For those who havent read the series, do they compare to anything more well known?

8/10/2015 9:14:46 AM

Not to brush you off, but more well known than the magnum opus of one of the most widely read authors of our time?

But I guess it's like LOTR (but mostly in that it's a really long quest) but with Clint Eastwood playing Frodo. Has takes magic but also "magic" that is the decaying technology of an advanced civilization from far in the fast. also uses parallel universes, dark tower is the lynchpin, bad guys want to pull it down to cause chaos, good guys want to save the world, our hero/anti-hero Roland doesn't really know what he wants except to get there.

The books span about every genre you can think of and if you are a King reader in general, many of his works tie in somehow (parallel universes) as the link on page 1 shows.

This was done on my phone so hopefully it's legible/coherent.

8/10/2015 10:12:05 AM

now did you folks who read the series read the original first book or the revised edition?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower:_The_Gunslinger#Revised_and_Expanded_edition

I read the revision. would like to check out the original as well when i have time.

8/10/2015 12:15:30 PM

Just started the revised edition of the first book. Hope I enjoy it. Been looking for a good fantasy series ever since ASOIAF.

8/10/2015 2:15:36 PM

I read both. I enjoyed the Dark Tower a bajillion times more. Mostly because Stephen King doesn't hate his readers.

8/10/2015 2:39:39 PM

First Law series is similar in tone to ASOFAI but I liked FL much more. Much less time describing dinners and distant family members.

Back on topic!

8/10/2015 3:48:46 PM

^is that game of thrones?

8/10/2015 4:41:10 PM

No, First Law is a book series by Joe Abercrombie. And seriously. Check his shit out, it's amazing.

8/10/2015 5:07:29 PM

ASOIAF is game of thrones though: "a song of ice and fire" is the name of the series, GOT is the name of the first book and, obv, the TV show

8/10/2015 5:11:35 PM

Quote :

"Mostly because Stephen King doesn't hate his readers."

At least he gives you a warning before proceeding to destroy the series.

8/10/2015 7:54:43 PM

Lol yea i read the ending too!

8/10/2015 9:30:51 PM

oh we back

3/1/2016 9:24:03 AM

These are my favorite books but i am no longer excited for this. they are gonna fuck it up so bad it wont even be recognizable

3/1/2016 9:30:47 AM

Implying this won't be shit as fuck

3/1/2016 9:58:00 AM

Fuck yes Elba!!!!

3/1/2016 11:55:59 AM

It doesn't mean it will be good, but I absolutely love the casting (Idris Elba for Roland and Matthew McConaughey as as Walter for those that don't know)

3/1/2016 12:18:28 PM

My only problem with Elba as Roland is that it makes me worried about how or if they will ever incorporate Odetta/Detta

3/1/2016 12:49:12 PM

Are they still looking at Aaron Paul for Eddie? Because that, too, would be fucking awesome.

3/1/2016 1:11:33 PM

May have already been said, but prob wont be Gunslinger. Speculation is it will be Wastelands

3/1/2016 1:16:14 PM

ugh theres no way this will be good and its heartbreaking

3/1/2016 2:33:21 PM

i know, its terrible. I've been looking forward to this for ages and now it seems like every piece of news that comes out in relation to it just makes it seem worse. At this point I'm hoping it bombs so we can (hopefully) get a proper reboot in about 10 years

3/1/2016 3:00:46 PM

Yeah 'proper reboots' always turn out great

3/1/2016 3:11:28 PM

ok how about "a better adaptation" ?

3/1/2016 3:16:22 PM

I don't know why you're already so convinced about this will be bad.

I, too, will be interested to see how casting Elba as Roland will change his initial relationship with Detta/Odetta.

3/1/2016 3:30:59 PM

As long as Eddie is there too, I don't think the Detta situation will be that big a problem, it is very far down on my list of worries about how things will translate

3/1/2016 4:14:07 PM

^^ "In the province of the mind what one believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits"

[Edited on March 1, 2016 at 4:23 PM. Reason : so yeah this is gonna suck ballz]

3/1/2016 4:22:20 PM

I couldn't even remember who Odetta was (although I know Susannah obviously), and I forgot she was black. Need to re-read these I guess, it's been 5-6 years and I only read them once

3/1/2016 5:30:35 PM

I think McConaughey will make a great Walter. I sometimes get confused because these books were written over the course of most of Kings life. Did he ret-con to make Walter and Marten the same guy? I know in the earlier books he references Marten as a much greater sorcerer than Walter.

Originally Walter was not The Walking Dude, Richard Fanin, etc but just the Man in Black. I am assuming they will be treating them all as the same guy either way in the film adaptation.

I will be severely disappointed if The Gunslinger is not what they focus on at first; it does such a good job of establishing the set pieces at the end and building the relationship between Roland and the boy. Jumping ahead to the wastelands seems random. Yep looks like Wastelands starting with pulling Jake back into midworld most likely. Fuck that sucks.

good write up with more details:

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/29/dark-tower-rises-stephen-king-idris-elba-and-matthew-mcconaughey

[Edited on March 1, 2016 at 6:02 PM. Reason : *]

3/1/2016 5:43:21 PM

I listened to the first book on audiobook

wow it was bad

why do you people like this? does it get monumentally better?

7/25/2016 4:46:06 PM

^

7/25/2016 6:38:04 PM

if you dont like the first book you probably wont like the series IMO, although they cover many different genres.

do you like pop fiction in general? King? Did you only post to be shitty or are you generally trying to see if the series is worth reading?

7/25/2016 6:44:56 PM

It's been a while since I read this series, but one thing I remember is that The first book was way different than the rest. It's shorter, provides a lot less detail and IMO is less immersive. The latter books are significantly better.

I think king himself admitted that the first book is indicative of his writing at the time, being very early on his career. Also I don't think he was sure if he'd finish it in its entirety

7/25/2016 7:06:03 PM

Agreed, I think they get much better after the first one, they get much more focused and cohesive. The first one is good for throwing you into the universe, but he wrote it very early on and it's kind of all over the place, I think it's probably my least favorite of the series.

7/25/2016 8:14:47 PM

it was also written as 5 separate stories published over 4 years and not novelized until over a decade after the last story was published. it is certainly the slowest of the books and fairly disjointed. go on and read/listen to the drawing of the three. if you don't like it after than, quit. but don't give up after just the gunslinger.

7/25/2016 10:51:58 PM

How much of book talk are we gonna put up in this thread? I read something interesting the other day and wanted to bounce it off some folks that know what I'm talking about.

7/26/2016 7:56:23 AM

I tried to read Gunslinger last summer and just couldn't get into it. Might give it another shot this fall...but there was just nothing that really kept my attention in the first third of that book.

7/26/2016 9:28:34 AM

I found the universe and some of the characters it set up interesting, but the actual story was horribly boring and disjointed. The writing was pretty meh, but this is the first King book I've read/listened to so maybe I just don't care for him as an author?

I've got a few more book credits, so I'll probably listen to The Drawing of the Three and hope he does better. We'll see how that goes.

7/26/2016 9:55:44 AM

I remember first listening to Gunslinger on audiobook and thinking it was not that good but what the hell, I'll keep going and was immediately hooked on Drawing of the Three

7/26/2016 9:58:19 AM

^^the rest of the books are nowhere near as disjointed, I'd give them a shot.

7/26/2016 10:18:12 AM

You guys are on crack. The gunslinger is awesome and the audio book is one of my favorites of the series.

Drawing of the Three is incredible too though and the audio book for it is very high quality.

This movie adaptation is going to be abysmal though

7/26/2016 2:09:59 PM

If there is a choice, find the Frank Muller audiobooks, dude was boss. His Wizard and Glass was the reason I started hitting audiobooks with regularity.

Series really picks up in Drawing of the three, definitely try to push on through if you can... I couldnt stop.

7/26/2016 6:24:46 PM

But.. Do stop after book 4.

7/26/2016 8:55:55 PM

Dude wrote the Gunslinger when he was like 19.

I would say, for BigMan, this series is not indicative of normal King fiction. I usually find his stories completely engrossing....even some of his crappier books I can get lost in for a while (The Regulators, Revival).

8/1/2016 12:22:56 AM

So the companion tv series will be Wizard and Glass, with Elba appearing to set up the flash back, but another actor playing young Roland

http://io9.gizmodo.com/first-details-on-the-dark-towers-companion-tv-series-w-1786897452

9/21/2016 12:39:34 PM

So for the movie portion, do they just have 1 planned? Or 1 movie for each book, outside of Wizard and Glass?

9/21/2016 12:50:03 PM

From what I've been seeing the movie(s) may not follow the flow of the books all too closely. There's a spolier-ish reason for that that I hesitate to type out here for anyone interested in the movie(s) that haven't read the book.

9/21/2016 12:54:53 PM

i decided to give this book another go, didn't even make it an hour

9/21/2016 2:36:04 PM

Just try to get past the first book, it gets better.

9/21/2016 2:52:23 PM

10/6/2016 6:17:27 PM

http://www.polygon.com/2016/10/10/13228720/the-dark-tower-trailer-leak



[Edited on October 10, 2016 at 1:46 PM. Reason : *]

10/10/2016 1:45:50 PM