In fact, I was angry at myself for never having pushed forward beforehand. The Waste Landsīy the time I got to book three, The Waste Lands, I was more than sold. Stephen King is at his finest in regard to character development in this book, and every page just feels like part of a feast. This is where we meet everybody who’s important (for the most part), and it’s the most heartpounding adventure the series sees. While it is hard to fully choose, I do believe this is my favorite book of the series. This book brings the action, the mystery, the intrigue, the everything. None of the boring descriptions, nothing about the main character not even knowing who he is while he’s on the search for whatever man in a black cloak. There’s none of the confusing stuff found in book one. When I say “kicks off,” I mean you better be ready for the ride from page one. Now that I have read the series twice over and read plenty of other reviews and thoughts, I think it’s safe to say that readers generally agree this is where the story really kicks off. I’m so happy I did so I could make it to. I will never regret pushing forward to the end. Fortunately, my local library carried it (anyone else ever have a hard time finding book one in a series at a library?) and I decided to go forward. I’d made my first two attempts on the Kindle, so I opted for a hard copy to see if it helped. After I came across a review saying to “just make it past the first book” in The Dark Tower because “the payoff was worth it,” I decided to see if the third time would be the charm. The more familiar I became with him, the more I wanted to journey to The Dark Tower. More years went by, and I became something of a “Constant Reader” myself with plenty of other works by Stephen King. But still, I couldn’t seem to get into the first book. I let a few more years go by, thinking that perhaps I might have just been too young on my first go around.Īnd tried. I tried on my first go around with The Gunslinger. I didn’t know about the tie-in connection until later. At that time, I had only read one other Stephen King book, The Eyes of the Dragon.

I had read reviews, and when I was first writing my own fantasy novel back in 2007, this series was still relatively “fresh” in its ending.Īmongst those reviews, I saw many people saying what I have in my introduction: “If you enjoy fantasy books, you must read The Dark Tower.”

The dark tower the wizard and glass