Beyond the reach of human rangeA drop of hell, a touch of strange ... Stephen King considers the Dark Tower series his greatest achievement. He started the epic in his youth, and worked on it for most of his literary career. Readers in general agree with him, and are generous with their praise for the gunslinger who chases the man in black. In a long-winded essay plus introduction to the revised edition, the author tries to explain both his enthusiasm for the subject and the desire to create a fantasy epic unlike anything else on the market. The recipe includes "a drop of hell" - his signature horror oriented style, and "a touch of strange" - the supernatural elements that mix the real and the imaginary. Instead of the Norse flavored myths of elves and dwarves and hobbits, King has mined the Western lore: frontier towns, firearms, summary justice and monsters - many of them in human form. King also acknowledges his enthusiasm for the spaghetti westerns, easily detected in the opening short story of this first volume. Let's say we have here an epic journey from Robert Browning, author of a poem about a dark tower, to Sergio Leaone. You are the world's last adventurer. The last crusader. A good epic needs a strong lead character, and King's gunslinger looks like the perfect choice: deadly with his firearms, skilled in magic, a man of lightning fast reactions and few words. A man with a mission in life, a mission that is not clearly explained in this first novel beyond a straighforward western-style chasing of his archenemy, the Man in Black.His name is Roland Deschain, but for most of the novel he is simply referred to as the gunslinger. He is a loner and a man driven by an as yet unexplained urge to kill this mysterious adversary who seems to be able to bring the dead back to life. The backstory of Roland is very thin in this first book, with only one short story describing his early childhood and his training as a killer in the fallen town of Gilead. Much is left for later books in the series, concentrating for the moment only on creating an atmosphere, an expectation of greater things to come and a sense of urgency in catching up to the Man in Black. I always wanted to know how the world looked when your head was on backwards and upside down. Like the character of Roland, the worldbuilding is etched in spare lines, vague allusions and suggestions of a connection between the desert space through which the gunslinger moves and the magic-less, modern world we are familiar with. A tune by the Beatles is heard throughout the journey, like a leitmotif, but no context or explanation is given. Ruins of an industrial age are found in deep caverns, mentions of atomic energy and combustion engines are made. A boy dies in our world and wakes up in a "waystation" (possible a portal between parralel universes) on Roland's desert world. There are also intimations of a cataclysm or disaster that destroyed the town of Gilead and left the rest of the world struggling to grow crops, returning to horse and cart transportation and to the law of the gun in the absence of any meaningful governance. Mutants and other dangerous creatures wait for the unwary traveller, and the gunslinger seems the only one equipped with the hardware and the skill to travel and survive the wilderness. The Tower. Somewhere ahead, it waited for him - the nexus of Time, the nexus of Size. The other ingredient needed for a big epic is the goal, the destination, the Mcguffin that powers the quest. Instead of the One Ring, King has the Dark Tower, a place of power and of metaphysical answers. Answers that will probably have to wait until the last book in the series to be revealed. Relevant right now appears to be the ability of the tower to alter time and space and to open gateways to other worlds, a talent that Roland needs to learn in order to gather a "fellowship" around himself, to aid him in his quest. The boy is your gate to the man in black. The man in black is your gate to the three. The three are your way to the Dark Tower. Prophecy is a common plot device used in fantasy novels, but even by fantasy standards, King goes a little too far in his deployment of foreshadowing. "It had all been written. Somewhere some hand had put it all down in ka's book," remarks Roland in the very first story. Later a succubus in a circle of stones and the Black Man with a pack of tarot cards reinforce the idea of predestination. I personally prefer the atitude of Elric of Melnibone, who argues than men make their own destiny and should fight the dictates of gods. What is cryptic now in "The Gunslinger" will most probably become clear to those who continue with the series or those who re-read the first book and are wise to the future events, but my impression is that the first installment is more of a sort of teaser-trailer than a proper novel, setting up the mood and sketching characters, but leaving all the 'meaty' bits for later novels: This is not the beginning but the beginning's end. I have only given three stars to the first novel, as it seemed to loosely stitched together from independent short stories and too vague in its goals and in its worldbuilding. I am intrigued enough though to continue with the next book, and may even revise the initial rating depending on how the teasers here are resolved later on.One major attraction for me in the Dark Tower books is the artwork of Michael whelan, one of my favorite fantasy graphic artists. Many of his illustrations are poster quality, and I would gladly hang them in my reading den(when I eventually get one).-----the actual stories included here:- "The Gunslinger" (October 1978) : Roland arrives at a lonely farm in the desert and has a long flashback of his visit to the frontier town of Tull. A romance with a bartender ends with a bloody shootout in the dusty streets with only the gunslinger walking out.- "The Way Station" (April 1980) : Roland almost dies of thirst and hunger in the desert, chasing the Black Man, but he miraculously comes across a waystation and a lost boy, Jack Chambers, who has a disturbing back story.- "The Oracle and the Mountains" (February 1981) : Roland and Jake escape from the desert, but face new dangers in the mountains, where a succubus lures them to her stone lair and utters cryptic prophecies. I think this is also the place where we learn about Roland's early years in training as a killer.- "The Slow Mutants" (July 1981) : Roland and Jake travel through extensive underground tunnels on a rail-cart, much like the scenes from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but with less humour and more horror. Roland has to make a choice between friendship and his obsessive chase for the Black Man- "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" (November 1981) : Roland finally meets his nemesis, but instead of answers he gets more prophecies and a psychedelic trip to the furthest reaches of the universe, a half-succesful attempt to emulate the final scene from '2001: A Space Oddysey'After desert and mountains and coal-black caves, Roland reaches the shore of the ocean, where we will probably pick up the thread in the next book.
This is the beginning of Stephen King's famous magnum opus, the Dark Tower. This is where the master of horror writes his great work of fantasy based on a combination of The Lord of the Rings and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."This simple and beautiful sentence is the opening line, the trademark and even the summary of The Gunslinger. In most ways, this single sentence is what defines this book.For that is how it all begins. The man in black flees across the desert, and the gunslinger follows. In the beginning, the reader has no idea who the man in black is, or even who the gunslinger is. You don't know where this desert is. You don't know why the gunslinger is following the man in black. And you don't know to what end they go. All you know when you start reading this book, is that he does follow him.This is one of those books where you don't get to know anything about anything when you start reading. The characters go by illusive names like 'the man in black' and 'the gunslinger'. The setting is... a desert. Nothing more. This had both a positive and a negative effect on my experience with the book. The negative thing is the fact that in the beginning, I understood absolutely nothing of what was going on, and didn't care at all about what happened to the characters. Why should I, when there was no way to tell who was the good guy, and who was the bad guy (except maybe the title of the book), and no characters had any relations to any other characters or places? The positive thing is that the book gets better and better the more you actually get to know. Eventually, you learn who the characters are, what secrets are hidden in their past, and where this dramatic chase is actually taking place.Thus arises one of the saving graces of this book: its main character. Roland Deschain, Roland of Gilead. Roland is one of those determined and silent protagonists allowing his guns to speak for him instead of his mouth. In most ways, he is reminiscent of Clint Eastwoods character in the famous Dollars trilogy, the Man With No Name (which is actually the author's intention).The writing is... strange. Yes, I think that would be the best way of describing it. King seems to switch constantly between simplicity and complexity when constructing his sentences, making some strange combinatory lines of long and impressive words and then irritating sounds like "Yar". That does not mean that the writing is bad, only perhaps that the style does not suit my tastes completely.Despite all that, I would say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading this book. The story of the Dark Tower series definitely appears to be quite interesting. It is hard to say anything more about it without including spoilers, but once I got to know a bit of what was happening, I was hooked. Also, since what irritated me the most was that I was thrown into the book without any kind of background knowledge (and didn't start to get it until I was halfway through), I think I might enjoy the the rest of the series more, when I've gotten to know the world in which the story takes place, and the characters featured in it.I will definitely continue reading this series. Whether or not I would recommend either the book or the series is too early to say. This book does absolutely not do as a standalone, and so I must take the next few books into account before I might say anything about that. But since I've repeatedly heard that this book is a lot weaker than its sequels, I'm obviously excited and quite optimistic about reading them.In the end, The Gunslinger unfortunately did not meet my expectations. That might say something about the book, or it might say something about my expectations. Both options are possible. It's certainly not a bad book, but there's no possibility of it becoming a favourite of mine either. I only hope that the Dark Tower series as a whole is as good as the legend says.
What do You think about The Gunslinger (2003)?
I've seen a few reviews that seemed to indirectly question whether King was on crack while he wrote this. I thought they were being ridiculous but now, I can see the reasons.This book is so weird that I don't even think I can write a proper coherent review without not making sense of myself.If there are two things I'd describe The Gunslinger, it would be vague and odd as fuck.Reading this was like trying to piece together all the scattered jigsaw puzzles. It urges you to use your brain and fit together the whole final picture by yourself. Which can be fun because I like books that made me use more of my imagination fluid. But being left with more questions instead of answers? That part isn't quite fun.The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.Roland Deschain is the last Gunslinger (like a knight except they're armed not with a sword and a shield, but with guns instead) in a world that has 'moved on'. Set in a parallel universe, a Gunslinger's main job is to keep their world from 'collapsing' with reality to avoid chaos.Roland has been after the Man in Black for a long time to seek for answers. On his journey across the desert, he met a young boy, Jake Chambers, who soon became his trusty sidekick.I thought this was entirely unique in its own way and I like that on my plate. I wouldn't have pardoned how confusing the book is if not for the usual amazing writing style peppered with King's signature grit with a side of gore - and the world-building is truly something to be reckoned with. Thank goodness that everything snaps itself together by the final page otherwise I'll be flipping some tables. I felt that this is just a prologue in the form of a book and something tells me the next one in the series will give me a better picture.Despite the queerness and the lack of answers, I liked the book. Even after months of completion, the story, the people in it is still stuck in my head. It is NOT an easily forgettable story.And that's the magic of it all.
—Evelyn (devours and digests words)
Buddy read with the notorious duo, Quick Draw Stepheny and Pistol Packin’ Delee .The Gunslinger clambered over the rocks. He knew the Man in Black was close. He could pick up his scent. The Man in Black smelled like charred meat. Evil charred meat. The river to his left was the apotheosis of all rivers; it was watery and wet. The Gunslinger pictured himself lying in the river, being carried backwards in an unending current; lulled by the sweet relentless drifting towards death itself. In a fuzzy formless way, the gunslinger approved.The Gunslinger spotted a crop of big rocks on the horizon. They stood out like thumbs. The Gunslinger, struck by a momentary dizziness faltered, for he knew the encounter with the Man in Black was nigh. Staggering towards the rocks, the Man in Black suddenly loomed above him. “Wascally man in bwack, I’m going to shoot you”, said the Gunslinger.The Gunslinger fired his guns but the bullets didn’t come close to the Man in Black, who while chomping on a carrot, grinned and said, “Eh, Doc, I hope you know this means war.”That clicking sound you just heard is Stephen King removing me from his friends list.A review (of sorts).This is a good example of a few excellent vignettes that don’t translate into a satisfying whole. I get that the chapters contained in this book were published separately and I should withhold ultimate judgment until I read the entire saga (seriously?); however, I haven’t read them all and must make do with what I have read.The disparate elements (western, scifi, fantasy) didn’t really coalesce. Throwing in the Arthurian stuff (mention quest a few times, throw in the word grail once or twice) just made it more of a muddle. The ending here wasn’t so much perplexing (view spoiler)[the Dark Tower is a Nexus for all realities (hide spoiler)]
—Jeff
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.As he makes his way across this vast, bleak and desolate landscape, he meets people, has sex, forms friendships. Bullets fly……people die. The gunslinger has bad, equally bleak and desperate dreams and flashbacks. The man in black eludes him.For me the best part of this story was the conversation between Roland (the gunslinger) and Walter (the man in black) near the end of this segment of the journey and King’s own afterword. Nothing much actually happens here but we learn some things along the way, things which are integral to the rest of this colossal fantasy.Remember, this is King, so have faith and do read some of the reviews here on goodreads. That was enough to motivate me to pick up and read the second book in this series which more than makes up for the flat, bareness of this offering.
—Arah-Lynda
