The world he lives in is quite different from our own, yet bears many similarities to it. In the story, Roland is the last living member of a knightly order known as gunslingers and the last of the line of Arthur Eld, much like our King Arthur. King's style of location-names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language ( High Speech), are also influenced by J.R.R. He identifies Clint Eastwood's 'Man with No Name' character as one of the major inspirations for Roland. Amongst his other inspiration, King lists The Lord of the Rings, the Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as influences that led to the series. The series has many inspirations, but was chiefly inspired by the poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, by Robert Browning, which also gave its name to an novel by C.S. There are now comics that are being based on the series itself, specifically The Gunslinger. After the series was finished, a series of prequel comics followed.

Besides the eight novels that compose the series proper, many of his other books relate back to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses. They revolve around Roland Deschain's quest to find and protect the Dark Tower. The series incorporates elements of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and Western stories.

1.The Dark Tower Series is a series of eight books and one novella written by Stephen King, between 19, widely considered to be (and described by King himself as) his magnum opus. Share your favorite books with Dark Tower connections with me on Twitter, do it please ya. If you're one of them, I cry your pardon. That being said, some folks might be disappointed to find that they were well aware of all 19 connections mentioned here. Additionally, because King enjoys talking about his favorite works of fiction, some of his references to books by other authors might be obscure to readers who haven't read the writers he likes.

More than 40 years into King's career, his Constant Readers are still finding connections within his work.

As we'll see, these aren't always 1:1 representations, however. There are other worlds than these, where we are characters in other people's fiction, and where our own inventions live and breathe. The titular Tower is the lynchpin of all possible worlds, including the one in which we and Stephen King reside. Not only did King's epic fantasy western evolve into the multiverse that encompasses all of his work, but he brought other authors' books and characters into it as well.įolks who are unfamiliar with the Dark Tower series might wonder how King was able to do this, so here's a quick rundown. When you read Stephen King's Dark Tower series, you start to notice that there are a whole lot of books with Dark Tower connections you weren't aware of.

The dark tower series books