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OTHER BOOKS

Thomas Said Softly. Then Released...

"Him's Name Is Roland Mama. I Dream About Him Sometimes. Him's A King Too."

Throughout King's Style Of Writing, The World He Creates Is All Linked Together. Characters And Places Often See Themselves Revisited Time And Time Again Throughout His Books. What Makes The Dark Tower Series So Interesting is Rolands World Seems To Contain All Of King's Other Worlds. He Seeks The Tower, And All Worlds Are Accessable There. There Are Many Connections In King's Books, And These Are Just A Few.

The Eyes Of The Dragon
The Eyes Of The Dragon Is A Book About A King In A Far Away Land Called Delain. (None Other Than One In The Same, From Which John Norman Came From In The Little Sisters Of Eluria). The King Is Murdered By An Evil Magician Named Flagg, And Frames One Of The King's Heirs, His Son. Peter Is Thought To Have Killed His Father So He Could Become Heir. He Is Then Sentenced To Prison For Life And His Younger Brother Thomas, Claims The Throne.

Many Years Pass, Thomas Soon Learns That Peter May Be Innocent. With The Help Of Dennis, A Servant Of The Castle, They Attempt To Discover The Identity Of The True Murderer And Set Peter Free. Peter Cleverly Escapes And Ultimately Proves His Innocence. Flagg is Banished From The Kingdom and Peter Reclaims The Throne. Thomas, Afraid Of Being Accused Of Deception And Treachery, Set Off On A Quest With Dennis To Find Flagg. It Is Later Said Within The First Novel Of The Dark Tower, That Roland Once Met Two Boys Named Dennis And Thomas Hot On The Trail Of Flagg While He Was Chasing The Man In Black.

Low Men In Yellow Coats
Bobby Garfield Is An 11 Year Old Boy That Lives With His Mom In Small Town In Connecticut. Soon, An Older Man Named Ted Brauttigan Moves In Upstairs And The Two Quickly Become Friends, Despite His Mother's Better Judgement. Little Is Known About Ted Or Where He Came From, And Bobby Seems To Like Him. But There's Something A Little Strange About Ted. Every Once In A While He Will Blank Out, Lapse Into A Sort Of Trance And Talk Gibberish, Or In Another Language. And Even Stranger, Ted Asks Bobby To Watch For Sign's Of Low Men In Yellow Coats. They Have Ways Of Communicating With Eachother And That's How Bobby Can Tell If They're Near. Look For Posters Of Lost Pets On Telephone Poles and Chalk Hopscotch Drawings On The Ground With Moons And Stars Drawn Nearby. Bobby Thinks Nothing Of It And Continues To Watch Just As Ted Asks. But The Low Men Are Getting Closer. Ted Can Almost Feel Them.

Soon Bobby Starts To See The Sign's Of The Low Men More Frequently, And Isn't Quite Convinced They Don't Exist Until He Finds A Lost Pet Poster With Brautigan's Name On It. Ted Now Knows They're Close, And In Order To Protect Bobby He Decides He Must Leave. But Before He Can He Makes One Last Stop At A Local Billard Club Where The Low Men Finally Catch Up With Him. Ted Reveals He's A Breaker, One Of Several Who Can Shut Down The Beams To The Tower. The Crimson King Needs Him To Break The Beam, So In Exchange For Bobby's Life, He Agrees To Go Willingly. A Process That May Save Them 50 Years. The Leader Of The Low Men, Cam, Decides To Give Bobby A Choice. Stay With His Beloved Friend Ted, Or Stay Here. Bobby, A Scared 11 Year Old Boy Decides To Stay, And Never See's Ted Again. But Before The Story Ends, Ted Sends Bobby a Letter. No Words, Just His Name On The Front Of The Envelope. And Contained Within, The Reddest, Sweetest Smelling Rose Petals Bobby Has Ever Seen.

Insomnia
Ralph Roberts Can't Sleep, And As A Result Starts Hallucinating. He Sees Auras Around People And Little Bald Men That Cut The Auras So The Dying Can Pass On To The Dead. There Are Three Doctors, Two End Suffering Of The Sick, (Purpose). And The Third Is More Chaotic, (Random). The Doctors Explain To Ralph That Life is Like A Tower. Human Beings And Other Short Timers Inhabit The First Levels Of The Tower, And Are Unknowing Of The Existance Of The Tower And Higher Levels. But, They Can Be Made To See, And Can Actually Be Brought Up To The Level Above Them. The Long-timers Do Their Work Among The Short-Timers, But Like The Short-timers, Are Prevented From Interacting With The All-timers Who Reside On The Highest Levels Of The Tower.

It Is Also Later Said There Are "Great Ones", People Destined To Change The World. A Little Boy Named Patrick Danville Is One Of These People. One Of The Minions Of The Tower Convinced A Man To Try And Blow Up A Colliseum For The Sole Purpose Of Killing Young Patrick. This "Crimson King" Wants Patric Dead Because 18 Years In The Future He Saves The Lives Of Two Men, Presumably Roland And Eddie. The Short Timers Have Enlisted The Help Of Ralph Roberts And Actually Bring Him Up To The Second Level Of The Tower So That He May Prevent Patrick From Dying, And Allow Him To Save The Lives Of The Two Men Who Will Continue Their Journey To The Tower.

As A Side Note, When Those Who Reside On The Lower Levels Are Brought Up To A Higher Level, Time Passes Much Faster On The Level Below. Several Days Or Even Years May Pass Over The Course Of Just A Few Minutes On A Higher Plain. This May Explain Why Roland's World "Moved On" After His Conversation With The Man In Black. At Any Rate, When Roland Returned From His Palaver There Was Nothing Left Of Walter But Bones.

Rose Madder
Rose Madder Is A Story About Rose Daniels And How She Decides To Leave Hey Abusive Husband. She Moves Far Away And Checks Into A Battered Shelter For Women. Along The Way She Buys A Strange Painting Of A Woman On A Hill That Seems To Appeal To Her. Soon After, Strange Things Start To Happen With The Painting. She Starts To Hear Crickets, Some Grass Falls Onto The Floor, And Strangely Enough The View Of The Painting Seems To Be Widening. One Night Rose Wanders Next To The Paiting And Is Actually Drawn In. Here In Another World, She Meets A Black Woman Named Dorcas, And The Woman From The Painting Dressed In A Red Robe So Dark It's Almost Purple. (Called Rose Madder) Both Women Appear To Suffer From A Disease Almost Like Radiation Sickness, And Has Somehow Made Them Both Infertile.

Rose Madder Tells Rosie That Whatever She Does For Her Will Be Repaid. She says What One Does For The Other, Shall Be Returned. That Is Their Ka. Rose Madder Wants Is For Her Baby To Be Returned. The Baby Is In A Maze On The Other Side Of The Temple. The Temple Is Guarded By A One Eyed Bull Named Eyrines. Although Blind, Should Dorcas Or Rose Madder Attempt A Rescue By Themselves, Eyrines Would Smell Their Disease And Kill Them. Rosie Accepts And Journey's Into The Palace, Crosses The River Of Forgetfulness Where Beyond Lies A Dead Garden With A Single Living Pomegranate Tree. She Collects Seeds To Mark Her Way Through The Maze.

Rose Eventually Defeats The Bull, Rescues The Baby And Returns It To Rose Madder. Dorcas Mentions She Has Seen Body's On Fire And Bore Witness To The Assault On Lud. Rosie Is Repaid In The End When Her Husband (Who Has Been Tracking Her Ever Since She Left) Is Lured Into The Painting Where He Mistakes Rose Madder For His Estranged Wife, And Rose Madder Turns Into A Belowing Creature And Kills Him. As A Side Note, Near The End Of The Book, Rosie Is Struck By The Same Paradox That Affected Roland In Book One Of The Gunslinger. Roland Had Two Memories, One Where He Had Met The Boy, And One Where He Had Not. Only Until He Prevents Jake's Death In Book Two Does He Realize He Made The Trip Alone, And Therefore Closed The Paradox. Rosie Plants A Pomegranate Seed In The Garden At The End Of The Book, And This Closes Her Paradox. She Was Struck With The Same Time Paradox Because On Her Original Journey, The Tree Was Not There.

The Talisman
The Talisman Is A Book About A Boy Named Jack Whose Mother Is Growing Sick. In Order To Save Her He Must Take A Journey From The East Coast Atlantic To The Pacific On Foot. He Is Given A Magic Potion That When Drunk Can Transport You To Another World. Jack Must Travel In This World Because It Is Much Smaller Than America. For every Hundred Feet He Takes There Equals Roughly 1000 Yards In Our World. There Are Also "Twinners" There. People, Although Very Few, That Are Almost Exactly Similar To Us In Reguards To Belief And Behavior. Jacks Mother Has A Twinner And Happens To Be The Queen Of The Territories. She Is Gravely Ill And In Order To Save Them Both Jack Must Seek Out The Talisman And Bring It Back To Her.

There Are Many People That Believe There Is No Direct Link Between The Talisman And The Dark Tower Series. I However Believe There Is, And That Is Why I'm Listing The Talisman In The "Other Books" Section. There Is One Sentence Within The Novel That Does Connect The Books, Or At Least Acknowledges It. (And To All The DT Site Owners, (NYA, NYA, I FOUND IT FIRST!!!) Totally Devoted To Giving You, The Constant DT Junky, The Absolute Best And Latest Information Available!!! ) Anyway, No More Public Service Announcements.

There Are Several Things That May Or May Not Point To A Connection. One Is The Territories Jack Travels Through Bears A Striking Resemblance To Roland's World. Several Times Within The Book King Mentions Several People's Eyes Changing Color. This In Itself May Mean Nothing, But Another May Be The Possibility That The Talisman Itself Is None Other Than One Of The Rainbow's Roland Talked About. I Believe He Said: (Don't Quote Me On This) There May Have Been As Many As Six. And Not All Were As Evil As Marilyn's, But All The Same As Mischevious And Addicting. Later On It also Refers To A Character As Being "Dim", A State In Which One Can Aceive Almost Invisibility. This Was Mentioned In "The Eyes Of The Dragon". The One Sentence That Directly Links The Talisman With The Dark Tower Series Is When Jack Is Confronted By A Man In The Book, He Asks Where Jack Is From. In So Doing He Rifles Off A List Of Places Trying To Coax Jack To Fess Up, And One Of The Places He Mentions Is Golgotha, Place Of The Skull. If You Remember Correctly, That's Where Roland Had His Palaver With The Man In Black In The Mountains.

Just As A Side Note, There Is Now A Sequel To The Talisman Also Co-Written By Peter Straub Due For Release In Mid September. As Said On Stephen King's Official Webpage The Second Book Entitled "Black House" Will Most Definately Give Us More Information On The Crimson King, Ted Brauttigan (From Low Men) And Breakers. You Can Find It In The Future Section Of Stephen's Site At www.stephenking.com. For All Those That Disbelieved The Connection Between The Talisman And The DT Series, I Stand Corrected. LONG LIVE THE FAITHFUL!!! MARILYNS RAINBOW ROCKS!!!

There Are Many Other Books Where King Suggests Hints Of His Other Books. In Hearts In Atlantis, Bobby Refers To The Low Men As "Regulators", And One Of The Sisters From "Little Sisters Of Eluria" Seems To Speak The Same Language As Tak, From Desperation. The Story Of Desperation Takes Place In Nevada, Near The Desatoya Mountains. In Little Sisters, "Eluria" Was Also Located In The Desatoya Mountains. And Another Interesting Tidbit, The Sisters Appear To Be Almost Vampire Like Demons That Suck The Blood From Their Prey. There Are Similar Creatures In Salem's Lot, And At The End Father Callahan Takes A Bus That Borders A Mid-World Land Called Thunderclap.

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