Let me say something first. There's really no point in reading any Stephen King story if you don't read "The Dark Tower" series first. I'm very serious about this. Every short story, every sentence in one of his huge novels will resonate so much more if you read these novels outright. Because King is a geek of the best kind - he writes for his fans, who are as obsessed, if not more, with the world of the Dark Tower. And so every story has a shout-out - whether it be momentary, or whether it practically bowls you over with its magnitude - to King's epic fantasy saga.

The story at the core of these novels sounds deceptively simple: a man named Roland, skilled in the art of gunfight, must make it to the dark tower, a magical place that exists at the center of the world, the center of all worlds in existence. Roland must make it there before forces of evil manage to destroy the dark tower, and so the universe. This story is so much more than that. Roland is one of the most complicated and compelling characters I ever had the pleasure to meet. And the story, which spans 7 monstrous books, never gets old. King manages to make the story familiar with homages to the Wizard of Oz (Roland is joined by three friends, a man, a boy, and a woman, and a strange dog/raccoon hybrid named Oy), Sergio Leone westerns, Byron poems, Tolkien (going so far as to invent his own Out-World language), and the legend of King Arthur, among many others. Yet at the same time the story is wholly and completely King's. It's a real treat to read these novels (and I have done so many, many times, getting something new out of them each read). Plus, once you have read the series, you see Dark Tower references, big and small, in every one of his works. King has often said the story of Roland will haunt him all his days. Now, it haunts me too. And I'm glad.

"Long days and pleasant nights, gunslinger."