The Dark Tower

[justcheckin]

Hey... have you guys ever pondered the similarities between a gunslinger and a jedi?

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

Yeah, but Gunslingers can have sex, and as Roland has shown so far, don't always have that much compassion for other people's lives, or at least, aren't THAT against sacrificing them.

[justcheckin]

Yeah, but Gunslingers can have sex, and as Roland has shown so far, don't always have that much compassion for other people's lives, or at least, aren't THAT against sacrificing them.

Ok... but what about when Yoda doesn't want Luke to go save his friends in cloud city because it was a trap. That speaks of sacrificing for the greater good. Not to mention that Jedi and Gunslingers are trained from childhood...

[The Todd]

The Jedi are pussies who can't beat the X-Men. Gunslingers are bad-asses who would shoot the X-Men dead without breaking a sweat.

Roland FTW-FIVE!!!!!

[justcheckin]

The Jedi are pussies who can't beat the X-Men. Gunslingers are bad-asses who would shoot the X-Men dead without breaking a sweat.

Roland FTW-FIVE!!!!!

Are you equating the mutants under the mountain to X-men?

[The Todd]

No, The Todd is equating Gunslingers > Jedis.

Math-FIVE!!!!!

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

I'm gonna get The Dark Tower final novel for my Christmas present this year. I wonder if that has any meaning?

[justcheckin]

I'm gonna get The Dark Tower final novel for my Christmas present this year. I wonder if that has any meaning?

It means you are doomed to get books for the rest of your life... for Christmas!

[Bloo]

I don't know if anyone cares or not but I played (or rather play, I still do ILOL) a Roland inspired gunslinger in a D&D game

[justcheckin]

I don't know if anyone cares or not but I played (or rather play, I still do ILOL) a Roland inspired gunslinger in a D&D game

nice... I've never been into those games but that would be a cool character to play...

[Bloo]

I don't know if anyone cares or not but I played (or rather play, I still do ILOL) a Roland inspired gunslinger in a D&D game

nice... I've never been into those games but that would be a cool character to play...

hard as hell though because I had to create all the stats basically out of thin air LOL but yeah it's nice

[Fievel]

Roland is filled with far too much pride to be like a Jedi.
That and he's kind of into possessions (has that gunna sack full of 'em).

Gunslingers are more like Knights of the Round Table.

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

Finished Song of Susannah. HAH! Beat you to it, Pacino! You don't 'arf suck. I should be Admin here, not you! One of my faves in the series, as after the 2 huge bricks that came before, this was short, superfast and more suspenseful and action packed. But still, hurry up and have that freaking baby will ya?

Now onto The Dark Tower, that I got for Christmas. Oh dear! Callahan died! Roland's boy/Mia's baby turned out to be a Spider? WTF?! And what's with all those rat-headed people?! Jake is about to find Susannah, and that's as far as I am now.

Overall, loving it so far. We really do care for these characters a bit like family now don't we? Wonder what the future brings for them.

[justcheckin]

Finished Song of Susannah. HAH! Beat you to it, Pacino! You don't 'arf suck. I should be Admin here, not you! One of my faves in the series, as after the 2 huge bricks that came before, this was short, superfast and more suspenseful and action packed. But still, hurry up and have that freaking baby will ya?

Now onto The Dark Tower, that I got for Christmas. Oh dear! Callahan died! Roland's boy/Mia's baby turned out to be a Spider? WTF?! And what's with all those rat-headed people?! Jake is about to find Susannah, and that's as far as I am now.

Overall, loving it so far. We really do care for these characters a bit like family now don't we? Wonder what the future brings for them.

I think you are going to breeze through this book. It is one of my favorites.

[Fievel]

And what's with all those rat-headed people?!

Way back in the (revised) first book, they are mentioned around the time that Roland meets the farmer (and his bird Zoltan).

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

Finished Song of Susannah. HAH! Beat you to it, Pacino! You don't 'arf suck. I should be Admin here, not you! One of my faves in the series, as after the 2 huge bricks that came before, this was short, superfast and more suspenseful and action packed. But still, hurry up and have that freaking baby will ya?

Now onto The Dark Tower, that I got for Christmas. Oh dear! Callahan died! Roland's boy/Mia's baby turned out to be a Spider? WTF?! And what's with all those rat-headed people?! Jake is about to find Susannah, and that's as far as I am now.

Overall, loving it so far. We really do care for these characters a bit like family now don't we? Wonder what the future brings for them.

I think you are going to breeze through this book. It is one of my favorites.

Well hope so, hope it's faster paced than Glass and Calla, as much as like them. Bu dayumn! Tower is in SMALL text! In a way though it's good. Got more to read!

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

And what's with all those rat-headed people?!

Way back in the (revised) first book, they are mentioned around the time that Roland meets the farmer (and his bird Zoltan).

Don't remember. Ah, the thing about these books, is that they're gagging for a 2nd read. With the brief descriptions of some freaky shit, these aren't books best read fast, which is what I do.

[justcheckin]

And what's with all those rat-headed people?!

Way back in the (revised) first book, they are mentioned around the time that Roland meets the farmer (and his bird Zoltan).

Don't remember. Ah, the thing about these books, is that they're gagging for a 2nd read. With the brief descriptions of some freaky shit, these aren't books best read fast, which is what I do.

I had to read The Gunslinger again after I finished. You almost have to.

And just to clarify, the rat-headed people issue because I kept confusing the Taheen and the Can-Toi until I actually looked it up.

The Taheen have the heads of animals and don't make an attempt to hide their appearance. It is thought that they come from in-between the Prim and the natural world and are sometimes called the third people. There are two Taheen subspecies, avian and mammalian. They can choose like humankind to be good or bad and are usually higher up than the Can-toi.

The Can-toi (also known as the Low Men) have human shaped bodies with the deformed shape of a rats head. They also have the red-bleeding eye hole in their forehead. They are the ones who like to dress in loud clothing and wear latex masks to try and look human both holding humanity high and mocking it at the same time. They are supposed to be the product of Taheen and human cross breading and they originated in the todash spaces between worlds. They all serve the Crimson King.

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

And what's with all those rat-headed people?!

Way back in the (revised) first book, they are mentioned around the time that Roland meets the farmer (and his bird Zoltan).

Don't remember. Ah, the thing about these books, is that they're gagging for a 2nd read. With the brief descriptions of some freaky shit, these aren't books best read fast, which is what I do.

I had to read The Gunslinger again after I finished. You almost have to.

And just to clarify, the rat-headed people issue because I kept confusing the Taheen and the Can-Toi until I actually looked it up.

The Taheen have the heads of animals and don't make an attempt to hide their appearance. It is thought that they come from in-between the Prim and the natural world and are sometimes called the third people. There are two Taheen subspecies, avian and mammalian. They can choose like humankind to be good or bad and are usually higher up than the Can-toi.

The Can-toi (also known as the Low Men) have human shaped bodies with the deformed shape of a rats head. They also have the red-bleeding eye hole in their forehead. They are the ones who like to dress in loud clothing and wear latex masks to try and look human both holding humanity high and mocking it at the same time. They are supposed to be the product of Taheen and human cross breading and they originated in the todash spaces between worlds. They all serve the Crimson King.

Thanks. But heh it's a little late for THIS kinda feedback! Seeing as they all just got shot around the 100 page mark of The Dak Tower so it all don't matter!

[Fievel]

Thanks. But heh it's a little late for THIS kinda feedback! Seeing as they all just got shot around the 100 page mark of The Dak Tower so it all don't matter!

Good gods do I love the shootouts of the DT series.

[Nachokoolaid]

I always avoid this thread, because I don't want SPOILERS, but god, I love this series so far. But I'm only on book 4, so I don't want to read anything I'll regret.

The Gunslinger was okay. I almost gave up on the series after that book. But it seemed like there was some promise there, and sort of like Lucas with Star Wars, I don't think King knew then where he was headed.
The Drawing of the Three was fucking kickass. One of the better books I've read in the last ten years, and it totally took the world established in book 1 and made it suddenly more interesting. The sci-fi twist to something that seemed like sort of a dry western was a breath of fresh air.
The Wastelands almost killed the series again for me. I put it down for about 7 months, and didn't know if I'd ever get back into it. I forced myself through it over the Xmas break though, and it actually sort of started to pick up steam again towards the end. The game of riddles with Blaine the Mono had me enthralled. And it had the little cliffhanger that led right into ...
Wizard and Glass. When it first started to go into the history of Roland and Susan and that whole ordeal on the Drop and such with Cuthbert and Alain, I wasn't exactly excited, because flashsbacks are often just fluff and feel like they were tacked on. But this is the mother of all flashbacks, and I think this is honestly King's strongest writing of the series. In fact, it's really got me wishing that the entire series was set in this time and followed young Roland and his buddies and Susan. I'll actually miss them when I get back to the main narrative. I hope it comes back to this at some point in the future.

[justcheckin]

In fact, it's really got me wishing that the entire series was set in this time and followed young Roland and his buddies and Susan. I'll actually miss them when I get back to the main narrative. I hope it comes back to this at some point in the future.

The comic book series actually starts with this flashback in Wizard and Glass and moves forward from there... if you haven't already read those or checked them out you should when you get finished reading the books.

[justcheckin]

And what's with all those rat-headed people?!

Way back in the (revised) first book, they are mentioned around the time that Roland meets the farmer (and his bird Zoltan).

Don't remember. Ah, the thing about these books, is that they're gagging for a 2nd read. With the brief descriptions of some freaky shit, these aren't books best read fast, which is what I do.

I had to read The Gunslinger again after I finished. You almost have to.

And just to clarify, the rat-headed people issue because I kept confusing the Taheen and the Can-Toi until I actually looked it up.

The Taheen have the heads of animals and don't make an attempt to hide their appearance. It is thought that they come from in-between the Prim and the natural world and are sometimes called the third people. There are two Taheen subspecies, avian and mammalian. They can choose like humankind to be good or bad and are usually higher up than the Can-toi.

The Can-toi (also known as the Low Men) have human shaped bodies with the deformed shape of a rats head. They also have the red-bleeding eye hole in their forehead. They are the ones who like to dress in loud clothing and wear latex masks to try and look human both holding humanity high and mocking it at the same time. They are supposed to be the product of Taheen and human cross breading and they originated in the todash spaces between worlds. They all serve the Crimson King.

Thanks. But heh it's a little late for THIS kinda feedback! Seeing as they all just got shot around the 100 page mark of The Dak Tower so it all don't matter!

Well, you didn't ask before...

[Nachokoolaid]

Finished Wizard and Glass, and thought it was amazing. I've never read anything else by King, but this Dark Tower stuff is turning out to be amazing. Halfway through Wolves of the Calla right now, and it's as entertaining, and Wizard, although the love angle is gone. Great stuff. I'm glad I didn't give up on it when things sort of slowed and I was stuck in The Wastelands.

(Wonder if King titled that purposefully, being the shittiest of the three books, at that point).

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

Well you're in for the long haul now, so keep on moving.

I liked The Wastelands myself. The hardest part of the readings I thought were the beginning of Roland's coming of age story as it was just setting up and introducing the scene and characters. Was an impatient read but my God the payoff at the end of that story, all of it just swelled up in my throat. It's the most intense of the whole series right there.

You're going fast through those huge doorstep of the 2 books though, looks like you got God speed already. I'll see you at The Dark Tower! Probably get there before me though at this rate.

[justcheckin]

Both of you need to hurry up!

If you haven't read anything else by King and you like the Darktower stuff then you need to read The Talisman and it's sequel Black House.

[TheBaxter]

Well you're in for the long haul now, so keep on moving.

I liked The Wastelands myself. The hardest part of the readings I thought were the beginning of Roland's coming of age story as it was just setting up and introducing the scene and characters. Was an impatient read but my God the payoff at the end of that story, all of it just swelled up in my throat. It's the most intense of the whole series right there.

You're going fast through those huge doorstep of the 2 books though, looks like you got God speed already. I'll see you at The Dark Tower! Probably get there before me though at this rate.

great gaga, you still haven't finished yet!?!?!?

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

I was well on my way, but I've been very busy lately with sending my Tiger Shark movie to film festivals and stuff and other stuff have distracted me. Just not in the mood to read when I'm so immersed in other obsessions, it's just the way my mind works.

But I like staying in Roland's world and having it still last and still some way to go before I have to leave it. Like John-Locke did by stopping reading deliberately so he could remain in The Dark Tower world, I guess I've ended up doing the same.

I read The Talisman before The Dark Tower. Like that book a lot. I was hoping we would spend more time in The Territories and the other existence of that place rather than so much time in America as we know it, but I still liked it a great deal. Time spent with Wolf was my fave part by far. Heard about it's sequel, not so sure about that, as it doesn't seem to relate to The Talisman a great deal.

Am I wrong?

[justcheckin]

I was well on my way, but I've been very busy lately with sending my Tiger Shark movie to film festivals and stuff and other stuff have distracted me. Just not in the mood to read when I'm so immersed in other obsessions, it's just the way my mind works.

But I like staying in Roland's world and having it still last and still some way to go before I have to leave it. Like John-Locke did by stopping reading deliberately so he could remain in The Dark Tower world, I guess I've ended up doing the same.

I read The Talisman before The Dark Tower. Like that book a lot. I was hoping we would spend more time in The Territories and the other existence of that place rather than so much time in America as we know it, but I still liked it a great deal. Time spent with Wolf was my fave part by far. Heard about it's sequel, not so sure about that, as it doesn't seem to relate to The Talisman a great deal.

Am I wrong?

Um, not to spoil it too much... Black House has the same main character (Jack), some of the same smaller characters and territory flipping. It isn't about saving his mom, it is about saving a town from a serial killer who can also flip. I rather liked it. It is a bit more graphic (some typical Stephen King murders and mob mayhem).

[Fievel]

I was well on my way, but I've been very busy lately with sending my Tiger Shark movie to film festivals and stuff and other stuff have distracted me. Just not in the mood to read when I'm so immersed in other obsessions, it's just the way my mind works.

But I like staying in Roland's world and having it still last and still some way to go before I have to leave it. Like John-Locke did by stopping reading deliberately so he could remain in The Dark Tower world, I guess I've ended up doing the same.

I read The Talisman before The Dark Tower. Like that book a lot. I was hoping we would spend more time in The Territories and the other existence of that place rather than so much time in America as we know it, but I still liked it a great deal. Time spent with Wolf was my fave part by far. Heard about it's sequel, not so sure about that, as it doesn't seem to relate to The Talisman a great deal.

Am I wrong?

Um, not to spoil it too much... Black House has the same main character (Jack), some of the same smaller characters and territory flipping. It isn't about saving his mom, it is about saving a town from a serial killer who can also flip. I rather liked it. It is a bit more graphic (some typical Stephen King murders and mob mayhem).

I actually like Black House better, and I absolutely love The Talisman.

[travis-dane]

I was well on my way, but I've been very busy lately with sending my Tiger Shark movie to film festivals and stuff and other stuff have distracted me. Just not in the mood to read when I'm so immersed in other obsessions, it's just the way my mind works.

But I like staying in Roland's world and having it still last and still some way to go before I have to leave it. Like John-Locke did by stopping reading deliberately so he could remain in The Dark Tower world, I guess I've ended up doing the same.

I read The Talisman before The Dark Tower. Like that book a lot. I was hoping we would spend more time in The Territories and the other existence of that place rather than so much time in America as we know it, but I still liked it a great deal. Time spent with Wolf was my fave part by far. Heard about it's sequel, not so sure about that, as it doesn't seem to relate to The Talisman a great deal.

Am I wrong?

Um, not to spoil it too much... Black House has the same main character (Jack), some of the same smaller characters and territory flipping. It isn't about saving his mom, it is about saving a town from a serial killer who can also flip. I rather liked it. It is a bit more graphic (some typical Stephen King murders and mob mayhem).

I actually like Black House better, and I absolutely love The Talisman.

Black House is good. Maybe the best tie in to the Dark Tower books aside from Teds story in Atlantis.

[justcheckin]

I was well on my way, but I've been very busy lately with sending my Tiger Shark movie to film festivals and stuff and other stuff have distracted me. Just not in the mood to read when I'm so immersed in other obsessions, it's just the way my mind works.

But I like staying in Roland's world and having it still last and still some way to go before I have to leave it. Like John-Locke did by stopping reading deliberately so he could remain in The Dark Tower world, I guess I've ended up doing the same.

I read The Talisman before The Dark Tower. Like that book a lot. I was hoping we would spend more time in The Territories and the other existence of that place rather than so much time in America as we know it, but I still liked it a great deal. Time spent with Wolf was my fave part by far. Heard about it's sequel, not so sure about that, as it doesn't seem to relate to The Talisman a great deal.

Am I wrong?

Um, not to spoil it too much... Black House has the same main character (Jack), some of the same smaller characters and territory flipping. It isn't about saving his mom, it is about saving a town from a serial killer who can also flip. I rather liked it. It is a bit more graphic (some typical Stephen King murders and mob mayhem).

I actually like Black House better, and I absolutely love The Talisman.

Black House is good. Maybe the best tie in to the Dark Tower books aside from Teds story in Atlantis.

Yeah, I can't decide which one I like better. Both of these got me into reading some Peter Straub stuff. That dude writes some creepy stuff. LOL

[unikrunk]

I was well on my way, but I've been very busy lately with sending my Tiger Shark movie to film festivals and stuff and other stuff have distracted me. Just not in the mood to read when I'm so immersed in other obsessions, it's just the way my mind works.

But I like staying in Roland's world and having it still last and still some way to go before I have to leave it. Like John-Locke did by stopping reading deliberately so he could remain in The Dark Tower world, I guess I've ended up doing the same.

I read The Talisman before The Dark Tower. Like that book a lot. I was hoping we would spend more time in The Territories and the other existence of that place rather than so much time in America as we know it, but I still liked it a great deal. Time spent with Wolf was my fave part by far. Heard about it's sequel, not so sure about that, as it doesn't seem to relate to The Talisman a great deal.

Am I wrong?

Um, not to spoil it too much... Black House has the same main character (Jack), some of the same smaller characters and territory flipping. It isn't about saving his mom, it is about saving a town from a serial killer who can also flip. I rather liked it. It is a bit more graphic (some typical Stephen King murders and mob mayhem).

Right, the killer is real life fucko Albert Fish (IIRC). Also, Black House is not even comparable to The Talisman, or any of the DT books, and that includes the shitty ones (Wolves of the Calla and beyond). Black House seemed like a coke-debt book to me; "Well, I owe my dealer 100K for this Peruvian Flake, better churn out some bullshit!". Seriously, it just kind of sucked. Yeah, it ties into the whole 'beam breakers' thing, and does a passable job of relating The Territories to End-World, but...why bother? A book about Albert Fish would have been just fine, without all the easter-egg-cross-over stuff.

/still waiting on a proper sequel to Talisman.

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

Think this song is a good way to sum up most of Wizard and Glass with Roland and Susan Delgado. Singer (Taylor Swift) even looks like Susan, no? Oooaah Stephen King, taking a romance and mixing it so cuttingly with horror. Some of the great stories are dark/horror love stories eh?

They say it's better to have love and lost, than not to have loved at all. I dunno, would you wanna be Roland Deschain onwards after what he went through in this tale?

[Wolfpack]

Think this song is a good way to sum up most of Wizard and Glass with Roland and Susan Delgado. Singer (Taylor Swift) even looks like Susan, no? Oooaah Stephen King, taking a romance and mixing it so cuttingly with horror. Some of the great stories are dark/horror love stories eh?

They say it's better to have love and lost, than not to have loved at all. I dunno, would you wanna be Roland Deschain onwards after what he went through in this tale?

Better to be Roland after all that than Roland during all that.

[Nachokoolaid]

Just finished WOLVES OF THE CALLA. And I enjoyed it quite a bit. This series is really turning into one of my favorites. I thought it especially trippy that it was revealed that the Wolves were based specifically off ofDr. Doom from the Fantastic Four, when I thought that's what they resembled based on an earlier illustration in the book I was reading. Also, the first time it described the flying balls the Wolves use that explode when it hits someone (called Sneetches), and I remember thinking, "Hmm, that's sort of like that golden snitch thing from Harry Potter." And then when they find one lying on the ground, and it says "Harry Potter Model" on it, my fucking head almost exploded and I was grinning from ear to ear. And the electric sticks turned out to belight sabers. It's all so surreal.

And I like to homage to Seven Samurai/ Magnificent Seven. Great story.

I love how King is turning everything one it's head and is mixing all these different genres together- from horror, to love story, to sci-fi, to fantasy, and so on. Just started SONG OF SUSANNAH. Interested to see where this goes.

[Fievel]

I love how King is turning everything one it's head and is mixing all these different genres together- from horror, to love story, to sci-fi, to fantasy, and so on.

That's probably my favorite aspect of the series.
Books 1-5 are so completely different from each other.

[justcheckin]

I love how King is turning everything one it's head and is mixing all these different genres together- from horror, to love story, to sci-fi, to fantasy, and so on.

That's probably my favorite aspect of the series.
Books 1-5 are so completely different from each other.

Mine too... and congrats Nachokoolaid on one more down. Two more... enjoy.

[Nachokoolaid]

Just finished Song of Susannah. It was a really quick read. I didn't like it nearly as much as Wolves or Wizard, but it was enjoyable. I really liked the section with Stephen King. That was deliciously "meta."

Just cracked The Dark Tower. I hope it's a good finale.

[Nachokoolaid]

I'm about 200 pages from completing The Dark Tower. It's been an awesome journey. Can't wait until the end. Anyone feel like discussing this whenever I get to the end?

[Nachokoolaid]

Oh, and I wanted to ask, King mentions that there is a Dark Tower reference in all his work. Is there a website or something that has each of these references chronicled in a user friendly place?

That would be awesome.

[Fievel]

Oh, and I wanted to ask, King mentions that there is a Dark Tower reference in all his work. Is there a website or something that has each of these references chronicled in a user friendly place?

That would be awesome.

Hey Nacho, (almost) congrats! I'd love to talk some Tower when you're done. There's a bunch of Tower junkies that usually show up when this thread gets kicked up.

And here's some links:

Here's the official list of books connected to the Dark Tower series from King's own website.

And here's a "Roadmap" showing the connections of each of the books (archived from a now-defunct website)

[Nachokoolaid]

Last night I made it to the top of the Dark Tower with Roland of Gilead. I'd love to talk about it if anyone wants to.

Just a quick thought. I think I sort of agree with Stephen King that I didn't necessarily love the ending, but it felt like the right one, in a way.

[Fievel]

Just a quick thought. I think I sort of agree with Stephen King that I didn't necessarily love the ending, but it felt like the right one, in a way.

Just one more comparison between Lost and the Dark Tower series. You could have stopped with one aspect of the ending (Jack dying on the beach/"The man in black...")and thought "okay, that works." But then the other part of the ending happens (the Lost afterlife party/the three in NYC) and people are all "what the fuck!?!?". Granted they didn't happen in order on Lost so you could stop it and be content with the one aspect..... and they based half of the season on that premise.... ahhhh shit I'm not even making sense anymore.


I'm 100% fine with the DT ending(s). The main ending was foreshadowed throughout the whole damn series (Ka is like a wheel...) and the other ending felt just fucked up enough to be appropriate. After all the fuckedupedness that happened in the series, especially in the last few books, I found no room to complain. My only complaint about the final book is that Flagg goes out like a bitch. It's not like he wrote Book 7 and THEN wrote The Stand/Eyes of the Dragon/etc. No, he had a well-developed character and his end was just pathetic and weak. I have a friend who loves that aspect - says that for all Flagg has done in the Kingverse for him to go out with zero fanfare, zero witnesses, zero people caring, and zero consequences from dying, that it's so fitting for someone who did major evil in such a grand manner to just be killed as he was. I can understand that, but he was set up as such a nemesis of Roland (throughout his entire life!) and then was just pushed aside and the Crimson King became the big bad man. I'm hoping some of this transition of importance (from Flagg to Crimson King) is fleshed out in the eventual new DT book. King has been quoted as saying he'd love to redo all of the DT books to get a better continuity between the books (as he re-did The Gunslinger). Maybe the new book will remove the need.

[Nachokoolaid]

Yeah, I sort of agree with that. Walter seemed to be Roland's nemesis, and I was really waiting on that confrontation that had really been established since the first line of the novel (and confirmed with the last!). So Mordred gets him. I liked how awesome that scene was, but I did feel like it denied us something a bit more special. But it is (hands down) the most horrifying scene in the books.

The only real problem I have with it is that Mordred never amounts to much. Just sort of a looming threat to Roland. To the 2nd tier characters, sure, he's a fucking nightmare and death incarnate. But I never got the sense that he was going to fuck Roland up. So FOR THIS reason, I think Walter was wasted a bit. If the Mordred thing would have paid off more, then maybe Walter's death might have been a bit easier to swallow.

[Fievel]

Did you check out the related books links?
I read or listen to audiobooks for most of them during my first time through the DT series. It helped that I had to wait for the release of the final two books so the related books filled that time nicely. I still can't imagine what it would have been like to start reading the series when The Gunslinger first came out. There was SO MUCH time in between some books.
But yeah, the related books... some are just obscure references, others pretty direct. If nothing else, it's a great way to read some entertaining books.

[Bloo]

hey thanks for sharing those links, I knew most of them, but it's always fun to revisit

I started listening to the Dark Tower on Audio but set it aside awhile back, I think it's time to go through that series again.

and yeah those years and years and years of waiting sucked. I remember going to Denver and picking up Wizard and Glass and it being almost like a religious experience because we finally had new DT material. Then came the even longer drought...

[TheBaxter]

Just a quick thought. I think I sort of agree with Stephen King that I didn't necessarily love the ending, but it felt like the right one, in a way.

Just one more comparison between Lost and the Dark Tower series. You could have stopped with one aspect of the ending (Jack dying on the beach/"The man in black...")and thought "okay, that works." But then the other part of the ending happens (the Lost afterlife party/the three in NYC) and people are all "what the fuck!?!?". Granted they didn't happen in order on Lost so you could stop it and be content with the one aspect..... and they based half of the season on that premise.... ahhhh shit I'm not even making sense anymore.

you might want to spoiler text some of that. there might be people who come into this thread who want to catch up on Lost on DVD and haven't watched it yet. i know because i had the ending of Dark Tower semi-spoiled for me in other non-Dark Tower related threads. we need to be careful about posting spoilers to other books/movies/shows in unrelated threads.

[Nice Marmot]

Holy crap am I late or what?

There's a friggin' REVISED edition of the Gunslinger? When did THAT come out? I was about to reread a flimsy, half-destroyed copy of the first paperback edition.

Are there revised editions of any of the other books?

And any news of a nice big boxed hardcover collection of the whole saga?

[Fievel]

Holy crap am I late or what?

There's a friggin' REVISED edition of the Gunslinger? When did THAT come out? I was about to reread a flimsy, half-destroyed copy of the first paperback edition.

Are there revised editions of any of the other books?

And any news of a nice big boxed hardcover collection of the whole saga?

The revised Gunslinger maybe came out in 2003. King has said that he'd like to revise books 2-4 but who knows if that will ever happen - might be a great reason for an ultimate box set. But then there's the new DT book he's going to write and who knows how that will affect the series.
Oh... so no, there aren't any more revised editions of the other books.

You know about the comic books?