7 books, long? Try the wheel of time, super epic!

The end of Dark Tower was cartoonish and unbelievably bad.

I'd like to add a few, Beginner - Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks. Intermediate, Flux by Stephen Baxter. (really the whole Xeelee series, but Flux is my favorite (so far))

A lot of "bad" language and a fair amount of violence, I'm in.

The First 15 Lives of Harry August is the only one of these I've read and I think about it all the time even years later, loved it as a book! One of my favourites. Also, I love Murakami but haven't yet read Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World so I really need to read that soon =D

Excellent video! I’m currently reading Hyperion, and while I feel like Simmons and King have distinct styles, they do both love literary allusions and write convincing characters. (I’m loving Hyperion so far!)

Detta could've been written a lot better. Came off as a caricature of what Stephen was aiming for. Highly recommend the podcast Just King Things

I’d like to suggest a collaboration with the Dave Reads King channel, I think that would be a blast!

I’d like to recommend to you the 17 book (currently anyway lol) Dresden Files. Not as thick per book but a longer Series overall which I enjoy more so than Dark Tower…

Awesome series. I rated the books like that: The Gunslinger 3/5 The Drawing of the Three 4/5 The Wastelands 5/5 Wizard and Glass 3/5 Wolves of the Calla 5/5 Song of Susannah 5/5 The Dark Tower 5/5

Thank you for mentioning reading Salem's Lot before book 5. Of all the connections to The Dark Tower, that is the biggest spoiler in my opinion.

The Wind Through The Keyhole or something

Agree on reading "'Salem's Lot" first. 'Insomnia' and 'Talisman'/'Bleak House' are ... side stories? Other perspectives? 'The Stand' and 'It', like most of King's work, are shorter (not short) versions of the Dark Tower - not that there's anything wrong with that.

@10:19 - "So these are the only King books that I've read...." May I recommend 'The Mist'? And 'The Colorado Kid.' And 'The Long Walk'. All of those are fairly short. Or there's 'From a Buick 8' which is longer. I will grant that, at heart, they are all the same story as the Dark Tower although the Crimson King is more concrete in 'The Long Walk'.

I got the original story the sentinel. Clarke.

Awesome video! I can't wait to read Darktower!

I grok you.....

I read the book and seen both movies the remake and the original. Flowers for algernon.

Don't forget so long thanks for all the fish, the sequel to Hitchiker's.

How dare you suggest The Dark Tower isn't perfect? Blasphemy! This series definitely has some flaws though; I'm really glad you overall enjoyed the journey! =D P.S. The books even I recommend people read before The Dark Tower are 'Salem's Lot (at least before the back half of the series) as the only "required" one, as you point out. Book 7 spoils the ending of Cujo (both the movie and book) - as you always point out. The Stand seems more of an Easter Egg setting type of thing; Insomnia has character and concept stuff apparently, but for me that made me more excited to read Insomnia based on how that went in DT7. But yeah, you basically covered that part well. P.P.S. I'M NOT ONE OF THE GUEST BOOKTUBERS FOR THE RANKING???? P.P.P.S. Just Kidding! Thankee Sai; long days and pleasant nights.

I read the first five and remember loving them. I think I stopped because people said the ending sucked, that said I should re read the five and read the last two since I have them. I should note it was the first fantasy series I read and I suspected that is the reason I just can't get to many of other fantasy books. It has this wonderful mix of horror, western, fantasy with just right dap of science fiction. It jumps back and forth over worlds and the characters both good and bad are amazing.

Great series wrap up Jonathan! I’ll be reading book 5 sometime next month and I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the ending of the series. I wonder if you’d like 11/22/63; it’s one of my favorites and it is a time travel story - so technically SF. Oh, and I can’t wait for the DT ranking video! 👍

You've had an upper body workout?

Really great video Jonathan! I loved the Dark Tower series.

Thanks Jonathan! I started the books back in the late 80s (my mom had Drawing of the Three on her bookshelf) so I got into the series very young and have been hooked on King ever since. Excited for your ranking. Take care!

I think you list several reasons why this series would work for me. Characters > Fast Plot Development for me, for example. So the first red point does not apply to me! But I am not really a King reader. I’ve tried a few but not in decades now I suspect 🤔 I’m unfussed by naughty words, or a bit of mess, though I’m not keen on horror, it’s actually the s3xy times that I just cannot be bothered with. FTB, move along, do not care, not interested. Entertainingly, my current book opens chapter 1 with a bit of rumpy-pumpy. But rather than being able to skip the scene entirely, the author has cunningly woven in political scene-setting dialogue in amongst them ‘getting busy’, so if you want to know if war looms, you kinda gotta ‘ride along’ IYKWIM. I was both 🫣 and 🙄 for that chapter 😆 The King boy must be worth a few bob nowadays, with that incredible breadth of work. I wonder how he keeps motivated.

Couldn't agree more about the Dark Tower / Hyperion - Endymion comparison! I've thought similar things but think you put it perfectly. Keats/Browning... Amazing! They also happen to be two of my very top series. Love the video.

There are zero reasons not to

Stephen King's chunky collaboration with Peter Straub, called "The Talisman", also has a lot of direct references to King's Dark Tower universe - so much so, that readers who have The Talisman on their TBR list, may want to begin with it - before reading the Dark Tower. Also, The Talisman moves quicker than Dark Tower series, so the reader may be able to treat The Talisman as a sort of prequel to it.......

Not a massive King fan but after finishing The Stand recently I'm interested in getting into The Dark Tower and its connections to his other works. It just feels so daunting.

I'm on book three now. Didn't really care for the first book. I really liked the second. And I'm enjoying the third so far. Excited for Wizard and Glass.

Read the 1st volume of the series (The Gunslinger) several years back, but it gave me little inclination to read the next volume. Nothing wrong with it though - it's just that it isn't what I'm looking for in a series. I prefer other Stephen King books by a big margin - such as Salem's Lot, The Stand, The Shining, Carrie, Under the Dome, Dreamcatcher, The Talisman, & the unforgettable novellas : The Mist, & Apt Pupil. The SF fans on this channel would probably enjoy The Mist, The Talisman, Under the Dome, The Stand, Salem's Lot, & maybe Carrie, which features a telekinetic girl...

there definitely is a crossover of fans between King and Simmons. Simmons’ Summer of Night is very reminiscent of King’s signature echoes of childhood trauma seeping into adulthood theme in his classic horror stories.

I read way station, i like the aliens and the premise. Did you like the road movie? In way station i would love to have his job, i read the book years ago. I loved 1984, childhoods end. Try destiny's road. By larry niven.

I literally just started the dark tower today! This video could not have come out at a better time.

I loved every goddamn minute of this series. I had a Shrike sized hole in my heart after finishing the Cantos and the Tower definitely took its place. And I wanted all the connections. Even the ones that weren’t really connections. After checking out a bunch of suggestions I eventually made my own strangely off-kilter path to book 7. I’d move some around things now, remove some things entirely, but here’s the order I read over the course of last year: The Gunslinger Drawing of the Three The Talisman (w/Peter Straub) The Stand The Waste Lands ‘Salem’s Lot The Eyes of the Dragon Wizard and Glass The Green Mile Wolves of the Calla Insomnia The Mist The Tommyknockers Rose Madder Black House (w/Peter Straub) Song of Susannah The Regulators (Bachman) Desperation Everything’s Eventual Hearts in Atlantis The Dark Tower

Thanks, really helpful. The other King books I'd ideally have to read in order to make the most out of the Dark Tower is what keeps me off getting into it just yet. I do have book 1 and 2 already as I found them cheap in the wild but I think I'll read the other King books you mentioned while keeping an eye out for the rest of the series. Hopefully by the time I've read all those I'll have the full series ready to go 😆

It would have made a great Duology but I think Steve stretched it a bit too far. Enjoyed it though - but I doubt he'll ever beat 'The Stand' (He came close with 'It' though.)

You keep saying it was 7 books, when it was actually 8 (plus a pre-novella). It sounds like you missed “The Wind Through the Keyhole”, which is classified as book 4.5. I thought book 6 was out of place and did not like book 7. Inserting himself, as a character, and having an ending that was NOT an ending , made the series VERY unsatisfactory. I always wished he would go back and rewrite book 7 or write a book 8, that picked up where 7 left off and give Roland a better ending to his journey.

I have 7 of 8

It's a classic sci fi novel with compelling tales, interesting characters and epic world building. I do completely agree with you about the ending. I was eager for a more complete satisfying ending to wrap it all up but unfortunately I feel the author did not stick the landing. There was no ending. Hopefully, we have closure in the sequel(s), cross fingers

I'm surprised I've read more than you on this list, but perhaps I'm just more mainstream in my reading tastes, saying that, many of the ones I've read I have checked out because of your channel. As of now I'm on 36 1/2 as I'm reading Hyperion at the moment on your repeated advice!

Great video! I love your passion for these books! Youve had my wanting to check out Quantum Thief for months. I already have Sea of Rust and am excited for that. Im reading Service Model in a couple of weeks! Thanks as always for great content, you rock!

Children of Memory had all of the same fails.

Another wonderful sci fi 'philosophical' writer from Australia to track down is Terry Dowling. His book Rhynosseros was s beautiful, toughing, thoughtful and truly original. I'd rank it as light sci fi or middling, along with Philip K Dick.

If you equate your favorite meal of your lifetime to your favorite book, then the hunger games is like the first meal an infant gets after mashed peas. The infant thinks that chicken nuggets with ketchup is the greatest thing ever, and that nothing could ever top that. Sure, the author, Collins, ends every chapter with a mini cliffhanger, so that it becomes difficult to set the book down. But it’s story and its themes will not leave you to ponder the nature of the universe nor evaluate yourself. I feel fairly confident in saying that anyone who voted for the hunger games books for this list has not read any real science fiction. But then again, we’ve all read books just to be able to say that we’ve read them.… If only to be able to give a proper critique.

34.5 i'm stuck around half way on Stranger in a Strange Land. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy only listen to first audiobook but I listen to all radio dramas 7 on my next 12 months TBL

So good to see you holding one of favourite author's books ever: Greg Egan's Diaspora. The opening is mind melting. Fans of hard sci fi should also check out Egan's anthology Axiomatic and look up his phenomenal short Tap.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro is a good beginner novel. It is sci-fi disguised as literary fiction.

Also agree about FOUNDATION.