Three things that bring up this question. First, I’ve read all of the Dark Tower, but I pretty much hated most of it after about the first two chapters of Wizard and Glass. Second, those seven books are all the Stephen King I’ve ever read. And third, I generally freaking hate multiverses. I don’t really like Heinlein’s doing of it, I don’t really like Asimov’s, and I’m sure there are several others I could think of.
Wizard and Glass bored me because it’s mostly overly-long (in my opinion) backstory; I could have watched Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, and A Bug’s Life in the time it took me to read Wolves of the Calla (and pretty much gotten the same plot); I really hated what King did in Song of Susannah; and the massive reboot in The Dark Tower pissed me off. However, I suppose I might have liked it more had I read the other referenced material. Here’s a full list (according to Wikipedia) of what I’d have to read:
Bag of Bones
The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Needful Things
Rose Madder
Cell
It
The Mist
'Salem’s Lot
Black House
The Talisman
The Little Sisters of Eluria
Desperation
The Regulators
Hearts of Atlantis
From a Buick 8
Insomnia
The Shining
The Dead Zone
Everything’s Eventual
Quite frankly, I’m not sure I want to read 20 books just to be able to go back and read 7. Especially since I’ve never been that much into horror to begin with (and yes, I realize that entire list isn’t just horror novels) and this feels more like a project than a means of enjoyment. Any thoughts?
You should read some of his other books including some of those on your list because they stand up fairly well on their own merits. Though if you read most of his other stuff you will make a lot of connections in the Dark Tower series even though there are some continuity errors.
I’m a Stephen King fan who thoroughly disliked The Dark Tower series.
YMMV, but I recommend the following from your list:
The Shining
The Dead Zone
The Stand
Cell
Hearts of Atlantis
It
'Salem’s Lot
Bag of Bones
Not mentioned, because it is not fiction and doesn’t reference The Dark Tower universe, is *On Writing *. If you want an example of Stephen King at his best, read it. It’s his best book.
Stay far away from Desperation and The Regulators, though. They’re both wretched.
I’d say no, but I haven’t made a study of King’s work. (We can say “work” instead of “books” since he got that big award? ;))
There’s a squee factor in recognizing characters and scenes, but that’s about it for me. I didn’t enjoy the DT books any more for having read all the non-DT books.
I did enjoy From A Buick 8 more because of DT. If I hadn’t known about the parallel worlds in DT, I would have been scratching my head after Buick 8.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gorden is one of my favorite SK novels, but I have loved his work for many years. I came to prefer his less “horror story” works; I didn’t consider The Green Mile, Firestarter, *The Stand * to be horror, or even The Shining. I like The Dark Tower books and even came to appreciate the ending. Cujo
Pet Semetary
Christine
Danse Macabre
Carrie
Cycle of the Werewolf
Four Past Midnight
Gerald’s Game
Delore Clairborne
Firestarter
The Green Mile
Night Shift
The Tommyknockers
and more not listed, including Misery, one of the scariest stories I ever read.
SK will reference other books/ popular characters from other writers including Ed McBain, Richard Adams and JK Rowling more than he included his own characters from his other books into The Dark Tower.
You’d best get to reading!
I don’t think so. I’ve read all but A Buick 8 and The Dead Zone, and I barely noticed most of the tie-ins to his other works - only Hearts in Atlantis, Salem’s Lot, and Insomnia were of much importance.
No. If you don’t like Dark Tower, then you don’t like it. You might even like other Stephen King books, since they’re completely different in tone from the Dark Tower books.
Those books do contain in-joke kinds of references to the Dark Tower continuum, and try- with varying degrees of success- to link all of King’s work together through the universe of the Dark Tower. But there’s nothing in them, in my opinion, that you really need to understand the series or that adds much of substance.
If you already love the series, it’s fun to pick up those references in his other books. But if you don’t, they won’t help you like it more.
Personally, I think the earlier books in the series are way better than the later ones. But I’m also one of the few who really liked the ultimate ending, once I’d had a chance to think about it for a little while.
You might want to check out “Little Sisters of Eluria” for some more Roland fix. Other than that, the references are pretty meaningless. My personal feeling on Insomnia, which has the strongest tie-in, is that he wrote it with vague notions of the connections he’d make, then was forced to shoehorn the prophecied bits into the later Dark Tower books, with poor results.
That said, I think if you liked the beginning of the DT series, you would also enjoy:
The Stand
“The Mist” The Talisman
The Shining
The Dead Zone
Everything’s Eventual - some highlights being “1408” (Which is an upcoming movie with John Cusack), the titular story, and “The Man in the Black Suit.” And of course, this is where you’ll find “Little Sisters of Eluria” as well.
Not because of connections, but because this represents King at his best. I also liked Eyes of the Dragon, but it is a very different genre. I’m also the only person on the planet who liked Rose Madder, but I promise my judgment on the other books is not so idiosyncratic.
I love Stephen King’s work (AuntiePam, we can even go one better and start saying Stephen King’s oeuvre!) but if you (the OP) read The Dark Tower series and hated most of it, I think you’ve given him a fair shake and whatever, he’s just not to your taste. If you had read it and liked it and wanted more clarification, or a more complete picture of the themes and images he likes to work with, that would be a different kettle of fish.
Is there some reason why you want to take up this particular project?
I wanted so much to like it. To be honest, the Gunslinger kinda bored me but The Drawing of the Three drew me in so much that I knew I’d have to finish off the storyline. (I read it gate-to-gate on a cross-country plane trip and couldn’t put it down.) I kinda hope that maybe, if I go back and learn all the little references in the series that I might like the rest of the books better. Or at least 5-7, I’m not sure anything, other than major editing, could save Wizard and Glass.
I’ve read most of King’s books and I enjoyed many of them, but “The Dark Tower” is pretty bad stuff. The last three books are simply awful, and “Song of Susannah” may in fact be the worst book I’ve ever read.
Hmmm. Drawing of the Three is my favorite as well, or at least tied with The Wastelands for my favorite. If you want to give Stephen King another, go, The Stand is probably the most similar in style and tone, very character driven but also a lot of action.
As someone who read nearly his entire output between Carrie and Insomnia (I missed Cycle of the Werewolf), if a cop-out, let-me-destroy-the-world-so-I-don’t-have-to-work-out-the-plot ending is deeply unsatisfying to you, I wouldn’t bother with King at all. It’s definitely his weak point.
King has been tying little bits and pieces of his books together ever since Cujo referenced The Dead Zone some thirty years ago. The Dark Tower was his magnum opus in this regard, and I even understand that new versions of some of his older novels have been released to enhance the strength of the tie-in.
If you’re still curious, I’d read The Shining and/or The Dead Zone and/or 'Salem’s Lot from that list. If you don’t like them, you won’t have the indulgence for his style that you will need to get through any of the others. If you like them, give the Stand a try.
IMO, do not bother with Insomnia or Needful Things, the books that finally made me give up on him. If you didn’t care for The Dark Tower, I can’t imagine you’d care for The Eyes of the Dragon or The Talisman. Or It.
I’d say The Stand and **'Salem’s Lot ** are pretty important backstory, and Insomnia makes no sense if you haven’t read Dark Tower, because the ending ties directly in to the DT plot. **The Talisman ** and **Black House ** both involved the Territories and how the Crimson King is defeated. Hearts in Atlantis has backstory on Ted, as do some stories in Everything’s Eventual. The other books contain references but not as crucial at these.
How does Cell tie in? That’s the only King book I haven’t read.
I’ve read Cell. I didn’t notice any tie-ins but I wasn’t looking. Maybe I missed them. Cell was a pretty straightforward report on how cell phones will turn us all into zombies, with some weird stuff at the end. Another bad King ending, now that I think about it.
I guess I’m an anomaly for a King Fan. I have read all of the books/stories you name, plus most every other King/Bachman book including the Straub team-up on Talisman, yet I have never read any of the Dark Tower series. Wait, I take that back… I did read about 80 pages of “The Eyes of the Dragon” but never picked it up again. That was some 13 years ago.
I guess I’ll sit down someday and have that to read. I feel like I have a treasure in that lack. I can read the series and see King afresh. It’s like a reserve…
