Many King fans have made clear their stance that every book he has written is connected to the Dark Tower. Personally, I don't share that opinion. I realize he has stated before that every book he has written has been in a way a Dark Tower story but I don't think he meant it quite as literally as many have taken it. 

For me, when you look outside the seven books that make up the series, there are two categories of books. The first would be Tower-adjacent books. These are the ones in which characters from the series appear or there are blatant references made to the Tower universe.  The best example of this would be Insomnia, which features several key Tower characters making appearances and the book itself actually appears as an important object in the series. Other examples would be Black House as well as short stories like Low Men In Yellow Coats, Everything's Eventual and The Little Sisters of Eluria.

These are examples where the connection to the Tower series is put right in your face. There's no denying it and there's no explanation required.

The second category would basically be all the rest of his books. There may be winks here and there that are sent in the general direction of the Dark Tower but for the most part, I don't think King intended these as any more than references as surprises for his most devoted fans. For as much as some people will characterize a book as being connected to the Dark Tower, in my opinion, more often than not, these connections are pretty superficial and not particularly relevant to the plot of the book in question, let alone to the Dark Tower series.

My litmus test is pretty straight forward. If you have to go into an extensive explanation or draw a flowchart as to why any given book is connected to the Dark Tower, I don't tend to agree. Many times, people will classify a book as being a part of the Dark Tower story but when you get into the actual book, there is little more than a line on one page that makes the connection and even then, the connection is one that you have to do some work yourself. Often I feel like some Constant Readers stretch the actual text of the books way beyond the obvious meaning and twist the content of it to make it fit into King's larger universe.

And please understand that I'm not criticizing. If anything, I am just as guilty of incorporating my own head canon into Stephen King's books. I absolutely believe in everyone's right to make whatever they want out of these books. The best part about reading is that stories that begin in the mind of the author end in the mind of the reader. My experience with the Dark Tower is my own and everyone else's experience is none of my damn business. I'm just offering this up as a blueprint to how I see the Dark Tower in relation to King's body of work.

When Gwendy's Button Box was released, years ago, I had the sneaking suspicion that things might be heading in a direction that could be relevant to the Dark Tower and the worlds beyond this one. From the moment Gwendy first meets Richard Farris and he invites her to sit down and have a palaver with him. "Palaver" is a word used commonly in the series, by Roland specifically. Granted, it's a little thing but it was enough of a trigger to leave me thinking in that direction.

And then there is Richard Farris, himself. The initials "RF" carry a special place in the Tower universe, namely for none other than the Walking Dude, himself, Randall Flagg. Also known as Richard Fannin. Also known as Richard Faraday. And so forth. And Richard Farris does seem to put on display the same kinds of powers we see from Flagg.

Does that mean that Richard Farris is actually Randall Flagg? I'm not sure about that. While the connection seems undeniable, he also seems to be on the wrong side of things in his allying with Gwendy. Richard Farris seems to be far and away more benign than we have seen from any iterations of the Man in Black before. So if I had to pick a position, I would guess that maybe Richard Farris and Randall Flagg are a part of a same species, not unlike the Q Continuum in Star Trek. Similar abilities but different motives. 

Will this ever be resolved? 

Who knows? King does seem to have a fondness for leaving things open ended and he doesn't always make things simple for us. So this could be left forever within the realm of fan speculation. But literally anything could happen. Before these books, I never would have guessed I would again see the Dark Tower as a part of a Stephen King book so maybe there will be more to come.

Regardless, when the cover image was released for the third book in the trilogy and it sported a clear rendering of the Dark Tower in the background, I got pretty excited. And getting into the book, seeing the appearance of the Tet and Sombra corporations demonstrate that the conflict around the Dark Tower carries on. And evidently Gwendy has been recruited as another gunslinger of a type to fight for the existence of that Tower. She gets to join the ranks of so many other amazing characters that have stood true against the darkness and fought for the existence and preservation of all levels of the Tower.

The greedy side of me still clings to the hope that one day we might get just one more full-blown Dark Tower novel, maybe one last ride for the fabled gunslingers of old.

If Ka wills it.

For the time being, Gwendy's Final Task has been a brilliant dipping of the toes back into a beloved universe and I am extremely grateful for having had the chance to go there.

Until next time, Mid-World waits for us all.