Yesterday, I finished my second trip to Stephen King’s Dark Tower. I completed my first go-around the day the last book was released as I read the volume in one sitting. This time, I took several months to get to the end courtesy of the audiobooks from Audible.com. I started “The Gunslinger” months ago, and worked my way steadily through the series an hour of reading at a time.

I was curious how this second pass through the series would fare. When I went through the first time, I was like a starving man finding a meal: I went through the books as fast as possible to find out what was in the top room of the Dark Tower. Now that I already knew how everything was going to play out (or did I?), I was able to patiently absorb the books in their entirety.

My verdict for the series is that it is still a landmark piece of American fiction, and may be this century’s best example of a fantasy epic. I think it’s better than Tolkien, Brooks, and everyone that came before. Rather than set the entire story in a faraway land, King deftly connects Roland’s world to our own through various doors throughout the series. This connection gives the Dark Tower a relevance and heft that is rarely found in books about brave warriors fighting dragons with their crafty elf companions. The Dark Tower is successful because it makes the Writer and Constant Reader characters in the vast cosmic drama.