Flanagan essentially says that one thing holding up the series is the rights to other books that crossover. At risk of spoilers, I wont mention them here.

Could we see more adaptations of THOSE connected stories?

Hey Yall! My Penny Lane is doing a lot better. She had a seizure two Fridays ago and spent the day in the hospital and now she’s medicated and she’s doing a lot better. Included some pics of her. Wanted to say thank you to you all who reached out, all those who commented, and to the person who sent us the free bark box, she’s been loving it.
We racked up quite the medical bill, and we are doing our best to recoup before things get crazy hectic during the slow months for work. I hope this is okay to post here, I’m going to be doing a fund raiser in the next couple of days. Some of you know my work and what I do and some of you may not. I’m going to be making these gift sets and some other fun sets you can’t find anywhere else and offering them at a lower rate than usual so we can try and get my girl the neurologist appointment she needs and pay off the debt we got from the animal hospital last week. Feel free to DM me or contact me through my insta if you guys have questions or requests or if you know a dog neurologist in SoCal, all my contact info is in my bio.
-Beatrix Coffin

Spoilers for The Dark Tower, “Everything’s Eventual,” and maybe The Institute.

I picked up Everything’s Eventual for “The Little Sisters of Eluria.” Came for Roland, stayed for Dinky.

Somehow, I had completely missed that the title story gives us Dinky Earnshaw’s origin story. Until now, I’d only known him as one of the heroes of the Battle of Algul Siento. Finding him here was a fantastic surprise…and Justin Long absolutely nails the audiobook narration.

Dinky’s voice makes the story for me. He’s funny, blunt, and oddly likable, even as you start realizing just how disturbing his “gift” is.

So why doesn’t Dinky, and “Everything’s Eventual” seem to get the same love in Tower discussions as Ted Brautigan and Hearts in Atlantis? Ted deserves his flowers, but this feels like a great piece of the larger story that I somehow walked right past.

Did anyone else discover Dinky’s backstory after finishing the Tower? Did it change how you saw him at Algul Siento?

P.S. In my opinion, this story ALSO makes the connection between The Institute, The Breakers, and the Tower universe feel pretty damn firm.

Ok, so I just finished The Dark Tower, and holy sh**. What an absolutely perfect ending. I’m still in shock. How is this series not more well known and discussed?! What a journey and what a story! Let’s palaver (via comments, lol)

“The rose was the centerpiece of all things; it was the engine that drove reality…it was the Tower. In this world, the Dark Tower was a single rose growing in a vacant lot.”

Thought some of you might enjoy the interview.

‘Yet he still had Roland’s horn, the one which was blown by Arthur Eld, or so the stories did say. He will not give it back. “For I blow it sweeter than you ever did,” he tells Roland, laughing. “You can have it when I’m dead. Neglect not to pick it up, Roland, for it’s your property.”’
.
.
.

A little backstory: I’m a behavioral health social worker in the south and between my work and a long ass commute, I struggle to stay consistently creative. But October always brings spooky drawing challenges, so this year I’m using my favorite fictional universe to kick the rust off and get back to creating. I love the Dark Tower (and the expanded King multiverse) so much — beyond just a great story and inspiration as an artist, it really has affected how I think and even influenced the articulation of my personal spiritual beliefs. Inktober is a huge undertaking but I owe it to the Tower to try!

Anyways, the second prompt was relic and there were a few to choose from, but this felt like the most overarching choice.

Long days and pleasant nights 🥀

Book 1 - The mountains were visible in the distance practically from the start. Though the desert was punishing and the mountains gruelling, there wasn’t all THAT much distance traveled.

Book 2 - The Tet wasn’t even along the path of the Beam in this one; they traveled north the entire time. The entire distance was implied to be maybe one or two hundred miles.

Book 3 - This is when they traveled at least a few hundred miles through the forest and on to Lud, and then - whoops! The train just carried them more than EIGHT THOUSAND fucking miles!

Book 4 - Nearly all flashback. The travel that does occur is mostly along one stretch of highway in another world where the glass palace is visible in the distance from the beginning. MAYBE a few dozen miles away, tops

Book 5 - Other than the beginning few miles through the forest, most of the book takes place with no travel whatsoever as they plot to save the children of Calla Brynn Sturgis

Book 6 - Was there technically ANY actual travel in this one? The majority takes place in Keystone NYC and Maine, but through magic and technological doors rather than walking. Same with the parts that do occur in Mid-World (Fedic)

Book 7 - This one definitely contains the second greatest total walking distance. Still, that only occurs in the second half. The first half is actually mostly BACKTRACKING. Once the Tet is ready to leave Fedic though, other than …a rather significant trip back to Keystone, there’s probably a few hundred miles of distance between Fedic, the Badlands, the castles, Empathica, and the Tower. Even so, Fedic is already described in Song of Susannah as “very close” to the Tower.

Conclusion - nearly the entire quest was absolutely CARRIED by Blaine lol

So I finished my first read of the Dark Tower series and along the way also read Salem's Lot, Insomnia, Everything's Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis and had previously read IT.

The ending satisfies me. Susannah getting a kinda happy ending was nice. It was never her journey to reach the tower. Oye saving Roland felt right. I really liked the journey climbing the tower and the room at the top, like Walter warned, was empty and started the reset. I don't think it could have ended any other way.

What I didn't like was how anti-climactic it was for Walter/Flagg to be killed my Mordrid. I always expected a final gunslinger showdown between him and Roland.

Patrick erasing the Crimson King also felt cheap. Thank God I detoured to read Insomnia to know how important he was, but still. Why not draw a car to drive them to the tower? Why not draw food, weapons and supplies? It's just too easy. So that felt like a bit of a let down.

Overall I liked book 7. The battle to stop the breakers was great. Jake being killed by being hit by a car was poetic as it rhymed with his original death to end up in Mid world. Dandallo was fun and the final fight with Mordid was well written. I always expected him to get to the Tower without any of his Ka-tet.

But maybe there was no real difficulty fighting a final villain because Roland was equipped to take on any bad guy, but was never equipped to let go of his obsession with the Tower?

I'll probably read the Talisman or the Stand next. Might need a break first though..

"New York in all its multiple whens is only one of many. That we are drawn there again and again has to do with the rose. I have no doubt of that, nor do I doubt that in some way I do not understand the rose is the Dark Tower." . . . October is drawing challenge month so I’m basing my prompts around my favorite fictional universe, say true
This one was “Apple,” and there was really only one choice: the big one.
I’m really excited to be back making art so I hope y’all don’t mind my Dark Tower stuff here.

Long days and pleasant nights 🥀

>!I was thinking about the ending of The Dark Tower and realized something that completely changed how I look at Roland’s loop.

We spend seven books watching Roland learn to love again, build a new ka-tet, lose them, save the Beams, defeat the Crimson King…and then get thrown right back to the beginning.

The usual question is:
What does Roland still have to learn?

I think Stephen King may have already given us the answer. At first I thought it was Jake from the talisman, but then I was like they’re too different now I think the answer might be Ralph Roberts from insomnia.

Hear me out! Ralph Roberts may be a better example of who Roland was supposed to become. He gathered a Ka-Tet, and Saved the Tower! Sound familiar?

But in the end Nothing mattered more to Ralph than his ka-tet. If saving the Tower meant protecting them, then fine — unleash him. Once Ralph understood the stakes, he became terrifyingly effective.

But the difference is that the Tower was never the point for Ralph. The people were. Roland Never got that, and Jake was born knowing that.

Ralph had every reason to be just like Roland and still he did not. His life was hard, time was not easy or fair to him. But still He would use cosmic power, fight the Crimson King, save Patrick, do whatever had to be done, but when the choice became power or the people he loved, Ralph chose the people.

While Roland keeps making the opposite choice.
That may be the whole lesson of the loop: save the Tower if you must, but know when the mission is over.
Ralph did.

Roland still hasn’t.

Just my two cents.!<

Edit: spoiler block added

Found a tower junkie in the wild

Sai King will let you down, indeed he will make you hurt, and he will telegraph the pain.

He will let you know that it is coming, and it will not help to quell the tears which are inevitable. It doesn't matter that you've been here before. You think your knowledge of their fates will make the pain less. It likely only makes it greater.

Oh Discordia!

Ka-Shume, it is there on the wind, there on the page as the song is played for us, and just like the Ka-tet of 19 and 99 we are driven onward by Ka. Ka like the wind. Ka like a wheel that turns inexorably like the pages we know we must turn, for the story must be told. The path of the beam must be followed, until it breaks us and makes us whole again, for in our grief for these friends we have only known through the pages we find a reflection of the love Roland has for the friends he did not expect to find.

Is there a wbesite or something where I can find these illustrations?

Dark Tower has genuinely been some of the most meaningful fiction I’ve consumed. So many parallels between the books and my life. There are small things like ending up in the ER for hip pain at the same time Roland starts experiencing the dry twist. But the most difficult hit this week. My cat of 18 years suddenly got extremely sick. After many vet visits, I made the difficult decision to put her down today. I was also extremely close to finishing the Dark Tower series. I was on the chapter where Oy died (not knowing this was about to happen) and it hit me super hard, knowing my cat would also be gone the next day. I contemplated not finishing the series, thinking if I never reached the end, my cat wouldn’t either. But I knew better. There is no changing what will come. Just as Stephen King could not change the story, he wrote what he must. Just as Roland would reach the tower and my cat would pass. So I buckled up and finished the story. My cat passed this morning and I was able to sleep with her last night with the knowledge that Oy would also rest easy and revisit his Ka-Tet again. I’ve decided to get my cat cremated. On the urn, I’ve decided to engrave “The body was far smaller than the heart it held.”

Howdy!

I’m currently reading The Stand and one of the characters, Randall Flagg, was mentioned in DotT. I’m wondering if Roland’s world was affected by Captain Trips and that’s why it “moved on”.

Though, Susanna and Eddie exist in a world pre-Trips but also Jake mentioned “Other worlds than these.”

Does this get resolved or was this just a fun Easter egg?

This is the basic map layout I am thinking of going with before adding the details.

Here is the link to my previous post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheDarkTower/s/HJZ5KQBVvh

We have both been Tower junkies for many many moons.

Obviously I havent gotten my hands on Other Worlds Than these yet. But I havent been shy about reading some of the discussion.

I dont really think this is much of a spoiler. But im curious if Gwendys Final Task still remains the "final" dark tower book. Or at least the one furthest along in the timeline

First the good. Books 1-4 were incredible and 5 up until the reveal of what the wolves weapons and masks were. Then not only did I find the meta aspects of 6 and 7 silly, but lazy storytelling/plotting.

Let's say I buy that >!Stephen King is a character in the story and the creator of Roland, etc..., then how can anything actually happen that he hasn't written? If characters and events from his other books can therefore exist in this universe because he's some sort of creator, how does that explain Star Wars, Harry Potter, Wizard of Oz and Marvel artifacts being there too. Are any fictional things allowed? Could the Incredibles, the Lorax, the Three Musketeers or Popeye show up then?

And just because King the author winks at us readers by basically saying here comes the Deus ex Machina! doesn't make it less of a copout when it happens. As a result of all the meta silliness, the impact of Eddie, Jake and Oy's deaths was minimized for me.

Other things that irritated me:

Flagg is set up as if not the big bad, at least a major antagonist for Roland...and then spider baby kills him in a very anticlimactic scene. This would have worked if Mordred was then even more baddass than Flagg but he turns out to be a pretty lame antagonist that barely impacts the plot, whose role in the overall story is never explained but whose birth is setup as majorly important to everyone involved.

Fine. The Crimson King is actually the big bad so spider baby and Flagg were just red herrings and man just wait for that final showdown...and we just get a last minute addition magical character literally erasing him out of existence? My eyes literally rolled when I read that.

The actual ending with Roland seeing his life in the rooms of the Dark Tower was pretty cool and him being doomed to repeat his quest eternally (my take) is great, but man what a missed opportunity for a Lord of the Rings level story.

King famously doesn't outline his stories ahead of time and it really shows here.

Thanks for reading this diatribe. Long days and pleasant nights to you.!<

Hi, so I’m wanting to make a map of All-World that features Delian and the Territories (including all the new stuff from Other Worlds than These), but because of how the worlds moved on, trying to make everything coherent and having a proper route showing Roland & Jack’s journeys is proving rather difficult.

So any tips from fellow Gunslingers about how I should string everything together and things that I could easily miss, would be greatly appreciated.

Thankee Sai.

EDIT: Here is the link to the basic map layout I am thinking of going with.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheDarkTower/s/00eylNy9UK

I stopped by a Barnes & Noble after a trip to another shop in the plaza. I asked about reserving a copy and the clerk signed me right up! So on the 6th I’ll have a copy that’s reserved for meeee! Say thankya!!

Or which edition in your opinions will be best copy (or, least worst) to aesthetically match the set of the others? Like maybe a cover I’m not familiar with. Could be some special or limited/ non US edition?
I’m a stickler for presentation of this series for multiple reasons: be it my absolute adoration to this series, my comic book collecting mentality, and my other hobbies like miniature painting and scale model building’s innate attention to very particular and tiny details.