I think Lilja's Library has the best reviews of King's work. He reviews. . . everything! Check out his insights on the Cemetery Dance edition of King's Poem, The Dark Man at liljas-library.com
Lilja advises constant readers to read the book several times, promising we will find new things each time. He calls the work a compliment to the entire series, noting, "It shows you where King’s quest for The Dark Tower started and how it has evolved."
Now, I'll grant you that I don't have a copy of this book yet, so let's bear that in mind over the next few sentences.
ReplyDeleteBUT, I have read the poem, and in no way does it have anything to say about where the "quest for The Dark Tower" started. There's stuff in it that could arguably be seen as the genesis of the Randall Flagg character, but that bears more on "The Stand" than on "The Dark Tower." And even that element is iffy.
Like I said, I've not seen the actual book yet, but my familiarity with the poem tells me that it'll be the illustrations that make it special (or not); the poem itself is unlikely to be of much interest to anyone who isn't a King completist.