In my review I mention the fact that a Denver Starbucks features–impossibly–in an inset tale set in 1980; after writing the review the first weekend in September and sending it off, I then saw a similar criticism at The Complete Review. They subsequently offered the following update (I’ve taken some liberties with the formatting, for clarification of what’s quoted from where):
Update: The official Stephen King site offers a Continuity Clarification from Stephen (scroll down to 7 October entry):
"The review of The Colorado Kid in today’s issue of today’s USA Today mentions that there was no Starbucks in Denver in 1980. Don’t assume that’s a mistake on my part. The constant readers of the Dark Tower series may realize that that is not necessarily a continuity error, but a clue."
If it is a clue, we still can’t figure out for what.
I can’t figure it out either (and haven’t read the Dark Tower at all, let alone being a constant reader).
Surely someone out there knows the answer? (If you don’t, I’ll have to stop thinking of you as All Knowing and All Powerful.
Maybe the clue is just “it’s alternate.” In which case: lame clue.
I knew King was busy tying all his books to the Dark Tower series, but I thought he’d finished doing that with the publication of the last one. (I’ve only read the first four and haven’t read The Colorado Kid, so I don’t honestly know.)
Thanks, Gwenda! Clayton had a good answer just now, which I’m pasting in below:
“The Dark Tower series ties together all of Steven Kings works in a multiverse. The real Steven King lives in the “keystone” world, our world, and he has actually written himself into the Dark Tower series as as an important part of reality.
“Anyways, the thing he may be hinting at is that since each of the multiverse’s universes has its own unique timeline, the story takes place on an alternate earth, not ours.”
(And http://surrealu.blogspot.com/ is the link for Clayton’s blog.)
Like I said…