About the Author

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Never Flinch (May 2025), the short story collection You Like It Darker (a New York Times Book Review top ten horror book of 2024), Holly (a New York Times Notable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Reviews

"[A] hypnotic blend of suspense and sentimentality...sprawling, eventful tale of demons, monsters, narrow escapes, and magic portals."
-- "The New York Times Book Review"

"One gets the feeling that this colossal story means a lot to King, that he's telling it because he has to....He's giving The Dark Tower everything he's got."
-- "San Francisco Chronicle"

"The sixth installment of this magnum opus ends with the biggest cliffhanger of Stephen King's career."
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

There's something about a crippled, black, schizophrenic, civil rights activist-turned-gunslinger whose body has been hijacked by a white, pregnant demon from a parallel world that keeps a seven-volume story bracingly strong as it veers toward its Armageddon-like conclusion. When Susannah Dean is transported via a magic door on the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis (the scene of much of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla) to New York City in the summer of 1999, the "demon-mother" who possesses her, Mia, has only one thing on her mind. She must give birth to her "chap" at a predetermined location in Manhattan's East 60s, as instructed by the henchmen or "Low Men" of the evil Crimson King. Pressed for time, Father Callahan, preteen Jake and talking pet "billy-bumbler" Oy follow Susannah and Mia's trail in an effort to prevent an act that would quicken the destruction of the Dark Tower and, in turn, of all worlds. Meanwhile, gunslingers Roland and Eddie travel to 1977 Maine in search of bookstore owner Calvin Tower, who is being hunted down by mobster Enrico Balazar and his gang, who first appeared in Eddie's version of New York in The Drawing of the Three. Avid readers of the series will either be completely enthralled or extremely irritated when, in a gutsy move, the author weaves his own character into this unpredictable saga, but either way there's no denying the ingenuity with which King paints a candid picture of himself. The sixth installment of this magnum opus stops short with the biggest cliffhanger of King's career, but readers at the edge of their seats need only wait a few short months (Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower will be released on September 21) to find out how and if King's fictional universe will come to an end. 10 full-color illus. not seen by PW. Agent, Arthur Greene. (June 8) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"[A] hypnotic blend of suspense and sentimentality...sprawling, eventful tale of demons, monsters, narrow escapes, and magic portals."
-- "The New York Times Book Review"
"One gets the feeling that this colossal story means a lot to King, that he's telling it because he has to....He's giving The Dark Tower everything he's got."
-- "San Francisco Chronicle"
"The sixth installment of this magnum opus ends with the biggest cliffhanger of Stephen King's career."
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"