These books are my favourite series ever. The characters and settings are incredibly well fleshed out and the story itself is so huge and compelling, I read this entire series every few years. King has created something on par with “The Lord of the Rings” with this story. If you love well written sci-fi, fantasy type novels, give these a go, they are amazing. As for the film that is now splattered all over the cover, from the looks of it, it has almost nothing in common with the books. I know I won't be seeing it as I am worried that it is going to ruin my love of the books.