[Zsinj]

I believe I've seen this subject discussed sporadically through many of the thread about King's Dark Tower series, but I wanted to dedicate a thread soley to the subject of asking which of King's novels/short stories tie in/connect with the Dark Tower series? Does anyone know? :confused:

[Vladimir]

I remember seeing a jpg illustrating the connections between the first 5 dark tower books and the rest of his stuff in one of the other threads..
can't seem to find it right now thou :\

[trentdick2882]

yeah, there's already a whole thread on this, just search "dark tower connections"

[snake0024]

http://www.thedarktower.net/connections/dtx.gif

[Shanoncia]

Very thorough Snake, I applaud you. interesting bit to be sure. I wish now I knew more of this series. Anyone care to clue me in?

[Erfael]

I'll just say it's a mighty good series. There are other threads floating around with more detail. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel like dredging up a few of them for you.

[snake0024]

The Dark Tower is based on Robert Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. The Dark Tower tells the story of Roland of Gilead, the last Gunslinger and his quest to find the Dark Tower. We begin the series as he pursues the Man in Black, a sorcerer who may or may not be Marten, the treacherous Wizard who betrayed Roland's father and land to the armies of the Good Man, John Farson.

King has spent over twenty years writing this series, and has only finished it recently. So far the first five books are available:
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard&Glass
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
Though the last two books, A Song of Susannah, and the Dark Tower will be published this year, Song of Susannah in early june, and The Dark Tower in late september. There is also a short story that King wrote in Legends called the Little Sisters of Eluria

[Quagmire]

Very thorough Snake, I applaud you. interesting bit to be sure. I wish now I knew more of this series. Anyone care to clue me in?

If you do decide to read it, don't be discouraged after the Gunslinger. It is kind of confusing as the timeline jumps around but it shouldn't take you more than a day to finish it. The series does get better with each book (although I haven't read book 5 yet)

It's a Fantasy meets Western sort of story.

[ravenus]

If you do decide to read it, don't be discouraged after the Gunslinger. It is kind of confusing as the timeline jumps around but it shouldn't take you more than a day to finish it. The series does get better with each book (although I haven't read book 5 yet)
Y'know what I had just the opposite reaction - The Gunslinger was the most awsome book for me with its quasi-mystical feel, even the so-called loose ends kind of added to it accentuating the unreal quality of Roland's world. Book two brought me down a great deal, especially the black woman, I still enjoyed parts of it but I bought only the first book (got a nice hard-cover with color-plates et al) and often re-read it as a stand-alone. Love it.

PS: if anyone is starting on the DT series please try to get the original edition of the Gunslinger and not King's revised edition, I flipped through a bit of it and was quite mortified. In his attempt to streamline it with the more 'down-to-earth' elements of further books in the series, he has inserted a lot of wise-guy dialog/description, IMO ruining the mystical feel of the original work.

[trentdick2882]

Y'know what I had just the opposite reaction - The Gunslinger was the most awsome book for me with its quasi-mystical feel, even the so-called loose ends kind of added to it accentuating the unreal quality of Roland's world. Book two brought me down a great deal, especially the black woman, I still enjoyed parts of it but I bought only the first book (got a nice hard-cover with color-plates et al) and often re-read it as a stand-alone. Love it.

PS: if anyone is starting on the DT series please try to get the original edition of the Gunslinger and not King's revised edition, I flipped through a bit of it and was quite mortified. In his attempt to streamline it with the more 'down-to-earth' elements of further books in the series, he has inserted a lot of wise-guy dialog/description, IMO ruining the mystical feel of the original work.

I noticed that as I read the revised edition after the original also, ravenus. He went back and added a lot of foreshadowing and stuff, but he also changed the style a lot to make it fit more with the other books. I'd read the revised if I wanted to read the entire series, but keep the original aside, like you said, as kind of a standalone.