Stephen King's The Dark Tower Series

Okay, so I stopped reading Stephen King almost 10 years ago. I felt that every story was just a different (very slight) twist on the same theme. Something about an ancient supernatural entity or force, something about an imminent catastrophe, something about a person who sees things that others don't, something about a kid. It got redundant.
Don't get me wrong, I loved It, and Insomnia, and Salem's Lot, and The Shining, and Four Past Midnight, and the list does go on.
But you know ...
Two friends of mine insisted that I read The Dark Tower series. And they were adamant. They said it was the ultimate Stephen King experience. They said that the mythos was enormous and impressive. They admitted that the first two books were slow, but that the story picked up fast after that, and was well worth the time.
And they were absolutely right.
The first two books were slow, but the story picked up speed fast, and charged full steam to its conclusion. The mythos is enormous and impressive, and rivals any created by Tolkein or Rowling or C.S. Lewis. The main character is one that you aren't sure whether or not you should like as much as you do. But he's awesome - an old-school western Gunslinger with a bit of the fantastical thrown in. Think Clint Eastwood on crack and lost in Narnia. The story deals with everything from a post-apocalyptic wasteland, to royal bloodlines and knights errant, to time travel, to the consequences of messing with a multiverse, to friendship and love, death and loss, duty and honor, to inserting an author into his own work and having way too much fun with it, to saving the world itself.
It's awesome.
Stephen King fan or not. Burned out on Stephen King or not - pick it up. It's well worth the time.