific additions/amendments from the revised edition. Throughout these sections, there are little asides on random things like twins, vampires, King's accident in '99, etc.

There are also chapters examining each of the major characters/villains, most interesting to me were the ubiquitous Randall Flagg and Father Callahan from "Salem's Lot." Then Vincent presents essays entitled "Epics, Influences and Ka," "Art and the Act of Creation," and "Magnum Opus," followed by a timeline and glossary of Mid-World terms. Essential reading/skimming for anyone who's head is swimming after they finish the whole series.

After finally finishing...maybe...who knows what second or third thoughts may be coming, King's multi volume opus which I throughly enjoyed, I took a look at this. It's interesting and helpful. If I owned the books I certainly would buy it, but I don't. Read everything from the library, and so the value of a book like this very limited. If you own the dark tower set, buy all means get this book. When you can't remember certain details or where they occurred and when, this will solve your problems.

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

First chapter was interesting for Tower junkies like myself. Vincent mostly covers the series's fraught journey to publication, the mystery surrounding it from the start, and the quirks of publishing.

The next chapters are a play-by-play of the series itself,then all King books with references to the Tower. This was insanely boring, and a waste of paper. I was hoping for a more in depth analysis of even Browning's poem, or fantasy post- lord of the rings ..but no. Just a summary of books I've already read.

I found this to be very well written, much more so than Robin Furth's Concordance. It enhanced my enjoyment for the series, and BV provided many insights to the DT series as well as King's related works.

Was expecting a lot of background on the writing of the Dark Tower but instead, this was an in-depth review of each book with some additional details. Almost like a director's commentary. Was great in what it wanted to accomplish, likely saving me a re-read of the entire series.

Made the series easier to understand

Can't wait to read this one.

I'd highly recommend The Road to The Dark Tower to all fans of The Dark Tower series, but I'll warn you that this book can be repetitive at times. There were sections that seemed to simply regurgitate information that had already been stated earlier in the book. That said, there were also a lot of new ideas that changed my perspective of the series as a whole. I especially enjoyed reading about how King's other novels tied into the Dark Tower universe. If you're looking to expand your Dark Tower knowledge, you should definitely check this book out.

Billed as an exploration of Stephen King’s most ambitious work, this falls far short of the mark.

I was hoping for a series of interesting essays and articles examining the themes, characters, and workings of the Dark Tower universe. What I got was a lot of regurgitated information. At least half of the book is taken up with chapter-long summaries of each book in the series. Then there are more chapter-length character bios for each main character, which basically repeats what I already LITERALLY JUST READ in the book summaries… and which, of course, I already knew because I READ THE BOOKS.

Boring and uninspired.