#Dark tower how to
#Dark tower series

Not everything has to be for everyone, but I believe out of all the people who do love these stories, none of us can claim it holds a larger place in our hearts than Stephen King himself.

#Dark tower series

Considering it started at a time when King was also writing the novels that would be published under the pseudonym, Richard Bachman-King's earliest novels, written between 1967-1972, are by and large more nihilistic than anything published under his real name-the hopelessness shouldn't be surprising, but it is quite the contrast to the series as a whole (though I feel I should state that this does not mean that it's all sunshine and daisies and elves for the next six books).Įven now, The Dark Tower series proves to be a bit of an enigma when it comes to King's fanbase it's not uncommon to encounter Constant Readers who have not taken the journey down the road to the Dark Tower. Though there is never a moment where King isn't fully invested in the fantasy of it all, a stark lack of hope flows throughout The Dark Tower's first chapter. King's first installment of Roland's journey is much grittier and meditative than the wild, Tolkienesque adventure which follows. Much like how The Dark Tower series itself stands out from King's body of work as something that is wholly its own genre, The Gunslinger stands apart from the books that follow.

#Dark tower how to

No one-it seemed-knew how to acquire this mysterious volume.' Vincent goes on to write that Doubleday, who published Pet Sematary, received more than 3,000 letters inquiring how people could get their hands on a copy of a book they hadn't even published.

In his book, Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus, King scholar, Bev Vincent writes: 'In 1983, bookstores had no record of The Dark Tower. Originally limited to 10,000 copies (in what was supposed to be the only pressing), The Gunslinger begins the epic story of Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, and his journey across mid-world to the Dark Tower, an enormous, ashen structure that holds all of existence in place. In the list of King's other works, beneath Christine, was something called The Dark Tower. In 1983, Stephen King had far fewer publications under his belt than he does today, and readers cracking open their fresh copies of Pet Sematary noticed something unfamiliar. If you own any books, you've probably noticed that they'll usually list other titles by that author in the opening pages. Grant publishing, The Gunslinger was a collection of five stories that were all published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction beginning in October 1978 with the first piece, 'The Gunslinger ', and ending in November 1981 with the final piece, 'The Gunslinger and the Dark Man.' (In the revised edition of The Gunslinger, published in 2006 by Scribner, the final section was retitled, 'The Gunslinger and the Man in Black').Ĭonsidering that The Dark Tower was, at the time, quite a departure for King, its publication was severely limited, and it wasn't until the following year that people started to take notice. So, how did King's short story turn into a novel that spawned seven sequels? Well, it's kind of an interesting story if you have a few minutes… Volume 2, The Drawing of the Three, turns thirty-five, and finally, most importantly, and the reason that I'm here with you all today, Volume 1, The Gunslinger, turns forty. In 2022, Volume 8, The Wind Through the Keyhole turns ten, Volume 4, Wizard and Glass, turns twenty-five. This year, four of those volumes are celebrating milestone anniversaries. Of course, we could celebrate the existence of The Dark Tower cycle every day, but this year is a bit different. Now, 52 years later, King's eight-volume series sits on bookshelves across the planet thousands of pages open a door to one of the most enchanting worlds this particular FANGORIA contributor has ever had the pleasure of visiting. On June 19th, 1970, still four years from publishing his first novel, an author named Stephen King wrote the following sentence: 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.' In doing this, Stephen King sealed his fate, and became destined to write his magnum opus, The Dark Tower. Sometimes good things come to pass, sometimes bad regardless, it is a wheel that turns, undeterred. Fate, if such a thing exists, begins when it chooses.