Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series may be one of the best in fantasy. It’s certainly one of the best series King has ever written. Not only because of every book in the main series but also because of the books that make up the wider series around those.
The Dark Tower series is one that all Stephen King fans and fantasy readers should dive into. It tells a brilliant tale that weaves through time and space, blurring the lines between sci-fi, fantasy, and even horror at some points.
The core series consists of several books that are a delight to read, but there’s more to this universe that I only stumbled upon as a Stephen King fan because I’d read the other material already. Anyone reading the series or looking to jump into it should consider these wider entries to help them determine the number of books in the series.
How many books are in The Dark Tower series?
There are eight books in the main The Dark Tower series. These are just the books that make up the series that you’ll read if you’re working through it from start to finish. These are as follows.
- The Gunslinger
- The Drawing of the Three
- The Waste Lands
- Wizard and Glass
- The Wind Through the Keyhole
- Wolves of the Calla
- Song of Susanna
- The Dark Tower
However, there are several other novels that are linked to The Dark Tower by means of King’s ambitious shared universe. With these included, there are 15 books in The Dark Tower series. Almost double what you might be expecting if you’re buying the set. The wider books you should read to get the context you need for their characters and concepts are as follows.
- The Stand
- Hearts in Atlantis
- Everything’s Eventual
- The Eyes of the Dragon
- Salem’s Lot
- Black House
- Insomnia
Lastly, there are a number of The Dark Tower graphic novels published by Marvel between 2007 and 2017 that serve to flesh out the backstory of characters like Roland or adapt novellas. These are purely supplemental to the novels themselves, but these graphic novels look fantastic and are a nice way to keep expanding your knowledge of this absolutely massive, interlinking world.
Many King fans believe you can infer that most, if not all, of his novels are somehow connected to The Dark Tower series. It’s such a sprawling universe that everything could be connected to it because that’s how it’s been designed. I like to think that figuring out these connections is just a good excuse to read even more of Stephen King’s work.
Do you have to read Stephen King’s other books to understand The Dark Tower series?
No, you don’t have to read anything other than The Dark Tower series to enjoy that specific set of books. However, Stephen King has been crafting a universe ever since he first started writing short stories for magazines and TV shows. They all interconnect in some way, and the ones that link with The Dark Tower series do so for a reason.
There are characters you’ll meet in the books that are linked to The Dark Tower series that you get more out of by understanding their stories and where they’ve come from. It’s almost like watching The Avengers without having watched the individual superhero movies. You understand who everyone is, but you’ll miss certain nods to their past or references that give context to a situation or character.
