"Yet suppose further. Suppose that all worlds, all universes, met in a single nexus, a single pylon, a Tower. And within it, a stairway, perhaps rising to the Godhead itself. Would you dare climb to the top, gunslinger? Could it be that somewhere above all of endless reality, there exists a Room? ... "You dare not." (The Gunslinger)

Now would be a good time to become acquainted with Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER series. We learned in SONG OF SUSANNAH that THE GUNSLINGER was one of the very first things King wrote, way back in the 1970s. Thirty-odd years in the making, then. A very major project. And quite uniquely Stephen King. I keep reading that King fans polarise into those that love TDT and those that hate it, and in my opinion this is just so much journalistic nonsense, driven by critics, for whom I have little time. Having said that, I guess I'm just another critic in reality, and I'm going to try to persuade you to buy and read these books.

THE DARK TOWER stands as a force majeure in the literature of fantasy, and in King's own words, owes much to Tolkien. Just how much it owes to Tolkien is debatable, and I believe that in saying it, King was simply paying homage to the fantasy-meister of the twentieth century for, as he goes on to say, "Thanks to Mr Tolkien, the twentieth century had all the elves and wizards it needed". No, THE DARK TOWER is something quite different. Yes, it deals with a group of people on a quest. There the parallel ends. Even the tower is quite different to either of the towers in Lord of the Rings. King tells us that he was inspired by Robert Browning's poem, CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME - you can read the poem in full, here. But I think it owes far more to a number of other things, the "man with no name" as envisioned by Clint Eastwood (we'll return to Clint Eastwood's place in The Dark Tower later in this series); the legend of King Arthur; The Canterbury Tales, and so on. There is little of Tolkien in this series. It's a quest, there's a tower, and that's about it. So what is The Dark Tower and why is it such a good time to come to it, in the summer of 2004? Let me answer the questions in reverse order, if you'll be so kind.....Readers who have no experience of The Dark Tower have the unique advantage of coming to it within just a few weeks of publication of the final volume in the series, and in a livery that is so good, so magnificent that the books sell themselves. The tower in the title is depicted by cover artist Larry Rostant as a grim, gothic monstrosity, in some ways similar to Orthanc, but quite unique, in its own way, too.

The paperback versions of the first four books in the series are much bigger than normal paperbacks (for some reason they're known as "trade" paperbacks) and Rostant's cover art is compelling and beautiful. (Editor's note: I'm referring here to the UK versions, of course). The hardback versions of the fifth and sixth volumes are handsomely bound with covers that almost match the paperbacks, and have integral bookmarks. What's more, they are lavishly illustrated. When you handle WOLVES OF THE CALLA or SONG OF SUSANNAH, you really feel as though you've bought something special. And you have. You've bought part of a landmark in literary history, and Hodder UK and New English Library (NEL) can be justifiably proud of their treatment of this major literary masterpiece. Over on the left you can see some of the magnificent Point-of-Sale material they've produced to coincide with the launch of SONG OF SUSANNAH.

There are a number of distinct landmarks, five major milestones in the history of fantasy-adventure literature, beginning, of course, the ODYSSEY and the ILIAD of Homer. It was in the Middle Ages that we were to first learn about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in LE MORTE D'ARTHUR by Malory. We had to wait until the twentieth century for a decent treatment of the ROBIN HOOD LEGEND, but when it came, it was special. Concurrently, ERB started his Martian series, from which Tolkien borrowed something quite crucial to LORD OF THE RINGS - I won't go into that here, this is neither the time nor the place, but it's well-documented, and in my opinion puts ERB as a major milestone in fantasy-adventure. Then comes LORD OF THE RINGS itself, described by many as the greatest book ever written, and winner of the UK's favourite book of all time in THE BIG READ of 2003/4. Only five major milestones, I hear you cry. What about Terry Brooks, what about Robert Jordan, what about Raymond Feist, what about Bernard Cornwell, what about all the others? Well, the vast majority of these are nothing more than clones of Lord of the Rings, and that tells you something quite profound, like how difficult it is to come up with something unique and different in fantasy-adventure. This is not to say that those great authors I've just mentioned in passing are no good - far from it. It's because they had something great to inspire them that they were able to create such lasting literary epics. But they simply were not, and are not, unique. They all owe something to what has gone before.

Now, if there's one word you can apply to Stephen King, it is unique. The "other" horror writers, James Herbert, Clive Barker, Graham Masterton et al, are not in the same league as Stephen King. Dean Koontz is a brilliant writer, but not strictly horror, and certainly not fantasy-adventure. Stephen King's forté is his accurate descriptions of small-town American life and his characterisation. Naturally enough, he writes about Maine, more often than not about Derry. We rarely step outside Maine in mainstream King, and he demonstrates an uncanny perception of the people who live in the towns and villages, in particular the children. In THE STAND, we journey right across the USA, but it's a USA whose population is decimated, which gives him the licence to stand back from reality and concentrate on characterisation.

However, in THE DARK TOWER, the closest parallel is the Old West - dusty trails, campfires, revolvers. But it's not a western, it's pure fantasy. It's about parallel universes, interwoven with each other, controlled by the beams that converge (or originate) at the Dark Tower. Above all, it's about people. Of course Roland dominates the series. He is, after all, the gunslinger, and possibly one of the very first characters created by a King who knew that he wanted to be a professional writer.

There you are, in the last few sentences I've briefly touched upon what the tower in The Dark Tower actually is. Before we continue, I'd like to take a moment here to list the books that treat with THE DARK TOWER that aren't actually part of the series - and there are a few of them. Set before THE GUNSLINGER, THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA has Roland in a small town inhabited by mutants and vampiric nun-like women who nurse wounded people back to health before killing and eating them. This story appears in an anthology called LEGENDS. It's an excellent, chilling tale, but is best read after you embark on the series and know what it's about.

INSOMNIA tells the story of Ralph Roberts and his fellow insomniac (if that's the correct term), Lois Chasse. During their hours of wakefulness, when they should be asleep, they see auras round people which determine their fate; they meet two agents of purpose and one agent of random who happen to the three Fates. These people inform them of the Tower, which is made up of many levels, each level being a separate but interconnecting realm, and that the Tower itself is under threat from the Crimson King. SALEM'S LOT, one of King's earliest and finest novels, tells the story of a small Maine town threatened by vampires. The local priest, Father Callahan, is defeated by Straker, the head vampire. The picture on the left shows James Cromwell, who was so good in THE GREEN MILE, playing the part of Father Callahan in the new mini-series of SALEM'S LOT about to hit the small screen in the US. For more information click on the banner below. Father Callahan is probably the most important character of the non-Dark Tower series, because he makes the transition from Salem's Lot to Roland's world - he turns up in WOLVES OF THE CALLA, and is almost immediately accepted into the Ka-Tet, and has a big part to play in the final volumes.

Then, of course, there is THE STAND, considered by many to be King's finest work, which features Randall Flagg, who becomes Roland's nemesis. There are two books which I own but have not yet read, and these are the collaborative works with Peter Straub, THE TALISMAN and BLACK HOUSE; then there's EYES OF THE DRAGON, which I have somewhere but have forgotten about. And finally, ROSE MADDER. The world on the other side of the picture is almost certainly Roland's Mid-World, and Lud is mentioned more than once. The baby, of course, could be Susannah's. In my opinion the turtle in IT is somehow connected to the turtle in THE DARK TOWER series, but this is just my opinion, although I know of others who share it.

Now it's time to start talking about the first in the series, THE GUNSLINGER. Your homework for this month is to read it - I'll be asking questions!

THE DARK TOWER VOLUME 1: THE GUNSLINGER When you think of Stephen King, one word automatically springs to mind - Horror. The man is capable of raising the hairs at the back of your neck with just words; nothing visual, just words, sequences of words strung together. True, many of his greatest works have been made into great films, and the film-makers have added their touches to bring the words into life, but it's the words that count. I can't think of a single King book that isn't readable. In many cases I'm prepared to accept that we are drawn into a new King book simply because it's by King and we know what to expect. But so what? That's his privilege. He's entertained us all these years, he has the right to our respect. Even the very worst Stephen King book is more readable, better written, and far more enjoyable than anything written by James Herbert. But I digress. Stephen King consistently uses the device of addressing his readers; in this way he makes us feel special. He begs us to follow him into the dark recesses of his warped and twisted mind, to feed upon the terrors he has created for us - but he's just an ordinary guy with a loving wife and family, making a living from writing escapist fiction.

I know he's supposed to have tried all the drugs under the sun and maybe some of his inspiration comes from hallucinatory drugs, but the fact remains that he writes stories, and his imagination and experimentation doesn't drive him to kill people, but to entertain them with his writing; he is, first and foremost, a family man who writes, and just happens to have written something, many millions of words that an adoring public crave. So, when you think of Stephen King, you think of horror. You don't think about RITA HAYWORTH AND THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, filmed as one of the most popular films of all time, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION; you don't think of THE GREEN MILE, also one of the most brilliant films of recent years. They're not horror. They're just mainstream. But they're so good they defy description. Forget horror for a moment. Put it to one side.

Think science fantasy-fiction-adventure. By Stephen King? Surely not. Well, there are some readers who think that THE DARK TOWER is a western. It certainly has the feel of a western about it; dry, dusty trails, deserts, campfires and the like. And yet to me it feels more like a fantasy quest. Roland Deschain, aware of the fact that something is destroying his world, a world that has "moved on", discovers that there is a "dark tower" which controls the destiny of his and other worlds, and that the tower is served by a number of beams, some of which have been disrupted. Roland is not a typical "hero" but more like a grizzled and time-weary Clint Eastwood as seen in The Unforgiven. We learn that he is the last of his kind, and so the last gunslinger, a survivor from an age in Mid-World where all things have moved on. He is in pursuit of Walter, the Man in Black, a sorceror who falsely laid claim to the friendship of Stephen Deschain, Roland's father, when Mid-World was whole. In THE GUNSLINGER, we learn, for example, that Roland's world is in some way related to our own, and that it is possible to move between worlds.

He sets out on a quest to find the tower and, hopefully, to arrest the disruption and put things right. At this point in the narrative he does not know that the Crimson King and Randall Flagg are the evil powers behind this disruption. At a way station he meets a young boy, Jake, who has been launched into Mid-World following a fatal accident in New York. The two become comrades, but towards the end of THE GUNSLINGER Roland is forced to choose between saving Jake's life and his continuing search for the Tower. He chooses the Tower when Jake tells him "Go, then, there are other worlds than these". Roland catches up with Walter at the edge of the Western sea, who tells him his fortune. Roland experiences a strange vision of his quest and awakens to find Walter long dead. Ten years have passed at the edge of the sea. Pure fantasy. No question of it being a standalone novel, yet the second book, THE DRAWING OF THE THREE, was years away. More about Book II in the August issue.

A big thank you to Kerry Hood and Hannah Norman at Hodder UK for supplying images for this series.

Links: There are numerous sites dealing with King's Dark Tower series, many of them started with the best of intentions but fizzling out before book 4, Wizard and Glass was published. Best of all are the three official sites, one from Stephen King's own official site, one from the US publisher Simon and Schuster, and one from the UK publisher, Hodder. Click on the images below and you will be transported to Mid-World, Stephen King's universe of the Dark Tower. But don't forget to come back here, Constant Reader!