World Famous Comics: The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus
The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus
By: Bev Vincent Publisher: NAL Trade Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: NAL Trade Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 368 Publication Date: September 28, 2004 Release Date: September 28, 2004
Product Description: In 1970, Stephen King embarked on what would become the crowning achievement in his literary career-the Dark Tower. The seven-volume series, written and published over a period of 30 years, was inspired by Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," as well as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone.
With the full cooperation of Stephen King himself, The Road to the Dark Tower examines the epic journey of the author to complete a story that threatened to overwhelm him. In this indispensable companion, Bev Vincent presents a book-by-book analysis of each volume in the series, tracing the Dark Tower's connections to King's other novels including The Stand, Insomnia, and Hearts in Atlantis, and offering insights from the author about the creative process involved in crafting his lifelong work-a work that has consumed not only Stephen King, but his legion of devoted readers. This is essential reading for any Dark Tower-or Stephen King-fan.
Good guide to the Tower I think that this book was interesting. You had everything at your fingertips if you wanted to look something up. I understand why a few people would be dissapointed because it doesnt dive too deep into the story. An interview with King would have been pretty cool, I will admit. Oh well...I still found the book pretty interesting.
Great for those fans that are completely lost but... ... for those with any intelligence what so ever a pointless read. Vincent points out all of the obvious connections to Kings other works. There was no interview with the author to speak of... There was no new insight into the characters or about the worlds. Disappointing through and through.
Must Have For Dark Tower Fans It's taken years and seven books but we have finally finished our quest for the Dark Tower. Now, we have this book to help us make sense of the journey. There is a love for the story that Bev brings to this book that many of us can empathize with. Bev's information, especially when discussing influences, is a very helpful adjunct to the series. There are bios of the characters, also a big help in keeping things straight. The poem which inspired it all (Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came) is wonderful to have.
Bev knows his topic very well and brings this knowledge to all of us. Another trip to the Tower will be in order once you have this guide at your side.
Worth reading, but frustrating at times Being a huge fan of The Dark Tower books, I bought this book with high expectations, hoping to gain more prespective on Roland's quest and what it all might actually mean. What I actually got was a book that was very heavy on summary and rather short of actual literary analysis.
This book reads like something I would have written in high school as a thesis paper for AP English. It's very obvious that Vincent is trying to prove a point, but he offers the same evidence over and over to illustrate said theory (I don't want to include details, just in case someone reading this hasn't actually read the Dark Tower series). A great deal of the footnotes offer pointless observaions and connections that have little, if anything at all, to do with the story. On the other hand, Vincent glosses over other connections, or fails to emphasize their importance. There's very little mention of the poem that inspired King to write the series, Robert Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." He mentions it only when the books themselves make reference to it. The section of the book devoted to character analysis was thorough, although it does not offer anything readers cannnot discern for themselves while reading the series.
For all of the books faults, though, it was still an entertaining read. I enjoyed travelling back to Gilead, the Tower, and everywhere inbetween from a more scholarly point of view. For some reason, King's work transcends what I felt to be the amateur analysis of Vincent, and still makes this book worth delving into.
As a side note, perhaps if I hadn't been so excited to read it, it would not have been such of a let-down for me. It's definitley more of a companion read - a way to answer any unanswered questions you may have about the series, rather than an attempt to analyze what it actually means.
Helpful, but... First off, I haven't finished reading this book, but there are a few errors that I feel the need to point out.
First--I sat with my copy of Drawing of the Three and could not find the man in black disappearing into any doorway--perhaps this happens in one of the later books. If so, a footnote to that fact would have been nice.
Secondly--The author of this work neglects to mention obvious connections between the Dark Tower books and other works of literature. A discussion of Eliot's The Waste Land would have been interesting and possibly invaluable, especially considering both King and Eliot use Tarot cards and play fast and loose with Aurthurian legend. At least a mention of the fact that Rhea of Coos is the witch of coos as a nod to the Robert Frost poem of the same name should have been in order.
All this being said, I have appreciated the author's attempt to bring all of King's writings regarding the Dark Tower together... an inspired work.
Overall, A few quibbles that only an English professor would complain about...
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