About the Author

Stephen King is the bestselling author of more than forty books. Recent titles include ON WRITING, DREAMCATCHER, EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL and the final three volumes in the DARK TOWER series. He lives with his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, in Bangor, Maine.

Reviews

THE DARK TOWER:It is one of King's most important novels... Readers who have followed Roland's quest over the last 34 years will be delighted with this final volume... Ensures that The Dark Tower is a sequence that can be endlessly revisted - Matt Thorne, Independent on SundayKing's magnificent uberstory is finally complete... King's achievement is startling; his characters fresh... his plot sharply drawn... It is magic - The Daily Express

THE DARK TOWER:It is one of King's most important novels... Readers who have followed Roland's quest over the last 34 years will be delighted with this final volume... Ensures that The Dark Tower is a sequence that can be endlessly revisted - Matt Thorne, Independent on SundayKing's magnificent uberstory is finally complete... King's achievement is startling; his characters fresh... his plot sharply drawn... It is magic - The Daily Express

A pilgrimage that began with one lone man's quest to save multiple worlds from chaos and destruction unfolds into a tale of epic proportions. While King saw some criticism for the slow pace of 1982's The Gunslinger, the book that launched this series, The Drawing of the Three (Book II, 1987), reeled in readers with its fantastical allure. And those who have faithfully journeyed alongside Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy ever since will find their loyalty toward the series' creator richly rewarded. The tangled web of the tower's multiple worlds has manifested itself in many of King's other worksAThe Stand (1978), Insomnia (1994) and Hearts in Atlantis (1999), to name a few. As one character explains here, "From the spring of 1970, when he typed the line The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed... very few of the things Stephen King wrote were `just stories.' He may not believe that; we do." King, in fact, intertwines his own life story deeper and deeper into the tale of Roland and his surrogate family of gunslingers, and, in this final installment, playfully and seductively suggests that it might not be the author who drives the story, but rather the fictional characters that control the author. This philosophical exploration of free will and destiny may surprise those who have viewed King as a prolific pop-fiction dispenser. But a closer look at the brilliant complexity of his Dark Tower world should explain why this bestselling author has finally been recognized for his contribution to the contemporary literary canon. With the conclusion of this tale, ostensibly the last published work of his career, King has certainly reached the top of his game. And as for who or what resides at the top of the tower... The many readers dying to know will have to start at the beginning and work their way up. 12 color illus. by Michael Whelan. Agent, Arthur Greene. (Sept. 21) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.