Stephen King Fans discussion
Dark Tower Series
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No Spoilers -- Books tying in to DT, trying to read series before Movie and need to prioritize
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With the exception of the actual DT novels, I don't think any of the books in your second list are necessary reads, more "fun to find nod" reads.
Jory, I will have to agree with Kamdice that truly the most important books to read would be the main series.In order on what I felt like were "necessary" reads would be "The Stand"/"Eye of the dragon" (connection to Flagg), "Hearts in Atlantis" (Yellow men hunting), "Insomnia" (Crimson King). Although "Salems Lot" is important, it doesn't add much to the DT story outside of where one character originates.
"IT" loosely ties (from what I remember) but if you haven't read it yet, you just have to!
I will try to prioritise your list based on what I can remember: Insomnia - As stated above, the Crimson King is a major player here, and it also talks about ka and gives a basic (but often abstract) rundown on how the dark tower universe functions.
Hearts in Atlantis - Been a long time since I have read it but the novel-length Low Men in Yellow Coats concerns a character being chased down by agents of the Crimson King. It's a good read. At the time of its release King recommended it to those awaiting the next DT novel.
Black House - A sequel to the Talisman that is much more tightly bound to the DT series than The Talisman is.
Everything's Eventual - The Little Sisters of Eluria is a story featuring Roland as the main character, set before we caught up with him in DT 1.
Those are the main ties I can remember. The story in the movie may be structured differently but should be interesting nonetheless!
Thank you, everybody, for your suggestions! It looks like Insomnia might be the best thing to read next (besides the DT books themselves obviously).@Eugenio - I am about 300 pages into IT right now, but it just does not do it for some reason. I like the concept fine enough. Maybe I should try the audiobook. Do you know if it's any good?
Jort, never really got into "IT" early on either. A coworker kept hyping it up to me, so I thought it was a bit of a let down (early on in the book, later on when the connections get fleshed out though I was hooked!). I never listened to the audio book, but if they have a cast reading and not just one person, then maybe it might be more interesting for you.The connection to DT is a bit more abstract. For real connections the Hearts in Atlantis story would be closest to a direct connection
The audio of It was okay. The copy I had from Audible, read by Stephen Weber, kept cutting out at the end of chapters. Weber did a great job narrating, but the cut offs were annoying. It was like time jumps you blacked out for. I don't think I could have made it through the actual book, so the audio was a gift for me.
Manda wrote: "The audio of It was okay. The copy I had from Audible, read by Stephen Weber, kept cutting out at the end of chapters. Weber did a great job narrating, but the cut offs were annoying. It was like t..."I liked the audiobook of IT a lot. Heard it over a long trip and thought it was great. As for the audio jumps. I had that problem with many books, went back to the apple store and they said that as a piece of equipment grows old it looses its accuracy in the tracks. So, it's probably a device problem not a software issue. But every now and then I still get jumps at the end of chapters even with my new iPhone, so who knows. I ended up always buying the paperback so I could track those jumps and see what I missed.
Nick wrote: "Manda wrote: "The audio of It was okay. The copy I had from Audible, read by Stephen Weber, kept cutting out at the end of chapters. Weber did a great job narrating, but the cut offs were annoying...."That kind of makes sense, except that is the only book I've had issues with. I average about 5 audios a week on my phone, and have listened to at least 2 dozen since that one. Reading the reviews on that book, it seemed to be a huge issue with the book on Audible. The nice thing about Audible is you can return any book to them if you don't like it or if there are issues with it.
Manda wrote: "Nick wrote: "Manda wrote: "The audio of It was okay. The copy I had from Audible, read by Stephen Weber, kept cutting out at the end of chapters. Weber did a great job narrating, but the cut offs w..."Manda: Thanks for the heads up on that one. Didn't realize that it was confined to that book alone. There are some books where it seems to happen consistently and the notes you mention bear that out. Didn't know it was so easy to return books to audible. Wonder if that applies to CDs too. I bought the CDs of The Girl Who Loved TG, and Duma Key for my daughter for a trip and she returned them to me unopened.
Thanks guys for the comments on the audiobook. I don't think I've seen any other audiobooks that have those issues (I usually listen on my hour commute to work so I go through my backlog at a steady pace) besides perhaps the audible version of Fahrenheit 451. I must say, I absolutely love the shining audio. Campbell Scott is amazing.
Jort wrote: "Thanks guys for the comments on the audiobook. I don't think I've seen any other audiobooks that have those issues (I usually listen on my hour commute to work so I go through my backlog at a stead..."Scott is my favorite reader ever. I would listen to him read an encyclopedia.
Hello! I know you already have your answer, but I just wanted to assure you, you could read all seven dark tower books without reading the other books and it wouldn't matter one way or the other. All of those books might mention something, or have characters in them, but they are of no consequence to the dark tower story. Not even the 4.5.When I was done with the dark tower series a few years ago, these are the only books on your list that I had read to that point.
Salem's Lot
Dark Tower 1
The Talisman
The Eyes of the Dragon
Dark Tower 2
Dark Tower 3
Dark Tower 4
Black House
Dark Tower 5
Dark Tower 6
Dark Tower 7
All of the other books I had not read yet, and I enjoyed the dark tower series thoroughly. Never once did I feel like I was missing anything because I hadn't read the other books. I hadn't read Salem's Lot in over 15 years when I had finished the dark tower series, so I couldn't even remember if there was anything in that book about the dark tower not.
I went back to read It and I loved it. But I never thought while I was reading it, "damn, I wish I would read this before the dark tower series because now all those questions I had are all cleared up for me."
So, if you don't want to read any of the other books, I wouldn't worry about wasting hours and hours reading them just because you think it might change the dark tower series for you. It won't. As far as insomnia goes, you might get more character depth about the Crimson King, but is it really worth reading the book before you finish the dark tower. I didn't read it and I never felt like I was missing anything. I'm reading the dark tower series again, so I might try to work insomnia in at some point just to see.
Enjoy the dark tower series, don't make it a chore!
Have a good one!
Ronnie wrote: "Hello! I know you already have your answer, but I just wanted to assure you, you could read all seven dark tower books without reading the other books and it wouldn't matter one way or the other. A..."Great comment, Ronnie, I agree completely.
I couldn't agree more Ronnie. I had only read The Talisman, Black House, It and a few of the old SK books when I decided to read the Dark Tower series and it totally didn't matter. I have just given the DT books to a friend who hasn't read any other SK and he is hooked.
This seems like as good a place as any to ask, so I'll drop my question here: Aside from Low Men in Yellow Coats, are there other stories in Hearts in Atlantis that die into DT? I'm happy to skip over them for now if there's no connection.
Just make sure you include Insomnia since this is related to the low men in yellow coats and the DT series.Although they are interconnected stories the last one is DT (Heavenly Shades of Night) but you kind of have to read all of them to understand the last.
Kenneth wrote: "Just make sure you include Insomnia since this is related to the low men in yellow coats and the DT series."Thanks, Kenneth! I just finished Insomnia, and it sounds like it'll be worth reading through all of Hearts in Atlantis. I appreciate the info!
I am trying to finish the DT series before the movie comes out (February). My original plan was to read all related King books in published order. I finished everything up to DT3 (well, I am trying to struggle through It for the second time, but it just does not do it for me. Never finished it).
My question to you guys is, what books are actually related in a fairly significant and obvious way to the series. I am going off the Wikipedia list:
Salem's Lot
The Stand
Dark Tower 1
The Talisman
Skeleton Crew
It
The Eyes of the Dragon
Dark Tower 2
Dark Tower 3
--------------------------------- have read everything above
Insomnia
Rose Madder
Desperation
The Regulators
Dark Tower 4
Dark Tower 4.5
Bag of Bones
Hearts in Atlantis
Black House
From a Buick 8
Everything's Eventual
Dark Tower 5
Dark Tower 6
Dark Tower 7
Are there any books on there that have barely any ties to the series whatsoever? I want to finish the series and as many accompanying books before the movie comes out, but am coming up short in my planning. Thoughts?