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Summary
Those begin out their journeying with Stephen King’sThe Dark Towerseries often have a interrogation : should they read the original version ofThe Gunslingeror the revised and flourish edition?The Dark Towerseries is a germinal work from one of history ’s most successful and influential writers , a series differentiate over seven independent volume , one standalone book , one short story , and countless computer address and tie - atomic number 49 from his other novel . The Dark Toweruniverse is Stephen King ’s neat work , and if he were never to write another Holy Writ again , he ’d be a legendary author for that serial alone .
The series all started withThe Gunslinger , which bring in readers to the archetypal loner and expansive figure Roland of Gilead , The Dark Tower ’s gunslingerand the last of his cosmos . His life ’s quest is to reachThe Dark Tower , the link of not just his world , but all mankind , and protect it from the forces of chaos that would pull it down . Along the way , he cope with companions that help him on his pursuance , but the first , Jake Chambers , becomes an entire part of the first book . Of course , The Gunslingeralso introducesStephen King ’s dandy baddie : the Man in Black , a.k.a . Randall Flagg . It ’s the outset of an epical taradiddle , but there are two different versions of the novel , leading to question about which one is better .
The universe of The Dark Tower is sprawling and vast and it can serve to have a go at it how to read the book & in which order to read them before climb up in .
Why You Should Read The Revised & Expanded Edition Of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
It’s More Cohesive & Fixes Some Continuity Issues
For those completionists who want to be thorough , the revise and expanded edition ofThe Dark Tower : The Gunslingeris the upright room to go . Stephen King released the revise and expanded edition in 2003 , decades after the original version was released . The original version ofThe Gunslingerwas published in 1982 , and King had never been fully happy with it as it was a fix - up – that is , a novel that stitches together several light news report into one whole . The original stories had been bring out between 1978 and 1981 , and King bring in he had enough to put together in a whole novel ; it was then the start of the heroic series that finally becameThe Dark Tower .
Book / Story Title
Publication Year
The Dark Tower : The Gunslinger
1982
The Dark Tower II : The Drawing of the Three
1987
The Dark Tower III : The Waste Lands
1991
Custom Image by Dani Kessel Odom
The Dark Tower IV : Wizard and Glass
1997
" The Little Sisters of Eluria "
1998
The Dark Tower V : Wolves of the Calla
2003
The Dark Tower VI : Song of Susannah
2004
The Dark Tower VII : The Dark Tower
The Wind Through the Keyhole
2012
That said , because the originalThe Gunslingerwas a desex - up novel and never something that King had visualize would spawn anentire interconnectedDark Toweruniverse , it create continuity error with the later rule book , and did n’t feel as cohesive in general . The flourish and revised edition jam a lot of those continuity errorsand makes the first al-Qur’an feel more like a fundamental part of the residual of the serial . It ’s the equivalent weight of a director ’s cut , the edition that King trust is the upright version of his story and the one he always wanted to assure .
The original variant ofThe Gunslingerwas published in 1982 , and King had never been fully happy with it as it was a fix - up – that is , a novel that stitches together several short floor into one whole .
It should be noted that some die - hard Stephen King sports fan who cut their teeth on the original edition ofThe Gunslingerhave disliked some of the minor change to wording , andit ’s fair to fence that a few line do n’t seem to punch as hard as they did in the original . Still , it ca n’t be traverse that the revised and expanded edition ofThe Gunslingerfits much well with the whole series . For that ground , those who want a smoother entering into the complicated lore of the earth should take the revised and expanded edition ofThe Gunslinger .
Why You Should Read The Original Version Of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
It’s An Interesting Read For Comparison’s Sake
That say , it ’s still deserving reading the original , shorter version ofThe Gunslinger . Though it ’s an frail version of the story and has a few patch holes that cause contradiction later inThe Dark Towerseries , it ’s still a great read . It certainly does n’t detract from the overall story to read the original as one ’s first Quran , nor does it really have account problems later save for those who are incredibly nitpicky readers . However , the most interesting way to record it is after having finished the entire series , to see the parts Stephen King changed and expanded and why .
The Dark Towerseries is Stephen King’smagnum musical composition , the fib , the universe that has wipe out him and taken up more of his brain space than any other . look on the way he modify the story is a glimpse into the creative thinker of not just one of the world ’s most prolific authors , but also into the originative process itself . Some of the part he changed were to good flesh out the part of Roland of Gilead . Others were to retroactively correct passages that caused later persistence errors . And still other parts simply revised things he had n’t been happy with .
Watching the direction he qualify the story is a glimpse into the head of not just one of the populace ’s most fertile authors , but also into the creative process itself .
In the goal , it does n’t really matter if you read the revise and expanded edition ofThe Gunslingeror the original – if you may still find it , that is . The Dark Tower universe is Brobdingnagian and immersive , and whichever version of the first book you read , it still does a fine chore of acquaint you to the humanity of Roland of Gilead , and the graphic symbol . No matter what ’s in the Sir Frederick Handley Page of each version , the only matter that truly matters is that both begin with the iconic first line : " The man in dark fled across the desert , and the gunslinger followed . "
While the original adaptation ofThe Gunslingeris hard to find now , it ’s still available in digital editions on-line and print editions where used Good Book are sell .
Mike Flanagan ’s TV adaptation of Stephen King ’s Dark Tower serial needs to feature several primal moments from the account book in purchase order to do the story right .
