There will be a new Dark Tower novel!
It seems the doors into Roland Deschain’s universe are not entirely closed to Stephen King after all! It is widely known that such doors were not readily open to him over the years. It took ka to open them and ka can be a fickle thing. But it seems the door has opened one more time and King will be writing a new novel set in the middle of the Dark Tower timeline, the plot to take place between the end of Wizard & Glass and Wolves of the Calla.
Back in March 2009, Stephen King spoke to USA Today where he hinted at the prospect of possibly re-entering Roland’s world:
When we were chatting about his (King’s) upcoming book Under the Dome, a novel with political subtext out in November, King said he had recently had an idea for a short story. “And then I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I find three more like this and do a book that would be almost like modern fairy tales?’ Then this thing started to add on bits and pieces so I guess it will be a novel.” That idea, according to King, is for a new Dark Tower novel, a continuation of his epic seven-part fantasy/sci-fi/Western series about a lone gunslinger named Roland and his ongoing hunt for the Man in Black. “It’s not really done yet,” King admits of his magnum opus. “Those seven books are really sections of one long uber-novel.”
With that said, it left a lot unknown, specifically in my mind if King would really venture back into his opus. Apparently while out on tour in support of Under the Dome, King has made a concrete statement about it:
King stated he will write another Dark Tower novel. It will center around supporting characters and revolve around some important events between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. One fan asked him to make sure Oy comes back, and King said not to worry, that Oy would return.
This is great news for Dark Tower fans! Even if the story doesn’t revolve around Roland, it will assuredly be a lot of fun. Now if we could only find out how far King is into writing this new book and when he conceivably believes it will be published…?
Ka is a wheel…
Something that is also a curiosity that I just realized:
I'm of the belief that the van accident forced King to painfully open up the door into Roland's world to finish his opus. That's not how the previous four books had been written, each book coming in its own time and not forced by King at all.
My instincts have been wrong before, but a part of me almost thinks the door that has opened to King for this new novel / series of short stories would have been the natural progression for King telling the story of Roland if the van accident had not happened. But since he's already told the story of Roland, he's having to write something different in the exact place such a natural story would have gone in.
Make sense? Or blathering? Both, probably. :)
That is an interesting thought. I'm really hoping that this happens as I'll find any excuse to venture back into King's Dark Tower universe. I guess we'll know when we read it, where it might fit in. I also wonder what is meant by "supporting characters?" Does that just mean characters other than Roland (so including Eddie, Susan, Jake, Oy), or other characters found throughout the books? I don't really consider Eddie, Susan, or Jake (or Oy, for that matter) to be secondary characters, even if they aren't quite the star of the show that Roland is.
I'm rambling. What do you think?
Yeah, I don't think of Eddie or Susan or Jake or Oy as supporting characters at all. King did mention Oy being a part of it -- whether or not he is being serious or not, who knows?