John Hendow

Last week I began to re-read Steven King’s Dark Tower series, a seven book epic he begun in 1970 and ultimately finished in 2003. I read the first few novels in the series in the early 80s while on tour with my band. In those days we frequently spent several hours each day in the tour van driving between gigs. Consequently I was a voracious reader on tour, going through books every few days and always keeping an eye open for used bookstores along the way where I could trade old for new. I had read a number of Steven King’s novels and picked up the first installment in the series out of curiosity. Pretty quickly I reached the point where I had read the completed installments in the series and had to wait for the next book to be published. Unfortunately just a few books were completed and when he stopped writing them.

In 1999 when the author was struck by a van, it was a scary moment for his fans. Once it was clear he would recover, my concern shifted to the well-being of the book series. Would we ever know the ending of the story? One of my personality traits is that I am fiercely loyal. This extends to family, friends, bands, jobs, activities, books and even video games. I’m such a bulldog for completing books and games that I will slog through to the end even if I’ve lost interest, simply because I can’t leave it unfinished. This book series was something that held my interest and I really wanted to continue the journey of reading them.

Fortunately King returned to writing the series with renewed vigor. Apparently he decided the story was his life’s work and needed to be finished. The final book arrived in 2003. Because it had been so long, I started to read the earliest books again in 2000 When I finished the series in 2004 I had a strange conflux of emotions. If you have read the books you may understand my meaning.

And so I have decided to revisit the entire story from end to end. I am nearly finished with the first book The Gunslinger and have discovered strong elements of foreshadowing that I hadn’t picked up on previously. King weaves a good tale, and I’ve always enjoyed reading his books. Steven King fans will discover the Dark Tower series is threaded with references to other books he has written; familiar characters and places are woven into the universe of the Dark Tower. If you are up for the adventure, this series is worth the time. A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear the author speak and answer questions. One member of the audience expressed their gratitude to him for completing the series and I echo that sentiment: thankee-sai.

UPDATE: This afternoon I was reading Wikipedia to refer to something about The Gunslinger. I’m surprised to discover that J.J. Abrama (Lost) is considering a movie adaptation of the series. It seems pretty unlikely he would undertake such a huge endeavor until the Lost series is completed. Still, quite amazing to me. I wondered if anyone would ever attempt to convert this epic tale into a screenplay.