Towerpedia:James Farson

James Farson is a fictional character in author Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. Nephew to John “The Good Man” Farson, James is groomed to be his uncle’s successor.

James’ father is Jack Farson, brother to John. Jack was John’s second-in-command during the time when the Farson brothers were simply bandits and harriers. Unlike John, however, Jack had a conscience and often questioned John’s tactics.

At one point, John came up with an elaborate and long-term plan to take all the riches from an Affiliation town by having Jack pretend to fall in love with daughter of one of the town’s wealthiest barons, Jenna.

The plan backfired when Jack really did fall for Jenna. The two married and Jack turned his back on his brother.

Not long after Jenna gave birth to their first child, James. John, who kept tabs on his brother’s whereabouts, bided his time until the child’s second birthday, when he finally got an opportunity to get revenge on Jack for betraying him. Jack and Jenna took James on a vacation to a cabin in a nearby forest. John arranged for a pack of mutant billy-bumblers to attack the family, and they killed Jack and Jenna, leaving James behind. Farson came after and killed the remaining billy-bumblers, taking James to raise as his successor.

John led James to believe that his parents were killed by the Affiliation, and James effectively became John’s right hand, riding with him and learning all his uncle’s tricks.

In DTIV, it is John Farson’s nephew who smuggles a poisoned knife into Gilead, which was meant to kill Stephen Deschain. It can be reasonably assumed James is that nephew.

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References

Flamini, Anthony. The Dark Tower: Gunslinger's Guidebook. Marvel Publishing, Inc., 2007.

Furth, Robin. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance. Scribner, 2006. ISBN 0743297342

King, Stephen. Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book IV). Viking Adult, 2003. ISBN 0670032573

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