Stephen King, The Dark Tower: Gunslinger

This book was awesome. i recommend it t anyone and everyone who can A: read; and B: Breath with out the aid of an iron lung. seriously folks, this book came close to makeing me want to find stephen king just to shake his hand, then go back without so much as an Orange Julious (although on second thoughts thats not a bad idea)

The Dark Tower took me a long time to get through but has been worth it. I just finished reading it last night and overall it was good. Read it! The style is very different form Stephen King's usual but leaves you wondering and wanting for more. If you're going to read this then be prepared. Once you read one you will end up reading all of them. There are seven volumes. It took SK 20 years to write it so how long will it take you to read it. Read the book, not later but now. Get to the bookstore, library and read the damn thing. If you're new to the world of SK then welcome.

I would recommend this book because it is the first book in a wonderful series. It's kind of weird, but believe me, it's worth it to just keep reading.

This is a fantastic book to start a fantastic series. What's challenging about it is that much of it sets up Books 2, 3 and 4 and some readers want more instant gratification in their read.

In 'The Gunslinger', Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey into good and evil, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own. In his first step towards the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower, Roland encounters an alluring woman named Alice, begins a friendship with Jake, a kid from New York, and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Man in Black.

'The Gunslinger' is the first instalment from Stephen King's fantasy epic series 'The Dark Tower'. Written over a period of almost 30 years, over seven books, spanning a total of 3712 pages, this really is an epic saga.

This is the shortest book of the series, lasting for a mere 238 pages. The book introduces the reader to Roland (the Gunslinger) whose journey to reach the dark tower is first set in motion.

The novel builds up slowly, allowing the reader to become accustomed to King's Dark Tower world. Characterization takes on an important role throughout the novel, getting the reader to know and feel for Roland and the few other characters that appear in the pages. With the journey the reader is taken on through the seven books, this first novel does the task of setting the scene and introducing the complex and original character of Roland perfectly. The book is often described as the prologue to the series, which seems a suitable comment to make.

As a stand alone novel, 'The Gunslinger' is a rather slow and laborious novel, that gradually builds to the next platform of the saga. But the book is an important introduction to this gripping epic, giving you a good entrance to the series.

The new and revised version of this book includes the story having been expanded and revised along with a sixteen page Introduction and Forward, as well as a 28 page excerpt from the beginning of the second book in the series 'The Drawing Of The Three'.

Well, feel like I will be swimming against the tide with this review. I was very much a fan of Stephen King's earlier works but had not read much in recent years. Last was Dreamcatcher which was great.

Had seen the Dark Tower series in recent times on the bookshelves but wasn't really motivated to buy into it as I didn't really see Stephen King as a fantasy series writer, which is what I thought this was. My wife however, bought me "The Gunslinger" (the amended versions with the forward from Stephen King himself) so I decided to give it a go.

Well ... have to say I was very disappointed. Was tempted to give it away several times but persevered, thinking that it just had to get better. It didn't.

I found the style of writing difficult to read, with rather long and whimsical sentences. Almost an attempt to impress with literary artistry, which is something that I thought King deliberately tried to avoid in his story telling. This might have been ok if the story itself had been interesting, but I really struggled to understand what was going on.

Roland's our gunslinger and the story starts in a Western setting. He's pursuing the man in black. Don't know why. Fair enough maybe we'll find out as we read on. We get many flashbacks to Roland's childhood, which seem to be set in some sort of middle ages environment. I say "seem to" because I couldn't really work it out. Then to top it off, we have the arrival of Jake seemingly from modern times. OK well I'm really quite lost now. Where the hell are we, what time is it and what is the point of chasing the man in black and seeking the Dark Tower?

Without giving too much away, the ending of the book gives no answers to these mixed setting questions and the encounter with the man in black results in more questions than answers. As for the Dark Tower there is more flesh put on the bones of this mysterious plot object, but it has a Science Fiction taste. So again I am confused about what genre this book is trying to be. If it is trying to be a mixed genre, then ok, but give us some more meaning so we can understand this.

I can deal with a certain lack of explanation and understanding, but I'm afraid this book is way out there. So, very sorry to say that this is the first Stephen King book that I have not liked. As a result I just don't have the motivation to read the next book in the series, because I fear that it will be much of the same.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Tower: Gunslinger. The world that Stephen King created is amazing. Ok I will sum the book up for you. There is a gunslinger, which is something like a western day sheriff, he is chasing a man in black across a vast desert. In his journey he runs into a town named Tull and there he meets Allie. The man in black later named Walter O' Dim left a trap for the gunslinger,Roland. Walter brought a man back from the dead and told Allie the # 19 would unlock all his secrets about the afterlife. Well needless to say he kills everyone in town including Allie and meets Jake and gets to the man in black

Before I start the review properly, I'm going to let you in on the (not so) secret fact, that I am a huge fan of the works of Stephen King, and have read almost everything he has ever written (including some non-fiction). After reading that statement, you might be surprised that until this month I had never managed to read any of the books in the Dark Tower series. But it's true, I'm not really sure why I hadn't, I suppose part of it is that I like my books to be as self-contained as possible, and another part was that the series isn't actually complete as yet. However, the main reason was that I was very reluctant to pay the asking price of £6.99 for this, the first, relatively short book in the series. After finding this book and the second on a second-hand market stall for the princely price of 50p each, I finally took the plunge, and in a way I'm only sorry that I hadn't taken the plunge any earlier.

Onto the review, and what better place to start than with the opening sentence, which has to be one of the best King has ever written...

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

...Such a simple statement, but one that immediately left me hooked and wanting the answers to some questions...

"Who is the man in black? Why is he fleeing? And while we're at it, who is the gunslinger, and why is he following the man in black?"

As the book progresses these questions are answered (well some of them), while yet more are asked, as we follow one man as he begins his search for "The Dark Tower", why he's searching for the Dark Tower, or indeed what The Dark Tower actually is, are questions that are never answered (in this book at least).

Now I'm going to try to give as little as possible away about either the plot or characters here, as I found not having a clue about what was happening at the start of the book enhanced the reading experience, so I'm not going to tell you who either the Man in Black or Gunslinger actually are, or why one is following the other. What I'm going to focus on is the actual writing style so here goes...

Although I found The Gunslinger to be very readable, and enjoyed the use of flash backs to discover more about the main characters (and the answers to some of the questions the first sentence left me with), I wasn't surprised to find that the book had been written over a large number of years. I found the earlier sections of the book, to be fresher and somehow more naive than the final sections, and during the very first section it felt as if King really wasn't sure where the story was going. While reading, it really did feel as if King himself was searching for the very same answers that I, the reader was, and I found this very refreshing. To be honest I'm not even sure whether King even knew whether the story was set in our world (in a post apocalyptic state), or just in one that was just very similar to ours. There are many references to our culture, and yet, it's never quite our culture, there were times when I was actually quite confused, but never fear, there are some answers as the book draws to a close.

One thing that differs considerably in this book to many other of King's works is the length and amount of "waffle". At only 206 pages, it's considerably shorter than most of his novels, and shorter even than some of his longer short stories. This not only means that it is a quick read, but also that there is less unnecessary over-description (there is still enough description for your mouth to feel dry as you follow the protagonists across the desert). So if you baulked at the 1000 odd pages of The Stand, then maybe this is the King for you.

Now how to discuss the characters, without giving anything away...

Most of the characters I met throughout the book are only there to enhance the story, and have no real life of their own. The focus is really on one character, and he is well-drawn, if not particularly likable. Through flash-backs to his childhood, and even the weeks before, I found out why he is the way he is, and learned a little about the world in which he grew up, but I never really got to know him inside-out (so to speak), not that this was a bad thing, as it just added to the sense of mystery.

Surprisingly, for King, this is not a horror novel, I would put it more into the fantasy genre, albeit one with a slightly western slant. As the book continued, I began to get a sense that King had almost decided the direction he was going to take, there were a few scenes that felt a little forced, and I was disappointed that at one point he veered away from what had been a purely fantasy piece into the realms of horror, but I guess he couldn't help himself, horror is what he's best known for. This is, however, an adult book, not due to any difficulty the younger reader might have, but due to some of the subject matter. Sex is mentioned, not graphically (or in a Mills & Boon type way, it's more matter of fact), but it is there, as is violent death; so if you don't like reading about such things, then steer clear.

So far I have been pretty complimentary about this book, but I'm now going to be the opposite and tell you what I didn't like. Which was that it is not self-contained, I understand that it is merely the first part of an epic, but I do prefer to have all the answers when I've finished the last page. There are fantasy epics around that succeed in this respect, with each novel comprising of a self-contained chapter in the series, and with no need to read the succeeding books. But this isn't one of them, and I really don't like the fact that if I want my questions answered I'm going to have to read the next in the series (and probably the ones after that).

Right, so the questions are...

Did I enjoy this book? Yes, it was a fairly easy read, and once hooked, I finished it over the course of a couple of evenings, I really did want to find out the answers to the questions posed.

Is it worth the price? Well it's definitely worth the 50p I paid for it, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it's worth the £6.99 RRP.

Am I recommending it? Again yes, but to the King fans out there, don't expect any vampires or real monsters, as this is more like The Stand than 'Salem's Lot or IT. I would also say that it should also appeal to anybody who enjoys fantasy novels, such as those of Brooks or Tolkien.

---Technical Bits---

ISBN: 0340829753

Publisher: New English Library

No. Pages: 304 (this is a slightly different copy to mine with more pages)

Price: £6.39 from Amazon (UK)

Apparently there are links between The Dark Tower series and many other King novels, personally I didn't see any in this book, but I may be wrong.

Stephen King, The Dark Tower: Gunslinger - Good opening book to a fantastic series by the master horror/sci-fi writer. The book starts quite slowly but the Tull battle at the beginning and the flashbacks to Roland's youth (specifically the fight with his teacher) are fantastic. The story whets the appetite for the future series.