Is it true that he has retired? When asked on a recent episode of The View about his plans to retire, Stephen said that he has enough projects to keep him busy for the next 2 years and that he'll make a decision about retiring then. Don't worry, folks, finishing The Dark Tower books is first on the "to do list" during this next 2 years.Posted: 25 February 2002That hasn't happened yet. There are still books coming out through both Scribner and Pocket Books and plans to complete The Dark Tower series, so there will be new books for several more years to come. (Information originally posted in 1997)

Still, as King says, the ''Dark Tower'' books may be the most fitting place to end. When it's all said and done, the gunslinger saga will weigh in at nearly 5,000 pages. It's like King's ''Remembrance of Things Past,'' only with a much higher body count. ''This finishes it,'' he insists. ''It's the sequel to everything. And in a sense, once these books are done, there's nothing else to say.''

I started writing the Dark Tower when I was still in college. It's been a major part of my life and my writing career. I wanted to finish it both for the readers, who have been so devoted, and for myself. In the upcoming books you'll meet new characters and you'll see familiar faces like Ted Brautigan from Hearts in Atlantis, Father Callahan from Salem's Lot…even Dinky Earnshaw from Everything's Eventual. For me, it's like a finale and a reunion, all at once. I've put everything I've got into these three books, and I think it shows. I can say something about them I've only been able to say about a handful of my previous novels: They work, they're good, and I'm proud to have written them

Amazon.com: Your publisher mentions J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books as a comparison to the Dark Tower series. Do you see them that way too?King: For me, I would say that starting the thing, there were a lot of young fantasy writers at the end of the '60s and in the early '70s who were influenced by those books. Robert Jordan is one. Terry Brooks is another one. Stephen Donaldson would be a third one and the list goes on and one. I was one of those writers who read those books and was just knocked out by the magic of the stories, by the idea of the quest, and just by the scope, the broadness of it, by how long it took to tell the tales and how thrilling they were. And I said, I want to write something like that. When I was in the process of writing the first one I said, you know you've got to be really really careful here or else you'll find yourself duplicating what Tolkien did. And I didn't want to do that. But I did love the idea of the quest, of trying to go somewhere far, far away in order to set things right. I wanted it to be more closely tied to our world. I didn't want it to be entirely a fantasy world. I wanted it to have a connection with our own world. So that's sort of what I did.

Prologue: RoontPart one: Todash  Chapter I: The Faceon the WaterChapter II: New York GrooveChapter III: Mia  Chapter IV: PalaverChapter V: OverholserChapter VI: The Way of the EldChapter VII: TodashPart two: Telling TalesChapter I: The PavilionChapter II: Dry TwistChapter III: The Priest's Tale (New York)Chapter IV: The Priest's Tale Continued (Highways in Hiding)Chapter V: The Tale of Gray DickChapter VI: Gran-pere's TaleChapter VII: Nocturne, HungerChapter VIII: Tooke's Store; The Unfound DoorChapter IX: The Priest's Tale Concluded (Unfound)Part three: The WolvesChapter I: Secrets  Chapter II: The Dogan, Part 1Chapter III: The Dogan, Part 2Chapter IV: The Pied PiperChapter V: The Meeting of the FolkenChapter VI: Before the StormChapter VII: The WolvesEpilogue: The Doorway CaveFrom Publishers Weekly"Time is a face on the water," stretching and contorting reality as gunslingers Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and their talking pet "billy-bumbler" Oy continue their quest to prevent the destruction of the Dark Tower and, consequently, save all worlds from Chaos and the Crimson King's evil, red-eyed glare. Roland-the primary hero of King's epic tale, the first volume of which appeared in 1982-and company momentarily fall off the "Path of The Beam" to help the residents of Calla Bryn Sturgis, a farm town. But as Dark Tower fans know, everything follows The Beam, so what looks like a detour may really serve the will of "ka" (destiny). Roland and his posse learn that every 20-odd years the "Wolves" kidnap one child from each set of the Calla's twins, bring them to the Tower and, weeks later, send them back mentally and physically impaired. Meanwhile, back in 1977 New York City (the alternate world of Roland's surrogate son, Jake), bookstore owner Calvin Tower is being threatened by a group of thugs (readers will recognize them from The Drawing of the Three, 1987) to sell them a vacant lot in midtown Manhattan. In the lot stands a rose, or rather the Rose, which is our world's manifestation of the Dark Tower. With the help of the Old Fella (also known to `Salem's Lot readers as Father Callahan), the gunslingers must devise a plan against evil in both worlds. The task, however, is further complicated as Roland and his gang start noticing behavioral changes in wheelchair-bound, recovered schizophrenic Susannah. As the players near the Tower, readers will keep finding exciting ties between the Dark Tower universe and King's other books, with links to Black House, Insomnia, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Stand, `Salem's Lot and Hearts in Atlantis. The high suspense and extensive character development here (especially concerning Jake's coming-of-age), plus the enormity of King's ever-expanding universe, will surely keep his "Constant Readers" in awe.