Extended Dark Tower Reading Order

Greetings, fellow Junkies!

As regular readers of the Dark Tower novels know, many of Stephen King’s other works tie in to the Tower – either directly or indirectly. In fact, Bev Vincent’s The Road to the Dark Tower even provides synopses of the key tie-in books and how they relate to the Tower. Some Constant Readers even insist that all of King’s works ultimately tie in to the Dark Tower!

Because of this, lots of people have come up with lots of different ideas about an extended reading list – the best order in which to read the Dark Tower novels, with the other tie-in novels slipped in between the seven (or eight) main books.

I’ve recently started listening to the most excellent The Year of Underrated Stephen King Podcast, which I can highly recommend for truly insightful analyses of the lesser known Stephen King works. The host, kim c, has not read the Tower novels and plans to begin her journey at the start of 2021. (At the time of writing – June 2020 – it’s not entirely clear that humanity will even get to 2021, but we must live in hope!) She put out a plea to Tower Junkies everywhere to guide her in her quest for the Tower. With that in mind, I thought I’d put in my two cents on the idea of an extended reading list of Tower-related literature.

Why have an extended list?

For those who haven’t been keeping up, I started my Tower journey in the most mundane of ways: by reading the (then) seven main Tower books in order. I had never read any other Stephen King (as I described here), and I went on to listen to the main Tower novels twice over again before reading any other King works.

Clearly I was very content with the story as-written. I felt it was a completely self-contained and thoroughly satisfying stand-alone story, and this experience is reflected in my recommendation right here, which is this:

THERE IS NO NEED TO ADD ANY BOOKS TO THE SEVEN MAIN DARK TOWER NOVELS!

Controversial, I know. I have since read all of the main tie-in novels, and discovered some other nice subtle tie-ins in other books, some of which I may just be making up. (Side note: as of writing, I have read 57 of King’s works). However, I found it very satisfying to discover these tie-ins after the fact, rather than priming myself by reading some of the other works first.

So my main advice here is not to agonise over the decision. The books stand beautifully on their own, and in my opinion there is no need at all to have read any other Stephen King books to thoroughly enjoy The Dark Tower.

But I want the full experience!

Okay, that’s completely fair enough and all opinions are valid when it comes to The Tower 🙂 So let’s see what you’re getting yourself into.

Here is a fairly complete list of books that have pretty solids tie-ins to the Dark Tower novels (and a couple that don’t, but I like the tie-ins I see there anyway). They are listed in publishing order, which is interesting to look at of itself, once you’ve read them all.

That’s 23 books, if you count the two versions of The Stand, The Gunslinger, and The Little Sisters of Eluria (which also appears in the story collection Everything’s Eventual).

Seriously, you could read them in publishing order and you wouldn’t go far wrong. However, as indicated above, I see no reason to read all these novels for your first go at the Tower story. With almost twice as many tie-in books as main novels, I imagine you would lose heaps of continuity to the main story. Also, some of these books simply hint at similar themes to the Tower books, or else explain a small (almost insignificant) aspect of Tower lore.

So how should I tackle this? I am going to list the tie-in books in order from most to least important (in my opinion of course!) in terms of their need to be read within the Tower books.

Here we go.

1  – (Most Important) The Stand

The Stand is an epic novel, and considered by many King fans as his greatest work. Indeed, it was the first King book I read outside the Tower novels and it is a terrific story.

It’s tie-in with The Dark Tower is strong. I would be inclined to read this one before embarking on reading The Dark Tower novels. If you want to slot it in to your Tower reading, then between books 3 and 4 would probably be the best spot.

Oh, and make sure you read the “complete and uncut” edition (1990). I’ve not read the original release (1978), but the 1990 edition is the full story, the way Stephen King intended it to be.

2 – ‘Salem’s Lot

‘Salem’s Lot is another book with strong ties to The Dark Tower. Again I recommend reading it at some time before starting The Dark Tower. Otherwise, put it immediately before book 5.

3 – Insomnia

In many ways it could be argued that this book is the most important one to read along with the main Tower books. However, while it is a great story and the Tower tie-ins are very strong, many people struggle with the book. It’s very long and has a slow build-up that some readers find boring. I struggle to suggest putting any other books between your reading of the Tower novels, and I wouldn’t recommend this as a must-read before embarking on The Dark Tower. If you want to read it along the way, then I’d suggest either before book 5, or else between books 5 and 6, or books 6 and 7.

The reason for this recommendation is that books 5-7 were written and released back-to-back. They tend to read as one continuous novel (especially books 6 and 7) and so sticking such a huge other book in the middle of it all would really detract for me. But if you must, then these are your options.

4 – The Wind Through The Keyhole

Okay, this is an actual Dark Tower novel, and chronologically it fits between Book 4 (Wizard and Glass) and Book 5 (Wolves of the Calla). However, it was written after the other seven books, and was published eight years after their final release. It is therefore quite definitely an “additional” Dark Tower novel, and not needed as part of the main sequence.

Many people agonise over whether they should read this book after completing the other seven, or in its chronological sequence between books 4 and 5. I’m currently on my sixth trip through the books, and this is the first time I’ve read Wind between books 4 and 5, and I admit it fits there exceptionally well. However, it is far from essential to the overall story, and if this is your first time reading then I wouldn’t fuss too much about this. Slot it in between books 4 and 5 if you want a more leisurely journey, or else save it until afterwards. I’d be inclined to do the latter.

FIRST RECOMMENDATION

So far I’ve only mentioned three additional novels, and I think this is a pretty solid reading order for a first go at The Dark Tower.

 

As I said, you may want to move Insomnia up before The Gunslinger, keeping it as pre-reading along with The Stand and ‘Salem’s Lot. All the other tie-in books can happily be read after completing the main sequence of books. However, for those who really want to break up their journey through the Tower novels, here are the next most important ones to include.

5 – Hearts in Atlantis

Hearts in Atlantis is a collection of interconnected stories, and the only real tie-in here is with the first of these stories, titled Low Men in Yellow Coats. This is also by far the longest of the stories, and so can easily be read by itself for those just interested in the Tower. However, the entire collection is a story in itself, and a wonderful one at that.

Let me be clear: I adore Hearts in Atlantis!

So I would recommend reading the entire collection. It slots in nicely between books 6 and 7.

6 – Everything’s Eventual (short story)

Everything’s Eventual, the short story from the collection of the same name, is a nice little read that fits between books 6 and 7. Certainly not essential reading on your way through the Tower novels, but a great yarn if you’re wanting to really space out the Tower story.

7 – The Talisman / Black House

These two novels were written years apart, but they are connected: Black House is a sequel to The Talisman.

I find it difficult to recommend these two books in a Tower read-through. The Talisman has strong themes similar to The Dark Tower, and is certainly connected to the Tower. Many love this book, and I admit I like it quite a lot. Black House on the other hand has explicit tie-ins to The Dark Tower. However, it has a very different feel to The Talisman, and I really didn’t enjoy this one much (other than seeing the Tower connections).

I’d strongly suggest reading these after completing the main Tower books. However, if you’re going to include these in your read through then it doesn’t really matter too much when you read them. Just read The Talisman before Black House.

8 – The Gunslinger 1982 vs 2003 editions

Stephen King started writing The Gunslinger in 1970. It was first published in a magazine in the late 1970’s, and then as a book in 1982. It took King until 2004 to finish the main story, 34 years after he began it, at which time he went back and revised and re-published The Gunslinger in 2003, to make it fit better with the story that eventually played out.

Both versions have their charm. I recommend reading the original version of the book to start with, which is a lot grittier than the revised version. Then go back and read the revised edition after completing the main books.

9 – Everything Else

Seriously, all the other books in the list are very much peripherally related to The Dark Tower, or (in the case of The Little Sisters of Eluria) are great little Dark Tower stories that don’t add anything to the main sequence even though they are directly related. Publishing order will do nicely. Many of these are cracking tales and deserve to be read, so do get to them.

COMPLETIST’S RECOMMENDATION

So, pulling all of that together, I would recommend the following list to get the complete Dark Tower experience.

 

I think this would be a very satisfying read, which would still give lots of continuity to the main Tower books.

Special mention – Duma Key

I’ve not listed Duma Key in this list, as the Dark Tower tie-ins are extremely peripheral at best, and non-existent at worst! However, to me they are subtle yet compelling – like the entire novel Duma Key.

Duma Key is one of my absolute favourites of King’s works. if you’re taking a break from your Tower reading then I recommend this one be near the top of your “other King” reading lists. Who knows … you may find (or invent) the Tower references I did too!

Long days and pleasant nights,

Chris