10 Novels Strongly Connected To Stephen King's The Dark Tower

6. Hearts In Atlantis

Hearts in Atlantis is a 1999 collection of two King novellas and three short stories, the first and fifth of of which (Low Men in Yellow Coats and Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling), were made into the Anthony Hopkins film Hearts in Atlantis. It is these two stories - and mainly Low Men in Yellow Coats - that are connected to the overall Dark Tower universe. Low Men are the can-toi, first mentioned in Desperation: not quite human, and eventually discovered to have the faces of rats.

One of the main characters, Ted Braughtigan, befriends a young boy named Bobby - and Bobby later discovers him to be psychic. Braughtigan is, in fact, a breaker, one who the Crimson King has his can-toi foot soldiers out searching for. Though Ted is eventually captured, he later sends Bobby an envelope full of rose petals from the base of the Dark Tower, letting the child know that he has escaped.

In a series of stories set in the '60s/Vietnam era, these terms might seem out of place, but King manages to tie them in rather delicately, so they work - though the film version would remove all references to The Dark Tower and change the destinies of the characters.