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The Dark Tower (series)

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"The Dark Tower" painting by Michael Whelan

The Dark Tower is a series of seven books written by American author Stephen King between 1970 and 2004. The series incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy fiction, science fantasy, horror and western elements. They describe a gunslinger's quest toward a tower whose nature the books call both physical and metaphorical. King has described the series as his magnum opus; besides the seven novels that compose the series proper, many of his other books relate to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses.

The series was chiefly inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, whose full text was included in the final volume's appendix. In the preface to the revised 2003 edition of The Gunslinger, King also identifies The Lord of the Rings, the Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as inspirations. He identifies Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as one of the major inspirations for Roland. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language abstract to our own, are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.

Overview

Plot summary

In the story, Roland is the last living member of a knightly order known as gunslingers. The world he lives in is quite different from our own, yet it bears striking similarities to it. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West, as well as bearing magical powers and the relics of a highly advanced, but long vanished, society. Roland's quest is to find the Dark Tower, a fabled building said to be the nexus of all universes. Roland's world is said to have "moved on," and indeed it appears to be coming apart at the seams — mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish from the face of the earth without a trace, time does not flow in an orderly fashion; even the sun sometimes rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland's motives, goals, and his age are unclear, though later installments shed light on these mysteries.

For a detailed synopsis of the novels, see the relevant article for each book.

Characters in the series

Main article: List of characters from the Dark Tower series

Places

Main article: Places in The Dark Tower series

Language

King created a language for his characters, known as the High Speech. Examples of this language include the phrase Thankee, Sai ("Thank you, Sir/Ma'am.") and Dan-Tete ("Little King"). In addition King uses the term 'Ka' which is the approximate equivalent of destiny, or fate, in the fictional language High Speech (and similarly, 'Ka-tet,' a group of people bound together by fate/destiny). This term originated in Egyptian mythology and storytelling and has figured in several other novels and screenplays since 1976.

Series

  1. The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982)
  2. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
  3. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)
  4. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)
  5. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003)
  6. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)
  7. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)

Origins and publishing history

In 1999, King was struck by a minivan and severely injured. The three books written after that date include a fictionalized version of this incident as an event the protagonists attempt to prevent or mitigate. How the series would have proceeded if the accident had not taken place is unknown.

Illustrations

Each book in the series was originally published in hardcover format with a number of full-color illustrations spread throughout. Each book contained works by a single illustrator only. Subsequent printings of each book in trade paperback format usually preserve the illustrations in full, except for books I and IV. Pocket-sized paperback reprints contain only black-and-white chapter or section header illustrations.The illustrators who worked on each book are:

  1. Michael Whelan, multiple award-winning science fiction and fantasy painter. The Dark Tower is among his early notable works.
  2. Phil Hale, the only Dark Tower illustrator who created a second set of illustrations for a later printing of the book he illustrated.
  3. Ned Dameron.
  4. Dave McKean, graphic designer noted for working in many media, including photography and film. The only Dark Tower illustrator to work in photocollages.
  5. Bernie Wrightson, established illustrator for 1960s and 1970s horror comics.
  6. Darrel Anderson, the only Dark Tower illustrator who used digital illustration techniques.
  7. Michael Whelan, returning more than 20 years later as the only recurring Dark Tower illustrator.

Reception

The Washington Post's Bill Sheehan called the series "a humane, visionary epic and a true magnum opus" that stands as an "imposing example of pure storytelling," "filled with brilliantly rendered set pieces... cataclysmic encounters and moments of desolating tragedy."[1] The Boston Globe's Erica Noonan said "there's a fascinating world to be discovered in the series" but noted that its epic nature keeps it from being user-friendly.[2] The New York Times' Michael Agger was disappointed with how the series progressed; while he marveled at the "sheer absurdity of [the books'] existence" and complimented King's writing style, he said preparation would have improved the series, stating "King doesn't have the writerly finesse for these sorts of games, and the voices let him down."[3] The San Francisco Chronicle's Michael Berry, however, called the series' early installments "highfalutin hodgepodge" but the ending "a valediction" that "more than delivers on what has been promised." [4]

Other media

Offshoot books

The series has prompted related non-fiction books by authors besides King. Robin Furth has published the two-volume Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance, an encyclopedia-style companion to the series that she originally wrote for King's personal use. Bev Vincent has published The Road to The Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus, a book containing back story, summary and analysis. Stephen King has endorsed both books.

Prequel comic series

Main article: The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born

A prequel to the Dark Tower series, set around the time of the flashbacks in The Gunslinger and Wizard and Glass, has been released by Marvel Comics. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born is plotted by Robin Furth, scripted by Peter David, and illustrated by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove. The project is overseen by King. The first issue of this first arc was released on February 7, 2007. A hardcover volume containing all 7 issues was released on November 7, 2007.

The second arc in the Dark Tower comic series was released by Marvel Comics, and it is called The Long Road Home. The first issue was published on March 5, 2008.

The third arc in the Dark Tower comic series will be released by Marvel Comics on September 10, 2008. It will be called The Dark Tower: Treachery.

Film adaptation

IGN Movies has reported that a film adaptation is in the works; whether it is for a movie or a television series is unknown. J. J. Abrams, who has been behind shows such as Lost and Alias, is supposedly attached to produce and direct.[5] Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, also affiliated with Lost and J. J. Abrams, have optioned the Dark Tower series from King for a reported nineteen dollars, which of course, is the infamous number from the Dark Tower series of novels.[6] According to issue #923 of Entertainment Weekly, King "is an ardent supporter of the desert-island show and trusts Abrams to translate his vision" into a film franchise with Lindelof being "the leading candidate to write the screenplay for the first installment."[7]

Roland as depicted in the opening credits of another Stephen King movie The Mist.

Multiple mock trailers have popped up on Youtube. Also, the official Grand Prize winner of Simon & Schuster's (King's Publisher) American Gunslinger contest [1], "Roland Meets Brown" [2], by Robert David Cochrane[3], can be found there.

In King's 2007 film The Mist, the main character David Drayton can be seen painting a movie poster with Roland in the center, standing in front of a trans-dimensional Ironwood door, with a rose and the dark tower to each side.

In February 2008, Abrams announced that he and Lindelof had begun work on an early draft for the adaptation. [8] However, Lindelof has said that the adaptaion is unlikely to get underway until after Lost has finished.[9]

Connections to King's other works

The series has become a linchpin that ties much of King's work together. The worlds of the Dark Tower are in part composed of locations, characters, events and other various elements from many of King's novels. Virtually all of his novels, and many of his shorter works, are connected to the Dark Tower, either directly or through other works (e.g., The Tommyknockers neither references or is referenced by the Dark Tower novels, but characters in the book visit Derry, the setting for IT and Insomnia, and the Alhambra Inn from The Talisman, three novels directly tied to the Dark Tower series).

The following is a list of 'specific' connections between books. Note that all Dark Tower books are connected to each other chronologically.[10]

References

  1. ^ "The Return of the King". Washington Post. 2007-09-19. Retrieved 2007-08-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "'Calla' worth the read, but caters to 'Tower' fans". The Boston Globe. 2004-01-15. Retrieved 2007-08-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Pulp Metafiction". New York Times. 2004-10-17. Retrieved 2007-08-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Waiting for the end of their worlds". The San Francisco Chronicle. 2004-09-26. Retrieved 2007-08-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Stax (2007-02-13). "Who is Lost in The Dark Tower?". IGN. Retrieved 2007-02-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Nisha Gopalan (2007-02-26). "Stephen King reveals long-awaited 'Tower' scoop at Comic-Con". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-03-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Missy Schwartz & Jeff Jenson (2007-02-23). "J.J. Abrams to Scale Stephen King's 'Dark Tower'?". the futon critic. Retrieved 2007-03-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  8. ^ "J.J. Abrams on Star Trek and Cloverfield 2". Comingsoon.net. 2008-02-23. Retrieved 2008-02-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  9. ^ "Damon Lindelof Updates The Dark Tower". Slashfilm.com. Retrieved 2008-09-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |2= (help); Text "date 2008-09-02" ignored (help)
  10. ^ "Roadmap to The Dark Tower". TheDarkTower.net. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
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