The Gunslinger
The Drawing of the Three
The Wastelands
Wizard and Glass
Wolves of the Calla
Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower

Also known as The Dark Tower books by Stephen King

As a cocky 19 year old Stepehn King wanted to make his mark on the world, with and epic story to rival The Lord of the Rings. King put pen to paper and set about writing about a Gunslinger who was tracking a man in black across the desert. Losing his way King tossed it aside and began working on other projects Carrie, Salem’s Lot etc..

No matter how much he wrote and how many worlds, dimensions, times he incorporated; every stroke of the pen led back to one man The Gunslinger.

It’s taken me the best part of a year to read. It’s terrifying, devastating, fantastic, genuinely shocking, utterly confusing and quite simply the best thing I have ever read. It has had me afraid to carry on reading and in streams of tears in public. The series takes twists and turns and if you’ve read any Stephen King book, you will find a reference to IT here (pun intended).

I cannot recommend this highly enough. New King readers should read any other book 1st and then dive in. If you’re like me though, an established King reader, you’re not really into Westerns and don’t think you’d like any other style King might do, put that out your mind. It’s fucking awesome.

Still not convinced? I’m such a huge mark for it, I’ll start a book chain and send someone the 1st book just to get you hooked.

I’m a big King fan and love fantasty books but could never get into the series. Got about 3/4 of the way through The Gunslinger about 10 years ago but really struggled to get into it and gave up. On your recommendation I’ll dig it out of the loft and give it another shot

Has he finally finished the damn series?

I got through the first four or so books and then read a public appeal from King to the readers asking for ideas. That, and the wait for the next book, made me lose interest.

My last clear memory is a bunch of people stranded on a suicidal elevated subway train (bit of an oxymoron there) and I thought that was was really stretching things, even for King.

oldwilli

Oldwilli, you should not have given up there! The train takes them into the heart of “The Stand” country, from that point on things get stranger and more out of control. All I can say is stick with it, it all makes sense in the end.

Sea Dog, The Gunslinger IMO is a slog. Really hard work. I was pretty much the same but I struggled on and then in the last 30 or 40 pages felt the spark and from there just didn’t stop.

As per this (http://www.totallycrap.com/forums/viewthread/11644/#119552) I haven’t had a good experience with Stephen King.
However, based on your recommendation I may have a little look out for the first of this series as they sound like it could be worth a shot.

Check out some of my recommendations in the other thread first, Bovine. This series is more fantasy (as far as I got) than thriller or sci-fi - it involves things like multi-dimensional travel, people-eating lobsters ("lobstrocities" as I recall), maybe some time-travel and so on.

oldwilli

As far as fantasy is concerned, I recommend these two titles:

Chaga- Ian McDonald
Dictionary of the Khazars- Milorad Pavic

oldwilli - 10 July 2008 05:18 AM

Check out some of my recommendations in the other thread first, Bovine. This series is more fantasy (as far as I got) than thriller or sci-fi - it involves things like multi-dimensional travel, people-eating lobsters ("lobstrocities" as I recall), maybe some time-travel and so on.

oldwilli

It’s definately worth reading some regular novels 1st but if you were to just jump straight in you’d notice links to Buick.

Well I’ve just bought the first one for 99p on Ebay.  I’ll let you know how I get on with it.

love king but hated this series

I bought Wizards and Glass at an airport and gave up after 10 pages.

I didn’t know they were a series at the time.

Never felt the need to go back

I did have a look round at the car boot for some of these but no luck

Stephen King is nothing on Garth Marenghi, now Garth really is the ‘dreamweaver.’

i love king and im a huge sci-fi fantasy fan just couldent get into these books though il give them another try though

Gary Sanderson - 13 July 2008 11:32 PM

I did have a look round at the car boot for some of these but no luck

Go on, spend a quid or so more and go on Ebay…

I am a Stephen King fanatic and yet every time I ventured into one of his books I made the mistake of watching the movie which utterly ruins the book every time. My imagination is waaaaaayyyyy better.