Just visited the King website, and discovered that there’s a new version of “The Gunslinger” set to be released. Changes on nearly every page.
Now, I sort of understand this. “The Dark Tower” was King’s first thing. He started “The Gunslinger” in college, and, like he says in the afterword of “Wizard and Glass”, “48 has a way of forgetting the heat and passion of 17.” I understand the fact that his style has changed somewhat over the years, and is trying to make the series more cohesive in terms of style, but it still means that I’m gonna have to buy another edition. Curses! shakes fist skyward
Mind you, I only own the ‘canon’ books (“The Gunslinger”, “The Drawing of The Three”, “The Waste Lands”, “Wizard and Glass”, “The Eyes of The Dragon” and “The Stand” are what I consider the core of the series), but have read the “expanded universe” of “Hearts in Atlantis”, “Insomnia”, “The Talisman” and am nearly done with “Black House”.
So, ummm… reply bait…
Any hopes for the conclusion of the series?
Any hopes that other authors will continue to write stories set in the Dark Tower universe? (I think William Goldman would do a damned good job. My sister has the 25th anniversary edition of “The Princess Bride”, with the first chapter of the sequel, “Buttercup’s Baby”, which was either written by King, or by Goldman doing a damned good King impersonation.)
I wouldn’t be surprised if William did do it, given King’s permission of course. He’s very close with him and he’s adapted several of his books into films, some of which are successful, and others (the most recent) which are not.
I’m kind of torn about King’s revision of the dark tower. On the one hand I can understand his desire to make the necessary changes, since stylistically it’s extremely different from the other books–even first time readers I’ve talked to said they had a difficult time with it, but the series picked up for them. Also, there may be logistical things he wants to maybe fix or change to better fit the series as he has in mind, since I’m sure when he started the first one his mindset of how the series ends was somewhat different then.
But on the other hand, art is art. I’m fiercely opposed to picking up the brush again and doing another addition years later. The point of art is that it’s representative of a time as well as a feeling. To go back is a fallacy, IMHO.
Is he revising it, or is he simply releasing an unabridged, This Is What I Wanted to Publish in the First Place if It Weren’t For the Evil Editors version like he did with The Stand?
Hopefully when Steven King rewrites it Queen Amidala won’t be standing behind the Gunslinger at the end. :rolleyes:
Actually, I’m pretty sure that King isn’t going to pull a George Lucas here and make changes that PC-ify and make the work childish. I think he’ll make a stronger work.
Gosh, I live for this stuff. I’m the kind of person who will run out to buy the new version, and then read them both, page by page, to compare.
I’m very curious to see how it reads! If I don’t like it, I can always stick with the original. It’s not like you have to turn in your old copy to buy the new edition.
I thought the reference was more about how Lucas went back and changed the first three movies.
Anyway, I certainly wasn’t all the entertained by The Gunslinger when I read it. If I wasn’t a King nut back then, I probably wouldn’t have read the next one. But now, I’m hooked. I can’t wait for the next one. And a different version of The Gunslinger will certainly be interesting. Of course, the real version will still be the first one. You can’t rewrite history
My reference was to Lucas’ thinking about - for future rereleases on DVD - putting Queen Amidala in the group of ghosts who appear at the end of Return of the Jedi. Lucas seems obsessed with constantly making changes to the films in order to make them coherent with whatever crappy ideas he’s coming up with at the time.
A search through the archives suggested to me that this thread might be the best place to ask a question:
I’ve only read the four Dark Tower books so far, and I’ve heard quite a few people mention this ‘expanded universe’ of Mr. King’s. Which other books should I read to best appreciate this larger picture, and in what order would be best?
Welcome to the boards, Ferris. It’s okay to start a new thread instead of reviving one that’s pretty much faded off on its own. If your archive search didn’t answer your question, you can start a new thread.
I’ve always believed that The Gunslinger was among the best of King’s work… the writing style is far out of the usual Stephen King rut (it’s a good rut, but I’ve long ago gotten tired of it). And the story mechanics feel very different from the usual grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Drawing of the Three read like typical King. The Waste Lands read like a transcript from a boring text adventure game, which ended by inviting unfavorable comparisons to The Hobbit. And the one after that, I read 5 pages while standing in line at Barnes and Noble. Then I decided not to buy it.
But then again… I was 17 last time I read The Gunslinger. Those were in the days when I won an award from my school for being (no kidding) The Man in Black.
It’s not really necessary to read the “expanded universe” of the Dark Tower series to appreciate it. The four books published thus far stand on their own quite well, in my opinion.
The problem is that the Dark Tower series encompasses practically all of King’s works, so he’s constantly throwing in little tidbits of other books into the tale. To get a true feel for the entire “universe” of the Dark Tower, you’d almost have to read all of King’s other stuff.
However, here are the other books that deal (either directly or indirectly) with the Dark Tower series: Hearts in Atlantis, Insomnia, The Talisman, Eyes of the Dragon and Black House. Several references are also made to The Stand in Wizard and Glass, and it looks like a character from Salem’s Lot will play an important role in the next Dark Tower book.
Engywook, I felt that The Gunslinger was boring and uninspired. At the time King had no idea what the story was leading to, so the book is really just pointless rambling. The situation at Took was pointless, and the only relevant parts were Jake (re)dying and the Man in Black & his Tarot cards. I also didn’t like the “alternative” style (YMMV) King uses. There was no emotion and it made Roland look like an emotionless, heartless wanderer. If King never wrote the Gunslinger and put the important parts of it in Drawing of the Three as flashbacks it would’ve made more sense.
As I said YMMV.
There are a few more Dark Tower refrences- for example, it is mentioned a little in It, like the bit on the Turtle who also shows up in Roland’s universe. I can’t think of any others not mentioned off the top of my head. Some are very subtle and aren’t crucial so to speak. I’d say of the books I’ve read, Eyes of the Dragon, Talisman, Black House, The Stand are pretty relevent. I don’t think you should go out of your way unless you really want to. Don’t read it for the Tower references, read it because King writes good books.
