Customer Reviews

Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance

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Apparently being a personal assistant to Stephen King has certain perks, especially when you're writing a concordance to his bestselling Dark Tower series, both volumes of which are contained in "The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance." Robin Furth doesn't outline much that isn't also in the book, but she does an excellent job outlining the information about King's entire series.

Furth includes plenty of data on the seven novels of the series, starting with an essay that refreshes the reader's memory. Furth starts the actual content with a list of characters with biographical info, from "Abigail" to "Zoltan." Then it's the areas of Mid-World, from the lair of the vampire nuns to Roland's long-lost homeland; the areas of our own world, and portals between the worlds. There are some pretty decent maps as well.

Additionally, she describes the various terms and phrases used in the High Speech, Mid-World language ("graf" is apple beer), prayers and sayings ("If it's ka, it will come like the wind"). And just for reference, she includes organizations, dances, holidays, magical items, instruments, as well as outlining various maps, as well as cultural items from our present world, and maps. Not to mention references to King's own work within the series.

The Dark Tower series -- which stretches through seven long novels and one short story -- is enticingly complex and mysterious, set in different worlds and times. It's also interlinked with other novels of King's, like "Insomnia" and "Eyes of the Dragon." So it's inevitable that even the die-hard fans will forget Character X or fair-day Z -- yet Furth's book allows easy clarification and consultation.

Furth does an excellent job organizing and annotating the book, including the books in which the items appear, and which pages are significant. She also maintains a calmly distant attitude in the book, without getting too gushy about King's work. But she does slip up occasionally; it's jarring to hear about "screwing" someone with a gun in a scholarly work.

Robin Furth's "Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance" is a good accompaniment to the Dark Tower series, and even those who have read the series many times will want to keep it at hand. Very useful.

A concordance, by definition, is an alphabetical index of the principal words of a book, as of the Bible, with a reference to the passage in which each occurs. This does a most excellent job of doing so. Well studied! I almost wish I'd waited for it to come out before reading the series. A must have for all Tower geeks.

I don't really want to get into this that much because what is there to say besides that if you have a Dark Tower question--you're going to find the answer in here.

This has everything...maps, family lineage charts, every character even hinted at, and every possible setting and/or situation in the seven books.

Welcome to the world of Roland, his fellow Gunslingers and the Dark Tower - It is a wonderous and complex universe. This tome will act as a kind of guide and assist you with any questions you might have.

This concordance was actually put together as a reference for Stephen King himself, as he explains in the beginning of this very excellent and detailed document.

Here within lies the Dark Tower and all its mysteries, names, characters, locations, mythology, etc.

This is an ideal book for the Dark Tower fan, or fanatic. The details refer back to actual page numbers of the original novels, the new revised editions, etc and the format is easy to use.

Ideally, finding answers to your questions is the key to a well put together reference book - and this book has been researched and put together expertly.

I would strongly suggest this book for an accompanyment to the Dark Tower Series.

Long Days and Pleasant Nights.
turtlex

If you are into the Dark Tower series, the Concordance is a must. Keep the characters straight. Find references to characters and places in other works by King. Excellent resource.

The Dark Tower series is as long and complicated as the Bible. The Bible has a concordance. This needs one too. There are so many characters and so many meandering sub-plots that you need a road map to keep everything on track. Robin Furth did it for us. Furth is dedicated to this series and seems to know every nuance. THis book helps. And it makes a good campfire game to open the book randomly and start a topic. Well worth your time and $$$...bg

Anyone who has read The Dark Tower would be served by purchasing this book. It really puts everything in a convenient package.

If you love the dark tower then this is the icing on the cake.
It answers a lot of questions from the series and connects things together

wonder ful fabulous...wish there was a darktower #8 stephen king is great...Joined the S.K. book club and have many many books by him..this series was very special ...i loved it

I received this shipment sooner than expected and am very pleased with the service in ordering, receiving and reviewing - thanks!