Stephen King's Dark Tower Series

I just finished reading the final (seventh) volume of Stephen King’s much-drawn-out epic series The Dark Tower. And I’m not sure how to write this article: should I just go all out and spill the entire can of beans on it, revealing what happens and ruining it for those who haven’t yet read it? Or should I instead tread on a tight wire, revealing just enough to make some points while concealing the series’ outcome? I’ll try the latter, for better or for worse.

Stephen King is easily my favorite author, and if you have been reading this blog regularly (or are in my family), you would already know that. I have read most of his works, long and short. But until last December, I had steered clear of the seven-part Dark Tower series. Well, almost clear. Because, in some of his stories, King alludes to the Dark Tower. Especially in his early 90s-novel Insomnia and the short story The Little Sisters of Eluria. Finally, my curiosity was stimulated to the point where I could stand it no longer and began reading the series with Volume One, The Gunslinger. Originally written in 1970, King had revised it recently, and it was this version I read. One thing I admire about Stephen King is that he openly reveals his sources of inspiration. And The Dark Tower is directly inspired by a poem he read by Robert Browning, while its main protagonist, a quiet, somber gunslinger named Roland Deschain, derives much of his personality from Clint Eastwood’s “man with no name” character from old spaghetti westerns like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. King acknowledges that he had been an avid fan of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, and wanted to write his own epic series. But King’s output over the years of successive installments to the series was extremely erratic, and many fans gave up on him ever completing it. Finally, a near-fatal accident in 1999, when King was hit by a minivan while taking a walk down a Maine country road near his house, prompted him to renew his efforts. And in a torrent of writing, he produced the final three volumes.

As in Lord of the Rings, a long quest and a fellowship of diverse characters are central to the Dark Tower. Instead of trying to dispose of a pesky ring in a fiery volcano, though, Roland’s ka-tet (i.e. fellowship) tries to reach the mysterious Dark Tower and save existence from the nefarious Crimson King (a character eerily reminiscent of Tolkien’s Sauron). Departing from Tolkien, though, King uses time travel and travel-between-worlds to advance the plot, and this tactic gets our contemporary popular culture involved in this very exotic story. He also ties together many of his earlier works and creates a “Stephen King Universe” of interrelated stories. And, of course, he can’t help but stick himself and his beloved state of Maine into the proceedings as well! King also weaves into his story his writing philosophy: he feels as if he is channeling his characters and story from another source, not of himself!

Does Roland save existence and reach the Dark Tower? Far be it for me to tell you. But I will repeat the message that the good author gives at the end. It is the journey of reading through the series that gives it such an appeal. The ending, which King acknowledges that he received a lot of flack for, is something that you can take or leave.