I've been rereading Stephen King's Dark Tower series again and I've been discovering alot of new things I didn't notice before. Alot of things that tie his other books into the goings on in the Dark Tower. I'm reading the 4th one right now, Wizard and Glass which is the back story of the Gunslinger as a teenager, passing his trial to become a gunslinger, being sent on his first mission, falling in love with a girl, discovering a major conspiracy against the Alliance of Gilead, and most important of all...he learns that his destiny is to locate the Dark Tower and right whatever is wrong there.

I haven't yet read the 5th one, Wolves of the Calla, but I'll be buying that one this week and then in two weeks books 6 comes out, The Song of Sussana. Finally, on 9/21 the final volume is released titled The Dark Tower. I am so freakin psyched! Do you have any idea how freaking long I've been waiting for these to conclude!?

For those that aren't aware of the concept behind this amazing series let me tell you a little about it:

When you look at things at the subatomic level you will notice that quarks, atoms, electrons, protons, neutrons etc...all behave and look like solar systems and entire universes in and of themselves. There is a nucleus, electrons rotate around them. Other things rotate around those things and so on and so on. And when you look at something that is solid you realise, when you magnify it, that it really isn't solid at all. You realise that the distance between each molecule is HUGE and that if you were small enough you could fall between the gaps. Everything that there is can always be divided in half into smaller and smaller pieces until, you think, it can't get any smaller. Or can it? What is smaller than an atom? A quark? What's smaller than that? Not only is the universe infinite in bigness but also in smallness. So how do we know that our size is normal and that we aren't just something considered to be smaller than the most smallest thing that some other being can percieve?

It's a mind screw. Well, our entire universe is the molecular and atomic structure of a blade of grass that grows from a rose. And that rose lays upon a magnificent field of roses at the foot of The Dark Tower, which is the nexus of all reality. Knowing this then you can begin to think that if that rose is what is really real and that everything that we know and are only exists as a molecular structure, then also too everything that is in our reality also as an infinity of universes within IT as well. And within that universe is another infinity of other universes. If you cut down a tree and burn it you are destroying an infinity upon infinity of universes. Untold lives are ended. Untold worlds and civilizations are brought to an end and you didn't even realize it. If you are on a beach and you scatter a clot of sand those are even more universes that you have scattered.

Time within each universe is different though. What we percieve as billions of years for our universe to form could actually only be seconds in relation to what is outside of its atomic structure. Roses only last a week, maybe two. But we percieve our universe as being billions of years old. Time is relative. So even if you destroy a universe by burning a log it wouldn't instantanious death for that universe. Just a long, drawn out aging, drying out period.

Well the rose which is our universe is dying. As such, so is our universe. The world is "moving on" as the Gunslinger calls it. Things are turning desert-like. Time is getting screwy. Space is getting bigger. The other universes that exist within our reality are beginning to merge with one another. All of this is happening because something is wrong with the Dark Tower. And the Gunslinger's quest is to reach the Dark Tower and fix it.

I have already discovered the reason WHY the tower is dying. It has to do with the events in King's other book, The Talisman. In that book Jake has to travel from Maine to California to find the Talisman so that he can save his mother's life and the life of his mother's double in a nearby dimension, who is queen of that land. Jake finds the Talisman located inside the Black Hotel, which is that world's version of the Dark Tower. And he removes the Talisman from it and saves his mom's life.

Well, the Dark Tower is the center of a great wheel. There are six beams that intersect the Tower creating a circle with twelve portals. The portals are power generators that hold the beams in place, therby holding reality in place. If you find one of these portals you will then be able to see the beam and if you follow the beam you will reach the center, The Tower.

Every portal has a magical crystal ball of a different color and ability. These balls are called The Wizard's Rainbow. The Dark Tower has one as well only this one is black. These have been refered to as talismans in the Dark Tower series. Well, Jake from the book The Talisman REMOVED and DESTORYED the black crystal ball. He removed the power source of the Tower itself! When he removed it he saw a vision of a terrible and awesome black tower and felt as though he were the center of the universe and that he was a nexus in which all things rotated around. His removing the black talisman has caused the beams to weaken so everything is collapsing and merging. The beams can no longer seperate the other universes so they are colliding and merging together.

Because of this, Stephen King's other novels are merging together into the fictional universe of The Dark Tower. For decades King has been tying all of his books together in some way or another, but what alot of people don't realise is that EVERY SINGLE ONE of King's novels (and many of his short stories) are all connected in one way or another with the Dark Tower.

I love it when authors do this kind of thing. Crossover stories have always thrilled me when I collected comic books and it's even better now with so many amazing King novels available. I am trying to read all of them so I can see how much effort he has put into creating this entire universe of connectedness. I'll post more as more comes. Sorry for this being so long.

And book one, The Gunslinger, has the best opening line of any book I've ever read:

"The man in black fled across the desert...and The Gunslinger followed."

Sounds good. If I can get my brain back in working order I may give them a try.

Actually there are a few corrections to make. The beams hold the Dark Tower up and the Dark Tower holds everything else up. And the beams are breaking.

The glass balls are not the power sources for the beams and the Dark Tower but they do serve them though.

I found out my youngest daughter reads that stuff too. Who would have thunk it.

I have been engourged in book 6, The Song of Sussanah. This is the best book thus far in the Dark Tower series. The main thing that makes this book far superior is the fact that STEPHEN KING himself is a character.
SPOILER!!!




















The Gunslinger actually meets his creator, Stephen King! The whole conversation between them has gotta be the all time BEST written moment in fiction history!

http://www.msnbc.com/news/today_front.asp
Stephen King's interview the day before The Dark Tower 7 is released. My God I can't wait till tomorrow!!!!!

I GOT IT! I just bought DT 7! Hastings had it for 40% off so it only cost me $21! Over 800 pages...I better start reading. I'll see you next week.
I have been waiting for 22 years for this story to be finished and here it is, sitting on my coffee table. The artwork in it is absolutely stunning. I am going to have to make up a book cover if I'm gonna read this at work. All that dust and stuff kinda made the other two a little worn looking and I want this one to remain spotless.

Geesh. You would think it was the Sims 2 by the way you talked

Ummmm...the Sims sucks compared to the Dark Tower. In my opinion anyway. :P

Since your a King fan, this may interest you I could not get the quicktime lo version to work , but the other versions seem to work fine

QT Hi worked fine, it's a 33 mb dowmload

Yep, I only said quicktime low would not work, the other 2 choices work great.

I tell ya, I have NEVER cried over the events in a book. Never! This book is so great and I'm only half way through it. Some events in here are really depressing but some are just so damned heart wrenching. But all must be risked to save the Tower. I only have 300 pages left to go and this epic will pass into the clearing at the end of the path.

This is going to be good. I just bought the book last night and read the first chapter. I am so looking forward to tonight to really getting into it. I have been awaiting a long time for this too.

The Man In Black fled across the desert...

...and the Gunslinger followed.

I am Roland Deschain of Gilead and you WILL open to me...

The Dark Tower 8 coming to Marvel Comics April 2006.