So you want to read the Dark Tower…

A guide to reading the Dark Tower series

Excuse me, do you know how to get to the Dark Tower? Michael Whelan artwork.

The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.

Stephen King, The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

King is a prolific author, to say the least, but for those who don’t know, King’s stories will often reference other stories previously published. Most of the time, these are fun easter eggs, but sometimes plot relevant information to those previous books will be revealed in progressing the current one. A guide to some of those can be found here.

However, King has also written The Dark Tower series, which in some ways attempts to unify all of his books under one single ur-story. Does that require you to read fifty books in order to understand just seven (or eight) main ones? Absolutely not. But there is a certain richness that comes from having read certain books, catching references that help expand the world of the Tower. Go online and ask this question, you get nineteen answers from fifteen people. It can be intimidating getting started, and for the casual King fan it may be off-putting. It was for me for the longest time.

Presented below are my attempts to put this all into some sort of perspective, with lists focused on: Core Journey, Expanded Journey, Expanded Chronological Order and Tower Related Stories. I hope you find this useful. Other fans of the series may disagree, and we invite them to offer their version below.

The Core Journey

This is by far the simplest. In order to read the entire series you start with The Gunslinger and work your way through the numbered books to The Dark Tower. Though there are references and returning characters from other books, all are given their context within the books themselves so that you understand who or what is going on. If you were only interested in the series, then don’t worry yourselves with the extra stuff. It’s all there in those seven books.

1. The Gunslinger
2. Drawing of the Three
3. The Waste Lands
4. Wizard and Glass
5. Wolves of the Calla
6. Song of Susannah
7. The Dark Tower

An Expanded Journey

That being said, there are a couple of extra stories that directly concern themselves with Roland’s journey. Neither are necessary to the journey, but fill out the world slightly more. One is a prequel story, the other a book designed to slot in part way through the series. If you were reading the series for the first time, I would read them in publication order, which is the order presented below. A chronological order would slot the short story at the beginning, and the extra book between books four and five.

1. The Gunslinger
2. Drawing of the Three
3. The Waste Lands
4. Wizard and Glass
5. The Little Sisters of Eluria (short story found in Everything’s Eventual)
6. Wolves of the Calla
7. Song of Susannah
8. The Dark Tower
9. The Wind Through the Keyhole (often labeled book 4.5, but published eight years after the series had concluded).

An (Almost) Chronological Order

As mentioned, there are a number of books that have direct links to the Dark Tower, with returning characters and such. Though I can only emphasise that these are not required reading, if you have got this far you surely are interested to see what links and doesn’t. In most cases, I have defaulted to publication order, as that broadly fits chronological order where books are set in the year of release. However, I have shuffled others around, hence this being almost a chronological order, though I’m sure I would not recommend this for first time readers.

As the series progressed, King assimilated more books into the Tower to greater or lesser degrees, and so not all the Tower-related books are included here. An extra list of those with very minor references are below.

Italicised stories are those not mentioned above, with brief spoiler-free notes to explain their importance.

1. The Eyes of the Dragon (earliest chronological story, set in Mid-World.)
2. The Little Sisters of Eluria (short story found in Everything’s Eventual, earliest chronological appearance of Roland.)
3. The Gunslinger
4. ‘Salem’s Lot (introduces a character who plays an important role later.)
5. The Stand (first major published appearance of an important character.)
6. It (appearance of concepts later expanded upon in the Dark Tower series.)
7. Drawing of the Three
8. The Talisman (with Peter Straub) (not closely linked, but the sequel very much is.)
9. The Waste Lands
10. Charlie the Choo-Choo (picture book adapted from The Waste Lands)
11. Insomnia (introduction of major villain, concepts and a character who has an important role to play.)
12. Wizard and Glass
13. Hearts in Atlantis (Low Men in Yellow Coats and Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling) (this book is a collection of stories, the first and last of which are directly related to the Tower, which introduces a major character, concepts and villains appearing later in the series.)
14. The Wind Through the Keyhole (often labeled book 4.5, but published eight years after the series had concluded).
15. Black House (sequel to The Talisman and expands further on concepts introduced in Low Men in Yellow Coats.)
16. Everything’s Eventual (short story found in Everything’s Eventual) (introduces character who appears later.)
17. Wolves of the Calla
18. Song of Susannah
19. The Dark Tower

Without spoiling anything, the above should do you fine to get the major references, fill out the world and enjoy the series. You don’t have to read fifty books to achieve that (like I did!), and there may still be the occasional reference you may miss, but not worth a whole book to get a single line in a seven novel series.

Tower Related Stories

Though the above is fairly comprehensive, there are a few stories that are Dark Tower adjacent. By this I mean it links to the Tower, but does not contribute to the main thrust of the series. These are stories that may share something from the series or the Tower contributes to the story instead. As such, you can read these stories at any point should you fancy dipping a toe back into the world of the Dark Tower. There is in fact an argument to be made for reading many of these after the Dark Tower series

This is not an exhaustive list of every King reference that crops up. The scandal magazine Inside View is mentioned in a number of stories, first back in The Dead Zone, but to say that has relevance to the Tower is beyond credulity.

It is also worth checking out these reading lists for other relevant stories, though not Tower-related.

Presented in publication order, with brief, sometimes speculative, notes are included.

• The Dark Man (first published in 1969 (!), now found in various books) (first true appearance of major villain)
• The Mist (novella found in Skeleton Crew) (Todash monsters)
• The Breathing Method (from Different Seasons) and The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands (from Skeleton Crew) (setting may be a version of the Tower itself)
• Paranoid: A Chant (poem found in Skeleton Crew) (R.F.?)
• The Langoliers (novella found in Four Past Midnight) (possible influence from R.F. and Todash creatures, thinny)
• Crouch End (short story found in Nightmares and Dreamscapes) (Todash monsters)
• Rose Madder (set partially in Mid-World)
• The Regulators/Desperation (twinned novels, can-toi, thinny, regulators and Tak, amongst others) (suggested reading order)
• Bag of Bones (locations and dreamed locations)
• Hearts in Atlantis (the whole book)
• Dreamcatcher (concept similar to dogan)
• From a Buick 8 (Low Men – my speculation is this takes place after the entire series)
• Kingdom Hospital (Antubis, according to Bev Vincent, was an old trail mate of Roland. There is also Nozz-a-La present. The earthquakes in the show may be beam-quakes.)
• The Colorado Kid (timeline discrepancies could be explained by the Tower)
• Cell (one character seems to be writing about a version of Roland)
• Duma Key (oblique references to roses throughout and a similar power to Patrick Danville)
• The Gwendy series (with Richard Chizmar) (various links)
• The Outsider (minor reference to ka)