My Dark Tower Addiction - Discovering The Dark Tower
Jamieson Villeneuve
April 24, 2007
Some would call Stephen King a teller of tales. Yet his is more than that. He is really a story weaver, able to weave threads of a story together to form a tapestry of amazing brilliance. This is shown most notably in his Dark Tower series spanning seven books and thousands of pages.
I am a latecomer to the world of The Dark Tower. The first book, The Gunslinger, was published in 1982, four years after I was born. But I didn’t fall into its pages until 2006. I had tried to read The Gunslinger many times and each time I was unsuccessful. I found the story too slow, to dry, compared to Kings other work. I had read and loved almost all of his books, but I could not get into The Gunslinger.
I have had many copies of The Gunslinger over the years and all of them have been given away or left behind. I wanted instant gratification and the world of The Dark Tower just didn’t grab me. Its spell wasn’t strong enough in those opening pages to pull me in. It wasn’t until the advice of a stranger that I gave The Gunslinger the chance it deserved.
I used to work at a bookstore. I have observed many people who are hungry for words. Some don’t care whose words they partake of, or what kind; they will read anything, eating the words of many authors either in one gulp, or nibbling slowly. Others are far more selective, having their favorite authors, their favorite words. Stephen King is a popular treat, candy for the mind, and his fans are legion.
One woman customer was buying up copies of the first five novels of The Dark Tower series. She held the books in her hands like children. When she got to the cash, she set them down and patted the cover of the first book, The Gunslinger, as if it were a child. You must be a Stephen King fan, I said.
The biggest.” She replied. “Do you like him?”
I love most of his stuff.” I said. “But I’ve never been able to read that series.” I pointed to the small stack of books she was buying.
Why not? It’s his best work.”
I found the first book really boring.” I told her. “I just couldn’t get into it.”
I’ve had four copies of these books.” She said. “These will be my fifth.”
Are they really that good?” I asked.
The first book doesn’t do the series justice.” She told me. “Get through the first one. They story really picks up in the second book.”
She bought her books and went on her way. I didn’t give her words a second thought until I was in a secondhand bookstore and saw a revised and updated version of The Gunslinger for sale. I decided to fork out the five ninety-five they wanted for the paperback and give The Dark Tower one more chance.
Admittedly, I struggled with the book again. Even revised, The Gunslinger wasn’t enchanting me with its words. But I forced myself through it, worked my way through the pages with determination, because of two things: The words of the woman stranger and Stephen King himself. In a new introduction even he states that if you just persevere, the story really got going in book number two.
In a way, Stephen King was wrong; for while the first hundred or so pages of The Gunslinger were dry and lacked the maturity of Kings later writing, the story really started in the last half of The Gunslinger. When Roland lets Jake die, when he finally meets the man in black with his tarot cards that is when the story started for me.
With fifty pages left to go on “The Gunslinger”, I knew I wanted to keep reading. I ran out to that same second hand bookshop and bought the second book: “The Drawing of Three.” And boy, King wasn’t kidding. The story starts with a bang in the first pages, when Roland is visited by those nasty lobsterites (“Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum? Dad-a-cham? Ded-a-check?”) and flies from there with unforgiving force. Roland must go after his three, opening three doors in hopes of finding his ka-tet. Finding those who will help him across the path to the Dark Tower.
Only a hundred pages into “The Drawing of Three,” I knew I needed to keep reading. I knew that after this book, I would want-no, need-to read the rest, to stay on the path of the Beam and lean of Roland’s quest. I hurried out and bought the third, fourth and fifth book in the series: “The Wastelands,” “Wizard and Glass” and “Wolves of the Calla.”
I didn’t know it at the time, but I suppose I was addicted. I was addicted to a man’s words, his tales, and his stories. I knew that no other book mattered then; all that mattered was the quest to find The Dark Tower. I didn’t recognize the addiction at the time, but I had never fallen into a series of books so completely before. I went through the first three books of the Dark Tower series in just over a week and needed more, craved more.
The story just got better in “The Wastelands.” For what can compare with vampires, evil computers, huge mechanical robot bears, beam quakes and the like? I had read nothing like The Dark Tower series before. I didn’t know it, but it was wrapping its spell around me like a finely woven web. When “The Wastelands” ended with the Kat-tet on board Blaine the Mono, heading for destruction, I thought my heart would stop. Thankfully, it didn’t.
I delved into “Wizard and Glass” and was rewarded with Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy, continuing on the path of the Beam, following the path to The Dark Tower. I read gleefully of Blaine the Mono’s destruction, of their freedom won with silly riddles. I wanted more, craved more than I had before of King and his words. But here, with “Wizard and Glass,” I hit a roadblock with the series. But thanks to another stranger-and Ka, may it do ya-I kept reading.
The story in “Wizard and Glass” switches abruptly to the past. I remember when the book first came out, to the applause of ravenous fans, King had stated that “Wizard and Glass” had been difficult to write, as it would be delving into the past, telling back-story that was necessary to the plot, but hard to extract. It would have been helpful if I had remembered that.
I was mildly annoyed (Okay, pissed off) when the book switched from the storyline I loved so much (the present) to story I thought added no depth to the tale being told. I already knew that Roland had lost his love, Susan. Roland was a tragic hero. What more did I need to know? A lot, as it happened.
I was helped along by another customer, a grumpy man. Dressed in the uniform of a commissionaire, he came in and slapped a trade paperback copy of “Wolves of Calla” on the counter in front of me. He had been in the week before buying “The Wizard and Glass” the week before.
Did you like the fourth one?” I asked. “Wizard and Glass?” I am always talking to my customers, wondering whey the read what they do, what authors they like. It helps to make the day go faster. Sometimes, though, there are some customers who don’t do much talking. This man said nothing when I asked him about the fourth book in The Dark Tower Series, paid for his book and left. A week later he was back to buy the trade paperback book of “Song of Susannah” book six in the series.
Did you like Wolves of the Calla?” I asked.
I wish they didn’t make them in trade paperback. He forces you to buy them.” He said.
I was a little shocked to hear him speak, so I said “What?”
He makes the story so good, you have to keep reading. Stephen King is such a jerk that way.”
So Wizard and Glass was good then?” I replied.
I didn’t like it till the end. Then the Black Thirteen shows up in Wolves. So it was worth the read.”
I tried to get through Wizard and Glass and just couldn’t.”
It gets better. Read the friggin book.”
With this, he paid for Song of Susannah and left. He was back to buy the last book in the series “The Dark Tower” when I was struggling through “Wolves of the Calla.” Part of me wondered why I was having so much trouble struggling through the last few books of the series.
I thought it was because the quality of the writing was getting poorer, but really I think it was because I didn’t want to see the end of the series come. I didn’t want to see the end, didn’t want to lay my eyes upon The Dark Tower. So I trudged through “Wolves of the Calla”, knowing that whatever lay at the end, it would be a hell of a story.
When I was finishing up with “Song of Susannah”, a co-worker saw me reading it. “You’re gonna love the ending.” He said.
I don’t know,” I said. “This book is just about getting to the point where Susannah has the baby. I’m kind of pissed there’s no more story than this. That he’s saving all the good stuff for the last book.”
Of course that’s what he did.” He said. “But you’re gonna be so pissed with the ending. He had to end it the way he did, otherwise-”
Stop It!” I said, “I don’t want to hear anymore!” And indeed, I didn’t. I zipped through “Song of Susannah” and waited with eagerness for the last and final book to come out in mass-market paperback. I could feel the heat of addiction fire up inside me as I waited for the book to hit the shelves. I actually made a sound approaching a moan when I finally held it in my hands.
Three strangers, much like Roland’s Ka-tet, had seen me to the end of my journey; they had seen me through the difficult parts of the road, led me along the right paths so that I could get to the end.
I stroked the shiny cover. “The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower IV” written in raised script. I devoured four hundred pages of the tome and now it sits on my shelf, unfinished. The addiction has quieted down in me, settling itself for a nap. I’m wondering why this is. I want to finish the series; I want to find out what happens at the end, do they reach The Dark Tower?
But the truth is, I’m not sure that I want to know, that I want to find out. Once The Dark Tower is over, once the last page is turned, how will I feed my addiction?
I am a latecomer to the world of The Dark Tower. The first book, The Gunslinger, was published in 1982, four years after I was born. But I didn’t fall into its pages until 2006. I had tried to read The Gunslinger many times and each time I was unsuccessful. I found the story too slow, to dry, compared to Kings other work. I had read and loved almost all of his books, but I could not get into The Gunslinger.
I have had many copies of The Gunslinger over the years and all of them have been given away or left behind. I wanted instant gratification and the world of The Dark Tower just didn’t grab me. Its spell wasn’t strong enough in those opening pages to pull me in. It wasn’t until the advice of a stranger that I gave The Gunslinger the chance it deserved.
I used to work at a bookstore. I have observed many people who are hungry for words. Some don’t care whose words they partake of, or what kind; they will read anything, eating the words of many authors either in one gulp, or nibbling slowly. Others are far more selective, having their favorite authors, their favorite words. Stephen King is a popular treat, candy for the mind, and his fans are legion.
One woman customer was buying up copies of the first five novels of The Dark Tower series. She held the books in her hands like children. When she got to the cash, she set them down and patted the cover of the first book, The Gunslinger, as if it were a child. You must be a Stephen King fan, I said.
The biggest.” She replied. “Do you like him?”
I love most of his stuff.” I said. “But I’ve never been able to read that series.” I pointed to the small stack of books she was buying.
Why not? It’s his best work.”
I found the first book really boring.” I told her. “I just couldn’t get into it.”
I’ve had four copies of these books.” She said. “These will be my fifth.”
Are they really that good?” I asked.
The first book doesn’t do the series justice.” She told me. “Get through the first one. They story really picks up in the second book.”
She bought her books and went on her way. I didn’t give her words a second thought until I was in a secondhand bookstore and saw a revised and updated version of The Gunslinger for sale. I decided to fork out the five ninety-five they wanted for the paperback and give The Dark Tower one more chance.
Admittedly, I struggled with the book again. Even revised, The Gunslinger wasn’t enchanting me with its words. But I forced myself through it, worked my way through the pages with determination, because of two things: The words of the woman stranger and Stephen King himself. In a new introduction even he states that if you just persevere, the story really got going in book number two.
In a way, Stephen King was wrong; for while the first hundred or so pages of The Gunslinger were dry and lacked the maturity of Kings later writing, the story really started in the last half of The Gunslinger. When Roland lets Jake die, when he finally meets the man in black with his tarot cards that is when the story started for me.
With fifty pages left to go on “The Gunslinger”, I knew I wanted to keep reading. I ran out to that same second hand bookshop and bought the second book: “The Drawing of Three.” And boy, King wasn’t kidding. The story starts with a bang in the first pages, when Roland is visited by those nasty lobsterites (“Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum? Dad-a-cham? Ded-a-check?”) and flies from there with unforgiving force. Roland must go after his three, opening three doors in hopes of finding his ka-tet. Finding those who will help him across the path to the Dark Tower.
Only a hundred pages into “The Drawing of Three,” I knew I needed to keep reading. I knew that after this book, I would want-no, need-to read the rest, to stay on the path of the Beam and lean of Roland’s quest. I hurried out and bought the third, fourth and fifth book in the series: “The Wastelands,” “Wizard and Glass” and “Wolves of the Calla.”
I didn’t know it at the time, but I suppose I was addicted. I was addicted to a man’s words, his tales, and his stories. I knew that no other book mattered then; all that mattered was the quest to find The Dark Tower. I didn’t recognize the addiction at the time, but I had never fallen into a series of books so completely before. I went through the first three books of the Dark Tower series in just over a week and needed more, craved more.
The story just got better in “The Wastelands.” For what can compare with vampires, evil computers, huge mechanical robot bears, beam quakes and the like? I had read nothing like The Dark Tower series before. I didn’t know it, but it was wrapping its spell around me like a finely woven web. When “The Wastelands” ended with the Kat-tet on board Blaine the Mono, heading for destruction, I thought my heart would stop. Thankfully, it didn’t.
I delved into “Wizard and Glass” and was rewarded with Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy, continuing on the path of the Beam, following the path to The Dark Tower. I read gleefully of Blaine the Mono’s destruction, of their freedom won with silly riddles. I wanted more, craved more than I had before of King and his words. But here, with “Wizard and Glass,” I hit a roadblock with the series. But thanks to another stranger-and Ka, may it do ya-I kept reading.
The story in “Wizard and Glass” switches abruptly to the past. I remember when the book first came out, to the applause of ravenous fans, King had stated that “Wizard and Glass” had been difficult to write, as it would be delving into the past, telling back-story that was necessary to the plot, but hard to extract. It would have been helpful if I had remembered that.
I was mildly annoyed (Okay, pissed off) when the book switched from the storyline I loved so much (the present) to story I thought added no depth to the tale being told. I already knew that Roland had lost his love, Susan. Roland was a tragic hero. What more did I need to know? A lot, as it happened.
I was helped along by another customer, a grumpy man. Dressed in the uniform of a commissionaire, he came in and slapped a trade paperback copy of “Wolves of Calla” on the counter in front of me. He had been in the week before buying “The Wizard and Glass” the week before.
Did you like the fourth one?” I asked. “Wizard and Glass?” I am always talking to my customers, wondering whey the read what they do, what authors they like. It helps to make the day go faster. Sometimes, though, there are some customers who don’t do much talking. This man said nothing when I asked him about the fourth book in The Dark Tower Series, paid for his book and left. A week later he was back to buy the trade paperback book of “Song of Susannah” book six in the series.
Did you like Wolves of the Calla?” I asked.
I wish they didn’t make them in trade paperback. He forces you to buy them.” He said.
I was a little shocked to hear him speak, so I said “What?”
He makes the story so good, you have to keep reading. Stephen King is such a jerk that way.”
So Wizard and Glass was good then?” I replied.
I didn’t like it till the end. Then the Black Thirteen shows up in Wolves. So it was worth the read.”
I tried to get through Wizard and Glass and just couldn’t.”
It gets better. Read the friggin book.”
With this, he paid for Song of Susannah and left. He was back to buy the last book in the series “The Dark Tower” when I was struggling through “Wolves of the Calla.” Part of me wondered why I was having so much trouble struggling through the last few books of the series.
I thought it was because the quality of the writing was getting poorer, but really I think it was because I didn’t want to see the end of the series come. I didn’t want to see the end, didn’t want to lay my eyes upon The Dark Tower. So I trudged through “Wolves of the Calla”, knowing that whatever lay at the end, it would be a hell of a story.
When I was finishing up with “Song of Susannah”, a co-worker saw me reading it. “You’re gonna love the ending.” He said.
I don’t know,” I said. “This book is just about getting to the point where Susannah has the baby. I’m kind of pissed there’s no more story than this. That he’s saving all the good stuff for the last book.”
Of course that’s what he did.” He said. “But you’re gonna be so pissed with the ending. He had to end it the way he did, otherwise-”
Stop It!” I said, “I don’t want to hear anymore!” And indeed, I didn’t. I zipped through “Song of Susannah” and waited with eagerness for the last and final book to come out in mass-market paperback. I could feel the heat of addiction fire up inside me as I waited for the book to hit the shelves. I actually made a sound approaching a moan when I finally held it in my hands.
Three strangers, much like Roland’s Ka-tet, had seen me to the end of my journey; they had seen me through the difficult parts of the road, led me along the right paths so that I could get to the end.
I stroked the shiny cover. “The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower IV” written in raised script. I devoured four hundred pages of the tome and now it sits on my shelf, unfinished. The addiction has quieted down in me, settling itself for a nap. I’m wondering why this is. I want to finish the series; I want to find out what happens at the end, do they reach The Dark Tower?
But the truth is, I’m not sure that I want to know, that I want to find out. Once The Dark Tower is over, once the last page is turned, how will I feed my addiction?
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