We are lucky today to have a review by Rocky Wood, an expert on the work of Stephen King, of  Bev Vincent’s reference work The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy, which will be released in April.  Thanks very much, Rocky!

The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy by Bev Vincent (New American Library paperback – April 2013)

The Dark Tower Cycle is Stephen King’s magnum opus – an epic dark fantasy contained in eight novels and a novella. The ‘Cycle’ also leaks over into many of his other books and short stories; so that it can be argued King’s entire canon is Dark Tower-centric. We all know King’s popularity with readers but many have yet to be exposed to this complex tale – so much so that many readers would benefit from a Guide to the series. The protagonist is Roland Deschain – a sort of gunslinger knight from a fallen empire on a quest to save the central hub of the Universe from destruction. Along the way he gathers a group of followers and we learn more about the flawed hero as each novel passes.

Robin Furth, a former research assistant for King, has previously published a work closely aligned with defining each character, place and things like social aspects of Mid-World (the setting for Roland Deschain’s search for the mysterious Dark Tower) – Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance, Revised and Updated.

Bev Vincent, author of The Road to the Dark Tower, takes a different tack – explaining each novel and related story in a clean, easy to follow narrative style. Allied to these are a number of small chapters dealing with such things as Roland’s enemies and a fascinating section about settings from our own world (there is a definite transfer between Roland’s world and ours).

The book will be a boon to new readers, as well as those who are familiar but find some of the complexity and what King admits are loose ends daunting. There’s even an interview with King, in which he reveals some interesting background. Possibly less useful to the average reader but of value to Dark Tower junkies is the Dark Tower artwork section (each book has ‘Artist’s Edition’ featuring exquisite imaginings of many characters and the Dark Tower itself); although the section on the many graphic novels the series has spawned will be particularly useful in libraries carrying that popular form.

Libraries should benefit from carrying this book in two ways. Firstly, it will assist new and even seasoned readers of the Dark Tower Cycle to a better understanding and enjoyment of the tales. Secondly, it should help those who haven’t dabbled in the King of Horror’s fantasy master work to decide whether to jump in and borrow those novels and graphic novels and commit to the series. Vincent has a clear eyed commitment to providing these readers with a portal into Mid-World and its never ending reading pleasures.

Reviewed by Rocky Wood.

Rocky Wood is the Bram Stoker Award winning author of Stephen King: A Literary Companion and other works. He lurks at www.rockywoodauthor.com