Part of why Stephen King fans are so excited about the upcoming TV adaptation of "The Dark Tower" is that the book series it's based on is uniquely personal for the horror master. In his introductions and afterwards for the novels, he'd describe the series as something that was channeled through him in mysterious ways; it was often effortless in a way he didn't feel with his other novels.

King's spiritual approach to the "Dark Tower" series led to some questionable story choices, like his decision to base the fourth book around a 500-page flashback to Roland's childhood. From a Writing 101 perspective, this was a bad idea. But the way King talked about it, it didn't seem like he had a choice. Ka (the Gilead High Speech word for "fate") decreed the massive flashback had to be there, and

See Full Page