The Dark Tower Books RANKED (Spoiler-Free)

[@RedFuryBooks]

Thanks again for having me! It was a blast to talk about The Dark Tower with you and Johanna!

[@WordsinTime]

@@RedFuryBooks You’re welcome Josh, it was fun!

[@Johanna_reads]

Thank you so much for having me as a guest for this Dark Tower ranking collab, Jonathan! I had the best time reflecting on these books with you and Josh. I'm honored you read this based on my recommendation and am elated with the results!

[@WordsinTime]

@@Johanna_reads Thanks for joining me! It was an adventure and I look forward to reading more King. I’ll have to start with 11/22/63!

[@Johanna_reads]

@@WordsinTime I can't wait to hear your thoughts! I love that book so much!

[@PatrickMurphy-sg5fn]

You got a sub for your channel just based on the books in your background in this video :)

[@Johanna_reads]

@@PatrickMurphy-sg5fn thank you so much! 😊

[@klipkultur3680]

Great panel, great reviews, well-done and entertaining. Thanks Jonathan!

[@WordsinTime]

@@klipkultur3680 Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed!

[@monstercreations7775]

The dark tower and hyperion cantos are life altering books. Insane emotional payoffs, beautifully constructed worlds, and VERY brave artistic choices. What wonderful and emotionally devastating stories.

[@WordsinTime]

@@monstercreations7775 That’s a great description! I’m glad you connected with them in a similar way!

[@ÂngeloF-tzp]

I haven’t read the Dark Tower yet, but couldn’t agree more about Hyperion. I have two daughters and reading the Scholar’s tale made me put myself on his shoes.

[@BooksWithBenghisKahn]

This is getting me SO AMPED to get into this series finally! Great to see some love for the finale, and it seems like bks 2-4 are the real sweet spot of the series for everyone too which is good to know.

[@WordsinTime]

@@BooksWithBenghisKahn I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! (I think you will🤞)

[@SciFiFinds]

Great video guys, almost convinced to read the Dark Tower... almost.

[@WordsinTime]

@@SciFiFinds Haha, one day!

[@Adamrmac]

Perfect timing! Just started reading this series!

[@WordsinTime]

@@Adamrmac Awesome, hope you enjoy! You’ve got to try at least the first two!

[@Adamrmac]

​@@WordsinTime Thanks man!

[@MirrorReaper1]

You should do more ranking videos. They're fun!

[@WordsinTime]

@@MirrorReaper1 Thanks! I have one where I rank all of The Expanse books and one where I rank all of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels.

[@allthekingsbooks]

1- Wizard and Glass 2- The Drawing of the Three 3- The Waste Lands 4- The Gunslinger (I actually really liked this one, it's just the others are even better) 5- The Dark Tower 6- Wolves of the Calla 7- Song of Susannah

[@WordsinTime]

@@allthekingsbooks Nice!

[@peterconlon8234]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the greater world: as a king junkie since 76, and a DT fan since they were just a series of shirt stories in a magazine...it's always interesting to get the take of others who've followed the path of the beam. One quick question, tho: why no TWTTK ??...🤔 A quick aside: as a longtime king fan, I tried to gobble up every interview I could find, if only to get a faint glimpse of what might be next and during that journey king would often talk about how writing anything to do with The Tower was vastly different than his normal process...he would literally feel a calling, saying it's time to go back to Mid World, and then he'd kick back and just...write. He would refer to it as an almost purely natural yet unnatural way to tell a story and I think that's what we FEEL while immersed in 2/3/4... When the accident occurred, and he nearly died...he was bombarded with as many admonishments about how Roland had not reached his Tower as he was 'hey, hope you're ok'...he was obviously perturbed at that but also understood. So, instead of awaiting the call...he just sat down and wrote the last three...and I think that's why they FEEL different, don't quite hit with most as hard...they don't have that completely organic feel, the feeling that this is crazy but it works. King might think similarly as he has, during at least one interniew, alluded to not being entirely happy with those 3 and possibly revisiting them... BTW...have you noticed over the past month or three king has cryptically mentioned he here's the call... ...oh, and the ending: absolutely perfect...if you'd been paying close attention, catching the details...it was the only ending possible. I'm taking too much of your time 8) song of susannah 7) the dark tower 6) The Wolves of the Calla 5) The Wind Through the Keyhole 4) the Gunslinger 3) The Drawing of the Three 2) The Wastelands 1) Wizard & Glass

[@WordsinTime]

@@peterconlon8234 Thanks for sharing your thoughts and a long time King fan. It makes sense why the last three feel a little bit different, but I still enjoyed them especially The Dark Tower!

[@bartsbookspace]

I just read (and loved) Salem’s Lot, and now can’t wait to get back to DT proper! This was a great video and a fabulous panel. 👍 And your top rating, Johnathan, of the last book in the series has me soooo excited ! 😀

[@WordsinTime]

The last few books are polarizing haha. I hope you enjoy book 7 as much as I did!

[@bartsbookspace]

@@WordsinTime I generally like Stephen King, so I think there’s a good chance that the last few books will also work for me. And then, as we’ve already established, our tastes in books are fairly similar, so… 😉

[@LivingDeadEnby]

My ranking: 1. Wolves of the Calla 2. The Wastelands 3. The Dark Tower 4. The Drawing of the Three 5. Song of Susannah 6. The Gunslinger 7. Wizard and Glass

[@WordsinTime]

@@LivingDeadEnby Nice! It’s interesting that people seem to have Wizard and Glass low or high.

[@LivingDeadEnby]

@@WordsinTime I hated it 😄 At least the 80% flashback inbetween, the beginning and the end was 👌

[@WordsinTime]

@@LivingDeadEnby Haha I grew to like it but that's fair enough

[@PatrickMurphy-sg5fn]

Love the Dark Tower. I also enjoyed the tie in novel The Wind Through the Keyhole and think the prequel comics are absolutely a must read. My Rankings: 1 - Wizard & Glass 2 - The Gunslinger 3 - The Drawing of the Three 4 - The Marvel prequel comics 5 - The Waste lands 6 - The Wind Through the Keyhole 7 - Song of Susannah 8 - The Wolves of the Calla 9 - The Dark Tower

[@WordsinTime]

@@PatrickMurphy-sg5fn I’m glad you enjoyed those too!

[@sjoerdth]

I remember being around 12 years old being sick and bored at home pulling the Dutch translation of the Gunslinger from the book case in our living room and finishing it in 1 or 2 days. Mind blown. I didn't know it was a series when I started, so I had to beg my older brother to go to the library to see if they had the next book, not even knowing it was more than 2 books. He brought me the next two. Couple of sick, King infused fever days later I finished them, my brother went to the library again and got home empty handed: "you sure it isn't a trilogy?". Everybody who's read book 3 knows you can't mistake it for a trilogy. This was about 30 years ago, back then I checked a few times to see if book 4 had come out, it hadn't and in time I kinda lost interest/gave up hope. But recently my interest has rekindled. I remember The Gunslinger being extremely awesome though, wonder if I'll agree with my 12 yr old self, or if rereading it will ruin the magic 😀

[@WordsinTime]

@@sjoerdth Haha that’s a great story! I hope you enjoy the rest if you pick it back up!

[@lancetschirhart7676]

It occurred to me today, for the first time somehow, that there’s an aspect shared among many of my favorite books, which might enable me to select new favorites in advance with some accuracy. Rama. The lost world (Doyle). Hyperion. Ringworld. The entire Dark Tower series, I hear. (I don’t read series, as a rule). Perdido Street Station. Others that don’t come to mind, I’d bet. Here, the narratives are driven forward by changes of setting and can be characterized by almost primarily by their richness and prominence and continuously novel revelations. This is another useful way to subdivide books, I think. If I found a list like this, I’d take it seriously.

[@WordsinTime]

@@lancetschirhart7676 You might enjoy the world building in Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio.

[@lancetschirhart7676]

@@WordsinTime then I’m pushing it straight to the top of my tbr

[@chriswickham1279]

I've never picked up a book in my life i was 45 when I read the opening line...the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed... I've now read the whole tower series, dune series.. most of kings work ..a lot of blake crouch work etc.. all thanks to the gunslinger and its opening line king just pulled me into his world, amazing...The Tower series changed my life

[@WordsinTime]

@@chriswickham1279 Wow, that’s a great story! “I’ve never picked up a book in my life.” is also a solid opening line haha

[@chriswickham1279]

@@WordsinTime brilliant 👏 lol

[@marcweber8509]

1. The Drawing of the Three 2. Wizard and Glass 3. The Wastelands 4. The Dark Tower 5. Wolves of the Calla 6. The Gunslinger 7. Song of Susannah Spoiler: I loved the epiloge ending of book 7. But I didn't like how some other elements were resolved, mainly the Man in Black and the Red King. Another nitpick: Towards the end I grew a bit tired of Kings tendency to fast forward to the fate of characters, like 'But little did he know that he wouldn't see the end of the day'.

[@WordsinTime]

@@marcweber8509 We have fairly similar rankings, and I think all of those are fair nitpicks.

[@miljanmatovic880]

7. Gunslinger 6. Wolves 5. Song 4. Dark Tower 3. Wastelands 2. Wizard 1. Drawing That was my view a few years back when I read the series. Very polarizing series for me, thought it had potential to be great (great concept) but King was not skillful enough to carry it out. It's not that he can't write, it's just that the world was to big for him to "hold in his head" and execute coherently.

[@WordsinTime]

@@miljanmatovic880 Interesting list! Not too dissimilar from ours. It certainly was a lot to pull off in one series.

[@thevolunteerfiredepartment816]

Gunslinger is so underrated imho!

[@miljanmatovic880]

@@thevolunteerfiredepartment816 people say it's better when you read it again just after finishing the series

[@Kamakazi152.]

I seem to be in the minority here that I LOVED The Gunslinger. It was a fantastic introduction, it was spooky, and weird, and sad, and just made me want to know what happened next. I'd say my rankings would be: 1. Wizard and Glass 2. Wolves of the Calla 3. The Dark Tower 4. The Gunslinger 5. The Wastelands 6. The Drawing of the Three 7. Song of Susannah All of then are 4 abd 5 star reads for me so even the last ranked book I loved reading.

[@WordsinTime]

That's awesome! I gave 5 of them 4 stars and my top 2 I gave 5 stars.

[@IanTerronesReads]

I’ve only read the first two books, but I am super excited to continue with the wastelands after I finish the stand!

[@WordsinTime]

@@IanTerronesReads That’s awesome! I believe there are some small tie-ins with The Stand so that’s a good one to read too!

[@owned008]

Josh is the best :) and such a great series. Couldn't agree more with all the praise above!

[@WordsinTime]

@@owned008 Haha agreed!

[@thevolunteerfiredepartment816]

Only read three 1. The Wastelands 2. The Gunslinger 3. The Drawing of the Three

[@WordsinTime]

@@thevolunteerfiredepartment816 Nice! Hope you enjoy the rest!

[@dustmaker1000]

I just downloaded ‘The Gunslinger’ based on your recommendations. The first in the series

[@WordsinTime]

@@dustmaker1000 Awesome! I hope you like it! The Gunslinger is a bit different from the others so give the first two books a try.

[@thevolunteerfiredepartment816]

Just go into it knowing it is very much a gothic dystopian western, and it wasn’t written like any of King’s others books (very high prose like Tolkien.)

[@thevolunteerfiredepartment816]

The second book is where it really begins to have that weird Dark Tower feel

[@rmckinnon]

I’m surprised that The Gunslinger ranks near the end for everyone. I put it near the to p due to the world-building and the atmosphere it creates.

[@WordsinTime]

@@rmckinnon I’m glad you enjoyed it! It was a 7.5/10 for me, so I still liked it, just not as much as the others.

[@Ahmet-yu7jr]

8-Gunslinger v2: I didn't like the changes. Roland didn't need justification for his actions in Tull. 7-Dark Tower: I didn't like the ending. Didn't like Mortred, didn't like the Red King's schtick, didn't like R.F's end, didn't like characters fate, didn't like the entire ending. This is the first time I agreed Stephen King writes bad ending. 6-Gunslinger OG: Good introduction, good start. It's really a good book but others are better and retcons kinda ruined its climax. 5-Song of Susannah: Many peoples put it bottom but in my opinion it is a solid book. Action is really good, character moments are strong. The biggest problem I suppose being middle in the three books tied closely. Fifth, sixth and seventh books are much closely tied than other books, that's became problem for Susannah's Song. Ending in cliffhanger hurts it more as well. 4-Wolves of Calla: The setting and character moments are really powerful, this book is genuenly interesting and fun to read. But being beginning of the final act kinda hurt it. 3-Wasteland: World building is strong, I jumped it first, without knowing it is a part of a serie 😂. Solid story with tons of entertainment even without reading previous books. 2-Wizard and Glass: I suprised how many times I reread it. Peak Eddie moment, flashback story is excellent, the last part is a little weak but overall story is incredible. 1-Drawing of the: Best book in the series. Action, pychology, world building, everything there. Strongest book in the series built other books. Ending is really good as well. My only complain could be how Eddie dropped his guard second time but he was a junkie back than kinda forgivable.

[@WordsinTime]

@@Ahmet-yu7jr Thanks for sharing! Our ranking is pretty similar apart from book 7.

[@roberthieber1]

Wizard and Glass The Dark Tower Wolves of the Calla The Wastelands Drawing of the Three Song of Susannah The Gunslinger

[@WordsinTime]

@@roberthieber1 Nice! We had the same top two 🤝

[@JasonCarr-l9m]

I am a constant reader. I loved aspects of the Dark Tower series. Song of Susannah became too meta for me.

[@JasonCarr-l9m]

Conversely, however, I liked the Gunslinger a lot.

[@WordsinTime]

@@JasonCarr-l9m I didn’t like Song of Susannah as much, but I thought the meta aspects paid off in The Dark Tower.

[@JasonCarr-l9m]

@@WordsinTime All in all, the series was an epic experience. No question about that. Completely tangential but King's new book, So you Like it Darker?, is very good. King excels at short stories.

[@WordsinTime]

@@JasonCarr-l9m Awesome! I think the next King book I want to read is 11/22/63.

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

haven't read any of them but maybe I should⚛

[@WordsinTime]

@@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd Try the first two, and see if you like it!

[@TheRealPaulMarshall]

Which ending?

[@WordsinTime]

@@TheRealPaulMarshall Are asking about the final chapter or the epilogue, because I liked both.

[@damiang1442]

I am probably in the minority here but Wizard and Glass is my least favorite book in the series. For some reason it did not work for me, the beginning and ending were good but the entire middle section was a drag, especially the romance. It might change if I ever decide to re-read the series.

[@WordsinTime]

@@damiang1442 That’s okay. It took me about 100 pages to get into the flashback story but I ended up loving it.

[@sasapejcin3568]

I've read the first five books and I really enjoyed them except Wolves of Calla! Such a boring, dragged out and pointless book! Gave it two stars! I hope that last two books are excellent because It will be disappointing if series don't stick the landing!

[@WordsinTime]

@@sasapejcin3568 Most people don’t like book 6, and book 7 is polarizing but I thought it was great!

[@mormengil]

And here I am, the heretic, strongly disliking Stephen King hahahah!

[@WordsinTime]

@@mormengil Haha “Shame! Shame!”