The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower

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The Dark Tower is a series of eight books and one short story 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, whose full text 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 abstract to our own (High Speech), are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien‘s work.

A film serving as a sequel to the events of The Dark Tower was released in August 2017.

Stephen King saw The Dark Tower series as a first draft, initially planning to rewrite it to eliminate continuity errors. However, after revising The Gunslinger, “he is trying to decide how much he can rewrite.”

Chronologicla Order of The Dark Tower Books

Below is the chronological order The Dark Tower books:

The Little Sisters of EluriaStephen King1998Amazon––
The Dark Tower: The GunslingerStephen King1982AmazonKindleAudiobook
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the ThreeStephen King1987AmazonKindleAudiobook
The Dark Tower III: The Waste LandsStephen King1991AmazonKindleAudiobook
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and GlassStephen King1997AmazonKindleAudiobook
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the KeyholeStephen King2012AmazonKindleAudiobook
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the CallaStephen King2003AmazonKindleAudiobook
The Dark Tower VI: Song of SusannahStephen King2004AmazonKindleAudiobook
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark TowerStephen King2004AmazonKindleAudiobook

Publishing Order of The Dark Tower Books

Below are The Dark Tower books in their publishing order:

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Stephen King 1982 Amazon Kindle Audiobook
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three Stephen King 1987 Amazon Kindle Audiobook
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands Stephen King 1991 Amazon Kindle Audiobook
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass Stephen King 1997 Amazon Kindle Audiobook
The Little Sisters of Eluria Stephen King 1998 Amazon – –
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla Stephen King 2003 Amazon Kindle Audiobook
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah Stephen King 2004 Amazon Kindle Audiobook
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower Stephen King 2004 Amazon Kindle Audiobook
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole Stephen King 2012 Amazon Kindle Audiobook