Dark Tower reading order **SPOILERS**
I have a friend who's interested in reading the Dark Tower books and I'm considering loaning them to him in this order. This is not the order I read them in myself (I read the seven main books back to back and caught up on the others later), but I think this could be the most beneficial reading order in terms of fully understanding all the characters from other King works Roland and his friends encounter along the way, and I'm curious if you agree or not.
1. The Gunslinger
Because it's the beginning.
2. The Eyes of the Dragon
No real reason to put this here except for the reference to it in The Drawing of the Three, and I felt like it had to go somewhere since Flagg's in it. Not sure how I feel about reading it before The Stand, which I think is a better introduction to Flagg as Flagg (as opposed to Flagg as Walter, who already appeared in The Gunslinger), but The Stand really needs to be read later, and there's not much room for Eyes anywhere else.
3. The Drawing of the Three
4. The Waste Lands
I tried to space these so there'd always be at least one (and preferably no more than one, although that didn't always work out) story separating each DT book, just to give the reader a breather from Roland's quest and to introduce some plot elements or characters who would become important in the next book, but I just didn't have enough non-DT books to put one between two and three. I think this worked out for the best, though; after the brief break of Eyes of the Dragon, we spend the next two books filling out and developing Roland's ka-tet, then leave them on a cliffhanger for a while, trapped inside Blaine the Mono.
5. The Stand
Included because of Randall Flagg's prominence in it, placed between DT III and IV because Roland and his friends find themselves in the world this novel takes place in in Wizard and Glass. Richard Fannin appears at the end of The Waste Lands and tells the Tick-Tock Man about Trashcan Man's "My life for you!" mantra. This cameo serves as kind of a teaser for The Stand, and the events in the plague world in Wizard and Glass as a kind of epilogue to it.
6. Wizard and Glass
Next DT book.
7. 'Salem's Lot
Introduces Father Callahan, who becomes a major character in DT V.
8. Wolves of the Calla
Next DT book.
9. The Little Sisters of Eluria
Truth be told, this is a kind of arbitrary placement, but I have my reasons. If we were going strictly chronologically, it should be read even before The Gunslinger, but that would ruin the narrative framing of the first and last books, as well as make a much poorer introduction to the character of Roland and his world and quest. If read after Wolves, "Little Sisters" serves as a kind of concluding flashback to all the stories about Roland's past we've gotten throughout the series, in books one, four, and five. In Wolves, there is a mention that Roland only ever loved one girl after Susan Delgado; that line foreshadows this story, and then DT VI references the events of it, treating the reader as if he's already aware of them. With this reading order, he will be.
10. Everything's Eventual
11. Low Men in Yellow Coats
Admittedly, the placement of these two is pretty arbitrary. It might make more sense to read them between DT VI and VII, since the characters they introduce won't appear in Roland's story until the final book, but I already have a two-novel break between books six and seven, and only one short story between five and six. So it made more sense to me, in the interest of spacing out Roland's story a bit more while at the same time not spacing it wider than it needs to be, to move these two stories back one book.
12. Song of Susannah
Next DT book.
13. Insomnia
First appearance of the Crimson King, as well as Patrick Danville, who will become an important character in the last book.
14. Black House
I haven't read this one yet but I understand it is heavily linked with the plot of DT VII, to the point that it is basically a DT book without Roland. Also the Crimson King appears.
15. The Dark Tower
Because it's the end.
Thoughts about this reading order? My biggest concern is the huuuuge break between books three and four for The Stand. It's the longest of all these books, and despite Flagg's prominence, it's really only tangentially related to Roland's story. I feel like a new King reader could get sidetracked here for quite a while and lose the flow of the DT narrative in the process. Anyway, thoughts? suggestions?
On a related note, I have yet to read Insomnia but I've read online that DT VII contradicts the continuity of that book, but I haven't been able to find out what exactly this means. According to Wikipedia:
Patrick Danville returns in The Dark Tower VII. In Insomnia he describes both the Crimson King and "another king" named Roland being in his dreams. The continuity present in Insomnia, however, is different. The most obvious examples include the Crimson King not being trapped at the top of the Dark Tower (when he is actually trapped on a third floor balcony) and Patrick Danville, while ultimately defeating the Crimson King, not dying while saving two men.
Can anyone explain what this means? Are the Patrick Danville and the Crimson King who appear in Insomnia the same ones who appear in DT VII, or are the events of that book only connected to the events of The Dark Tower as fictional events within a book by Stephen King (the book given to Roland in DT VII), rather than events that happened in an alternate world from which Patrick Danville eventually passed into Roland's world?
Basically I'm wondering exactly in Insomnia is contradicted by The Dark Tower. I know there's a prophecy about Patrick dying to save two men or something that doesn't come true, but I wouldn't really consider a prophecy not coming true to be a deal-breaking continuity error. And supposedly the Crimson King is trapped in the wrong part of the Tower, but do we physically see him at the top of the Tower in Insomnia or is it more like a dream or metaphor or secondhand info?
