The Dark Tower (series)

The Dark Tower is a series of eight novels, one novella, and a children's book written by American author Stephen King. Incorporating themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western, it describes a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. The series, and its use of the Dark Tower, expands upon Stephen King's multiverse and in doing so, links together many of his other novels.
In addition to the eight novels of the series proper that comprise 4,250 pages, many of King's other books relate to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses.
The series was chiefly inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, the full text of which was included in the final volume's appendix. In the preface to the revised 2003 edition of The Gunslinger, King also identifies The Lord of the Rings, Arthurian legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as inspirations. He identifies Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as one of the major inspirations for the protagonist, Roland Deschain. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language, are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.
A film based on Stephen King's novel series was released in August 2017.

Overview

Plot summary

In the story, Roland Deschain is a member of a knightly order known as gunslingers and the last of the line of "Arthur Eld", his world's analogue of King Arthur. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West but is also magical. Many of the magical aspects have vanished from Mid-World but traces remain, as do relics from a technologically advanced society. Roland's quest is to find the Dark Tower, a fabled building said to be the nexus of all universes. Roland's world is said to have "moved on", and it appears to be coming apart at the seams. Mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish without a trace and time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Sometimes, even the sun rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland's motives, goals, and age are unclear, although later installments shed light on these mysteries.
For a detailed synopsis of the novels, see the relevant article for [|each book].

Connections to King's other works

The series has become a linchpin that is interwoven with, and ties together, much of King's body of work. The worlds of The Dark Tower are in part composed of locations, characters, events and other various elements from many of King's novels and short stories. Some of the principal books that are tied to this series, or that this series references, include It, The Stand, 'Salem's Lot, Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, Black House, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Shining, and Cell. The TV miniseries Kingdom Hospital takes place in a world in which Nozz-A-La is the most popular beverage in the world, possibly meaning those events take place in the same universe as books 4 and 5 are set.

Characters

Along his journey to the Dark Tower, Roland meets a great number of friends and enemies. For most of the way, he is accompanied by a group of people who, together with him, form the Ka-tet of the Nineteen and Ninety-nine, consisting of Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, and Oy. Among his many enemies on the way are The Man in Black, Mordred, and The Crimson King.

Language

King created a language for his characters, known as the High Speech. Examples of this language include the phrases Thankee, Sai and Dan-Tete. In addition, King uses the term Ka, which is the approximate equivalent of destiny, or fate, in the fictional language High Speech. This term originated in Egyptian mythology and storytelling, and has figured in several other novels and screenplays since 1976. The term also appears in King's short story "Low Men in Yellow Coats", in which Ted describes its meaning to Bobby.

Main series

Continuation

While the series was declared finished with the publication of the seventh volume in 2004, Stephen King described in an interview in March 2009 an idea for a new short story he'd recently had: "And then I thought, 'Well, why don't I find three more like this and do a book that would be almost like modern fairy tales?' Then this thing started to add on bits and pieces so I guess it will be a novel." According to King, the idea was a new Dark Tower novel.
King said, regarding The Dark Tower, "It's not really done yet. Those seven books are really sections of one long über-novel." King confirmed this during his TimesTalk event at The Times Center in New York City on November 10, 2009, and the next day King's official site posted that King would begin working on this novel in about eight months, with a tentative title being The Wind Through the Keyhole. King noted that this novel would likely be set between the fourth and the fifth books of the series. The book, titled The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole, was announced on Stephen King's official site on March 10, 2011, and was published on April 24, 2012.

Illustrations

Each book in the series was originally published in hardcover format with a number of full-color illustrations spread throughout. Each book contained works by a single illustrator only. Subsequent printings of each book in trade paperback format usually preserve the illustrations in full, except for books I and IV. Pocket-sized paperback reprints contain only black-and-white chapter or section header illustrations.
The illustrators who worked on each book are:

#	Illustrator	Title	Comments
0.5	Erik Wilson	"The Little Sisters of Eluria"	Wilson created the cover art for the short story when originally published in the anthology Legends.
1	Michael Whelan	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger	The Dark Tower is among his early notable works.
2	Phil Hale	The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three	The only Dark Tower illustrator who created a second set of illustrations for a later printing of the book he illustrated.
3	Ned Dameron	The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands	Also illustrated the children's book Charlie the Choo-Choo, published 25 years after its original manifestation in The Waste Lands.
4	Dave McKean	The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass	The only Dark Tower illustrator to work in photocollages.
4.5	Jae Lee	The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole	Also collaborated on the art for four story arcs of The Dark Tower, the comic book series published by Marvel Comics.
5	Bernie Wrightson	The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla	Illustrator for 1960s and 1970s horror comics; he also provided the illustrations for King's novella Cycle of the Werewolf.
6	Darrel Anderson	The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah	The only Dark Tower illustrator who used digital illustration techniques.
7	Michael Whelan	The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower	Returning more than 20 years later as the only recurring Dark Tower illustrator.

Reception

Bill Sheehan of The Washington Post called the series "a humane, visionary epic and a true magnum opus" that stands as an "imposing example of pure storytelling," "filled with brilliantly rendered set pieces... cataclysmic encounters and moments of desolating tragedy." Erica Noonan of the Boston Globe said, "There's a fascinating world to be discovered in the series" but noted that its epic nature keeps it from being user-friendly. Allen Johnston of The New York Times was disappointed with how the series progressed; while he marveled at the "sheer absurdity of existence" and complimented King's writing style, he said preparation would have improved the series, stating "King doesn't have the writerly finesse for these sorts of games, and the voices let him down." Michael Berry of the San Francisco Chronicle, however, called the series' early installments "highfalutin hodgepodge" but the ending "a valediction" that "more than delivers on what has been promised." Joshua Rothman of The New Yorker praised the series, feeling that "the novels were better and weirder than hoped." Because it features several of his classic tropes, Rothman claimed, "If you really like Stephen King, you owe it to yourself to give the series a shot."

Other media

Tie-in books

The series has prompted related non-fiction books by authors besides King. Robin Furth has published the two-volume Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance, an encyclopedia-style companion to the series that she originally wrote for King's personal use. Bev Vincent has published The Road to The Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus, a book containing back story, summary and analysis and The Dark Tower Companion, which includes interviews and coverage of the Marvel graphic novels. Stephen King has endorsed these books.
Charlie the Choo-Choo is a "children's book" by Stephen King released in 2016, published under the pseudonym Beryl Evans. It is adapted from a section of King's previous novel The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands. It was illustrated by Ned Dameron.