Satisfactory
Notes: A discordant blend of flowery, terse and vulgar prose, difficult to follow and insufficient in explaining new concepts.
The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed,
Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, is on a quest for the Dark Tower, a mysterious edifice that is the axle of worlds and holds all existence together.
In this, the first volume, Roland pursues his nemesis across the Mohaine Desert, He follows the man in black's trail to a little town called Tull, then through more desert, encountering a boy named Jake from our world, and then into the mountains.
Will Roland finally catch his archnemesis after years of pursuing him And what means will he go to to achieve his goal
When I first picked up this book, I had no idea it would shoot to the top of my favorites list.
I wolfed down the first four books in three weeks, then entered an agonizing period of waiting for the last three to be published, I think I've read the first four books five or six times each, The whole Dark Tower series, while on the surface a fantasywestern, is really the story of one man's obsession, In this volume, we get a hint of what Roland will do to get to the Dark Tower,
The writing is great and it warmed me up to Stephen King, Roland's world is unique. Part fantasy, part western, part postapocalypse, While it's the first book in a series, it's quite satisfying to read on its own,
If your looking with fantasy with a different flavor, look no further,
Additional Thoughts from the Aprilreread:
Some of the additions in the revised edition of this book were muchneeded and brought the first book into synch with the later ones.
Others seemed a little hamfisted and took away a bit of Roland's mystique,
Additional Thoughts from thereread:
In the forward, King mentioned he pushed everything else aside to finish the last three books because he felt like he had a sense of responsibility to his readers.
If only George R. R. Martin felt that way
It is mentioned that Roland is the kind of man who straightens pictures in strange hotel rooms, Is this a hint of his obsessiveness
I notice something new every time I read this book, If I had to pick one book that made me want to write, it would be this one,
All I could think throughout this book was what the hell am I reading!
This western fantasy has to be the most confusing book Ive read in a long time.
Some parts were more interesting than others but overall I was very disappointed,
After hearing everyone rave about this series I have a hard time understanding why, I dont believe it would be this popular if it wasnt for Stephen Kings name on it, There I said it!
I didnt like the story very much nor the writing,
I had been warned that the first book wasnt as great as the others but Im currently not in a rush to continue.
An intriguing book, it draws the reader in little by little,
It is fantastic, imaginative, . . but inconsistent. Amid moments of brilliance there are also islands of abstraction so murky, almost Kafkaesque in absurdity, that I could not follow, But it is interesting enough that I will probably read the sequels,
Of course that is another detraction, this book does not stand alone but leaves the reader with many questions unanswered, Fun questions that lead the reader to seek further, but a work of literature should be able to be read alone with obvious, but genius exceptions!.
The ideas of alternate realities and worlds
within worlds are very interesting and King may be uniquely qualified, as a literary descendant of Lovecraft, Matheson and Blackwood to pull it off.
amendment
"The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed, " The iconic opening lines have stayed with me for a couple of years and I find myself thinking about this series, and more specifically, what have I missed Hundreds of thousands of people love this series and I am left on the outside looking in.
I think when I first read this I was put off by the purely fantastic setting, but now, maybe three years after I read the first, I am ready to return and give this another try.
This series brings out so many mixed emotions from me, When I first read this, I thought I'd missed the boat and was going to be on the outside looking in, Years later I started the rest of the series, but I take these books slow, I like / love / dislike his writing here, but keep coming back, I just started Wizard and Glass, the fourth in the series, almost nine years after reading this one, So I'm reading on the pace of how he published these!
This book is something of an oddity, That being, the first time I read it, I would probably have given itstars, and felt quite generous doing so, It was really "meh" and though I was a King fan, I wasn't pleased with it after the hype, I even delayed reading Bookfor awhile because I was somewhat turned off, I didn't hate it, but it left me ambivalent for the most part,
But this is definitely a book that gets better with time, with rereadings, and with the rest of the series, The second time I read it, I probably would have rated itstars, and this was after reading Booksandand preparing for the release of Book.
By this time, I was in love with the series,
I read it again just before Bookscame out in fairly quick succession, And yes, by then it had earned thestar rating you see here, For this fourth read of The Gunslinger, I'm enchanted with it even more than before,
On it's own, the book doesn't do much for me, But when you combine it with the entire series, wow! It's the essential beginning to the essential fantasy series of my generation, The Dark Tower is truly better than the sum of its parts, And as the first part, this thing is the motor that keeps the car running,
"The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed, " sitelink
INTRODUCTION:
A few things you should know before deciding how helpful this review will be for you.
.
.
.
I think the Dark Tower series as a whole is a staggering achievement and belongs in any discussion without qualification of the “Greatest Fantasy Series of All Time.
”
There are no spoilers in this review but I have read the series twice all the way through and am doing a third reading as part of a group read this month.
Therefore, my review is colored by my knowledge of how the rest of the series is, Hence, I only give this bookbecause in comparison to the rest of the series, I thought this book was by far the weakest.
In a vacuum, I would have probably given thisdue to the “Chilly Palmer/Josey Wales” awesomeness of the character of Roland,
Roland Deschain is THE MAN and belongs among the truly ICONIC figures inth century literature and is certainly among my top ten favorite characters of all time.
I think this is even more astounding given the Roland himself was initially patterned on the classic, iconic western gunfighter, Yet, through the series, I thought he grew beyond his original programming and became a truly unique figure,
I have read a number of Stephen King books beyond the Dark Tower series and have really liked some The Stand, The Green Mile, The Night Shift and really disliked some Dreamcatcher, Cujo and The Dark Half.
I just wanted to be clear that I like Stephen King but am not a “everything he writes is gold” fanboy, . beyond the Dark Tower series that is,
I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the ending of the series dont worry, no spoilers, I can not think of a better way to have ended this epic series and believe that it created a much more powerful memory of the journey through allbooks.
I think Stephen King should be applauded for allowing the story to take on such “MYTHIC” importance as I think he achieved with the way he ended this series.
I know that MANY and I mean MANY disagree with me on this one and I can understand where they are coming from, psssst however, just between us, they are all wrong and Im rightbut shhhhhh,
I have listened to allbooks are audio the firstread by the late Frank Muller and the lastread by George Guidall.
I believe that anyone who has read the books and not listened to these stories on audio is REALLY MISSING SOMETHING WONDERFUL, Those who have listened to the “Dune” series on audio can understand the incredible quality and enhancement that a superb reading of a great story can bring.
.
.
.
As mentioned in the above introduction, this book only getsfrom me, In large part this is due to both the quality of the later books and also the fact that it is plagued by some inconsistencies that arose due to changes that King made in the later books.
I applaud King for going back and rewriting this story to resolve these conflicts, but I still think this book suffers from the fact that King did not know how LARGE the story would become when he wrote this.
That said, this book is an absolute essential read as it introduced the world to Roland Deschain of Gilead, Son of Steven, Gunslinger, Champion of the White, Descendant of the line of Arthur Eld, Bane of the Man in Black and Seeker of the Dark Tower.
How best to describe Roland Physically, he was inspired by Clint Eastwoods “The Man with No Name” and so a younger Clint Eastwood is an excellent way to visualize him.
sitelink
.
.
.
From there, you need to mix in a little MYSTICAL TEACHER/WARRIOR/MASTER SLOGAN DISPENSER:
sitelink ,
.
.
.
Add a helping of NOBLE KNIGHT LEADER:
sitelink
.
.
And then top it off with a large triple shot of BAD ASS MOFO:
sitelink
.
.
. . with the end result being one of the most intriguing, layered though it takes some time to peel those layers back and complex figures in all of literaturein my opinion.
In this first installment, which is quite short compared to subsequent volumes we are introduced to Roland and the world he lives in as he is chasing the Man in Black.
Rolands world appears like a deranged version of the Old West but with occasional references to an older world that was much more technologically advanced.
We are left with the impression of a very ancient world that is fading and running down, As Roland describes it, his world “has moved on, ”
We also come to find that Rolands world is not “our world” but that there are strange similarities between the two e, g. , Arthur Eld the great hero of Rolands world would seem to be their version of King Arthur both worlds have a version of the song “Hey Jude”, etc.
. In addition, we learn that it is possible though difficult to travel between the worlds which is a fundamental aspect of the rest of the series.
It is in this story that Roland first meets Jake Chambers who arrives in Rolands world from a version of “our” New York City, I will leave you to learn for yourself the circumstances surrounding Jakes appearance and the results
Through a lengthy flashback in the city of JethroTull we learn of both the mad skills of Roland as a Gunslinger and the otherworldly powers of the Man in Black.
My takeaway, Roland can shoot the eyes out of hummingbird andpaces,
From there, the book moves ahead briskly until the inevitable final showdown between Roland and the Man in Black, The details, the interesting nuggets and the time spent with Jake are best experienced fresh so I will avoid spoilers, Overall, a good introduction to Roland and his world but merely an appetizer to the warm buttery goodness that is to follow and the epic tale of the Gunslinger really gets going in the next book.
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed, ” And you should follow to, all the way to the end of the story and discover the wonders of this most original journey, HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!.
.
Get Your Hands On The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) Scripted By Stephen King Provided As Textbook
Stephen King