One of the things that many Stephen King fans love about his famous Dark Tower series is his ability to connect his other books into the franchise. The main series focuses on the last of the Gunslingers, Roland Deschain, on a quest to find the Dark Tower and protect it from the Crimson King.
Along the way, Roland encounters many characters, locations and events from other books, and in turn these other books often make reference to Roland’s journey or the Dark Tower series as a whole. Let us take a look at ten books of Stephen Kings that fans of the Dark Tower series should read.
10 Rose Madder
The first book that readers should check out is Rose Madder. A brilliant book that is often overlooked by fans, Rose Madder follows a young woman named Rose who finally leaves her abusive husband, a powerful police officer who has caused her fear for years.
Arriving at a shelter, she learns her wedding ring is nearly worthless, and uses what little she gets to buy a painting. However after learning the painting changes, she learns it is a portal to another world, where two women named Dorcas and Rose Madder reside. The city these two women meet in is the city of Lud, a key location in book three of the Dark Tower series.
9 The Shining
One of the key elements of the Dark Tower series is that the villainous Crimson King is having his agents traveling to other worlds to find people with powerful psychic abilities. He does this because he intends to harness the power of these people to snap the powerful energy beams holding the Dark Tower in place.
The Dark Tower is the nexus of all worlds, and its collapse would bring about the apocalypse. One book that touches on people with this ability is The Shining, where Danny Torrence has a powerful gift of psychic ability. He is mentioned in the Dark Tower series as well.
8 Everything’s Eventual
One of the interesting things that Stephen King has done is incorporate elements of the Dark Tower into short stories, and in turn turns collections of short stories into important references for fans of the Dark Tower series. The best example of this has to be Everything’s Eventual, a collection of short stories that features one short story of the same name as the book.
That story involves a young man named Dinky Earnshaw, who gets a great job, but learns his special psychic power is being used to take out his employer’s targets. He becomes a prisoner of the Crimson King’s forces and is held alongside Ted Brautigan.
7 The Talisman
Two books from Stephen King that directly tie into the Dark Tower series were co-authored with writer Peter Straub. The first of those books is The Talisman, a story involving a young boy named Jack Sawyer who travels not only across the United States, but through another world known as the Territories to find a way to save his mother, who is slowly dying from cancer.
Not only are the Territories involved in the Dark Tower series, mentioned in book 3 of the series, but the power of the White used in the book is crucial to the Dark Tower series as well.
6 Black House
The sequel to The Talisman is Black House, a book taking place decades later, where an adult Jack Sawyer is a famed police officer who has forgotten the adventures of his youth. When a serial killer arrives in a small town in Wisconsin and begins taking children, Jack is asked to use his skills to help catch the killer.
Along the way, he regains his memories of his youth and learns the killer is serving a creature from that other world. Not only are Roland and his ka-tet mentioned in the book, but Jack’s old friend Parkus is associated with the Gunslingers.
5 Insomnia
One of the biggest connections to the Dark Tower series is from the book Insomnia. In this book, a man named Ralph Roberts begins having terrible insomnia, and begins seeing not only the life force around people but those who on the verge of passing on, and creatures who seem to have the power over people’s lives as well.
In the book, a man Ralph must stop is shown to be under the control of the Crimson King, and Ralph is forced to stop him and the Crimson King from taking out a young Patrick Danville, who is the lynchpin to the multiverse.
4 Desperation
One fan favorite book over the years that has a direct connection to the Dark Tower is Desperation. The novel follows a group of travelers who have been falsely imprisoned by a mad local sheriff in a small desert town known as Desperation, once a thriving mining town.
The book involves creatures from the Dark Tower universe known as the Can-Toi, who serve the book’s central villain, an evil god-like creature known as Tak. The book serves to focus on the creatures that come from outside of the multiverse.
3 The Stand
One key book that ties into one of the main characters and settings of the Dark Tower franchise is The Stand. In this book, a deadly virus wipes out nearly all of humanity, and those who survive must pick a side between good and evil as both factions seek to survive and rebuild.
The book’s central antagonist is none other than Randal Flagg, otherwise known as Marten Broadcloak from the Dark Tower series. The world the book takes place in is also visited by Roland and his ka-tet in the fourth book of the series.
2 Salem’s Lot
The second book that serves as a key component of the Dark Tower series has to be Salem’s Lot. The plot of the book itself doesn’t directly tie into the series, as it involves a small town infested and slowly taken over by vampires. However one of the main characters of the book becomes integral to the series later on.
Father Callahan of Salem’s Lot survives the events of the book, and after a series of ups and downs in life finds himself in a small town in All-World in the book Wolves of the Calla, later joining Roland’s ka-tet.
1 Hearts of Atlantis
The book that everyone who loves the Dark Tower should read is Hearts In Atlantis, most notably the portion of the novel called Low Men In Yellow Coats. This part of the story focuses on the friendship between young Bobby Garfield and a new tenant in his mother’s home named Ted Brautigan.
Ted is a powerful person with psychic abilities, known to the Dark Tower world as a breaker. Hunted by the Crimson King’s forces known as the Low Men, Bobby witnesses the events that lead Ted to the prison Roland later finds him in in the Dark Tower series.