In a very loose sense, it does. King himself said he used both as inspirations for it. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_%28series%29]The series was chiefly inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, whose full text was included in the final volume's appendix. In the preface to the revised 2003 edition of The Gunslinger, King also identifies The Lord of the Rings, Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as inspirations. He identifies Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as one of the major inspirations for the protagonist, Roland Deschain. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language abstract to our own (High Speech), are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.[/url] I'm a big fan of King, and as such, I read the prefaces. The story is captivating, if a little weird. But I still recommend it. Disregard everything xBADMAGIKx says, as he clearly does not know about which he speaks.