The 3rd Dark Tower book by Stephen King. The Waste Lands. Came out in 1991 and ends with the main characters trapped on a psychotic AI monorail who challenges them to a riddle contest for their lives.

The fourth book, Wizard and Glass, wouldn't come out until 1997. SIX YEARS LATER.

Now, with any other author, it wouldn't be a big deal, but this is Stephen King we're talking about.

Between book 3 and book 4 he published 8 OTHER books.

Needful Things
Gerald's Game
Dolores Claiborne
Insomnia
Rose Madder
The Green Mile
Desperation
The Regulators

Of those, Insomnia, Rose Madder, Desperation and the Regulators touched on the Dark Tower universe, so it's like he was fucking with us. ;)

Book 4 finally comes out, he promises to write books 5, 6 and 7 "without getting up to go to the bathroom", and he gets hit by an idiot in a van and is damn near killed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King

The 5th book wouldn't appear until 2003, naturally after King wrote five other books, but at least 4 didn't have a cliffhanger.

[–] Don_Dickle@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Well at least the books I have read don't suck. And he does not seem to be going downhill IMO

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Some of his books just aren't very good. I loved the concept of Under the Dome, but the villains were so cartoonish I just couldn't take them seriously and I skipped whole chapters to get back to the protagonists.

Cell was a great concept, an alien signal spread via cell towers turns people into zombies, but it literally has no ending. It's like King went "Oh, shit, deadline is today? Eh, fuck it, ship it. Good enough!"

But man, when he's on point with stuff like It, the Stand, Insomnia, the Dark Tower? Hard to touch.

[–] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I often wonder how The Dark Tower reads on a different turn of Ka's wheel where he didn't get hit by that van and if it would be better or worse for it.

Still I love the dark tower we got for the most part :D

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

The one thing I noticed about 5-7, there are no flashbacks to young Roland and Gilead. I kind of missed that.

[–] Elkenders@feddit.uk 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I found the first dark tower a bit of a slog. Worth me making a start on the second you think?

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

See, for me, I still think the first one is the best of all of them. :) But the 2nd book introduces more regular characters.

Did you at least get to the bit with young Roland and his falcon? Such a brilliant story.

[–] adhocfungus@midwest.social 2 points 3 months ago

I know some people didn't like it, but I thought the resolution to the monorail riddle contest was genius (or technically the opposite). Very satisfying.