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Stephen King's The Dark Tower books


I'm currently half way through the first book (and I've bought all of them on my kindle). So far I'm not terribly impressed but I do mean to read them all. Do the books get better? Answers are much appreciated.

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I've not read them myself but Margo is a King fan,maybe she can help.
I didn't ever fancy them honestly.There's a film yes?

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I've only read the first three. I reckon if you're not into them by now, you won't love them later. In fact, most people hate the last book, especially the ending.

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I have read the entire series MANY times,and it is amazing. The first book is the slowest, but it should be picking up if you're halfway through. Many consider this his best work ever. Do yourself a favor and pace the reading. Give a month or so between volumes.

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I am also reading these books for the first time. Disclaimer: I haven't read any Stephen King books previously (though I have enjoyed movies made from his books); I was interested in these because of the genre.

I am in the middle of the second book, The Drawing of the Three. I read the nonrevised, original version of The Gunslinger. I wanted to see how the original version read.

Do you have the Plume edition, by any chance? After I read the first book, I looked at the copyright information and realized that The Gunslinger had previously appeared in print in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, broken into five chapters (with the same names as in the book) prior to being published collectively as a novel (chapter 1 in 1978, chapter 2 in 1980, and chapters 3, 4 and 5 all in 1981, but in three different magazine issues).

I mention that because for me, while reading the first book, I attributed some of the -- call it anomalies or disjointed qualities -- to King's being a young writer. Later, I realized he must have written this book across a span of years.

I still enjoyed the story, despite what I suppose could be considered the book's flaws.

I find the second one to be more cohesive so far.

I wouldn't call them "page turners" -- the pace is much slower than what I would imagine a typical King horror book would be. Then again, they are nothing like Faulkner, who had one sentence that was two and a half pages long! I lowered my expectations going in due to the mixed reviews I read. But I am finding them oddly enjoyable so far. We'll see how it goes; I plan to read them all as well (maybe not the last one).

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I love much of SK's work, however, I never could get into those Dark Tower books.
Do they get any better? I'm afraid I can't be of any help. There are lots of fans of those stories. Hopefully someone here likes them and will give you an answer.
Of all of his books, why The Dark Tower?

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I've read everything else that SK have written over the years, so I thought I'd give TDT a go 😉

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Many thanks to missy and the rest of you for your replies, I really appreciate it! 👍😃 I'll crack on with the reading and I'll let you know how it goes.

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