“But he reacted really favorably and just immediately made what I did so much better just blending stuff in and just adding little details and grace notes.”
I might be doing my 50 pages over again,’ ” Chizmar says with a laugh. “I thought: ‘Oh man, that is really sacred ground. They trade chunks of pages, improving and polishing each other’s work as they go, though Chizmar does recall being “a little nervous” taking the plot through Derry. Plotting those connections ahead of time isn’t how King and Chizmar write together, however.
In 'Gwendy's Final Task,’ the Dark Tower comes forward more than it does in some of the other works. “Everything that I've written for a long, long time has always been with the tower in the corner of my eye.
“I like stories that seem to fit into a bigger pattern, and for me, this one was part of it,” King says. Ranked: The very best and worst Stephen King movies The book also ties into King’s other works: Part of it takes place in Derry, the Maine locale of the Losers Club and Pennywise in “It,” and the Dark Tower on the “Final Task” cover alludes to its connection to King's sprawling fantasy series and the title structure that connects all worlds. GWENDY'S FINAL TASK Audiobook Excerpt - Chapter 1.It also tackles themes of consequence and temptation as Gwendy develops Alzheimer’s as a result of the button box. “Her mental deterioration, it was almost like the perfect ticking clock,” Chizmar says. “Final Task” brings in elements of our world, from the pandemic to modern politics. “And the answer seemed clear: The only place to really get rid of something for good is the universe.”Īdds Chizmar: “I think we both kind of fell in love with Gwendy again.” “I thought to myself, the way to – pun intended – button this up is Gwendy's gotta get rid of the button box,” King says. In 2026, Gwendy is a Maine senator when the dangerous box comes back into her life, as well as the evil that wants it, so she joins a space mission to take care of it once and for all. Stephen King: Author talks kid protagonists and storytelling during COVID-19īut King and Chizmar have teamed up again for the closing chapter, “Gwendy’s Final Task” (out in hardcover Tuesday via Cemetery Dance Publications, and Simon and Schuster audiobook). When King was busy with other work, Chizmar took the reins for 2019’s “Gwendy’s Magic Father,” which catches up with Gwendy as a 37-year-old newly elected congresswoman having to return to her hometown. The 2017 novella “Gwendy’s Button Box” introduced 12-year-old Gwendy, who's growing up in King’s old haunts of Castle Rock in 1974 when she meets a man in a black suit and is given a mysterious mahogany box with buttons that, when pushed, produce treats or death and destruction. As the legendary horror author puts it, she was "dying in a desk drawer" in his Maine office until fellow writer Richard Chizmar came along and saved her.īecause “Gwendy just did not want to die,” King says, she became the catalyst and central figure of a book trilogy written by the two friends that travels the far reaches of the Stephen King Universe. Among prestigious awards, he is a recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.Unlike Stephen King’s many other protagonists, Gwendy Peterson didn’t face the existential threat of a killer dog, demonic clown or alcoholic innkeeper.
Stephen King is the author of more than 50 novels, many of them works of horror and all of them worldwide best sellers. Like his predecessor, Guidall masterfully voices the intrigue, adventure, and danger of The Dark Tower. George Guidall, a prolific Audie Award-winning narrator, took over the series after Muller’s death. Frank Muller, an acclaimed master of narration and Audie Award winner, was hand-picked by King to read his books, and here he pulls out all the stops. Two masters of narration, personally chosen by Stephen King, command this epic series. In seven volumes written over a 30-year span, The Dark Tower follows Roland on his quest through parallel worlds and into the unimaginable, encountering unexpected allies and evil forces along the way. Roland sets out in search of the Dark Tower, the nexus of the universe, which, he believes, holds the key to the world’s unsettling state. Roland of Gilead is the last gunslinger to walk the earth before the world “moved on” to raging wars, vanishing cities, and oddly flowing time. Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower masterfully mixes horror, fantasy, and the Wild West!