The Dark Tower

by Stephen King

THE DARK TOWER FANTASY SEQUENCE CREATES A MYTH. THE GUNSLINGER, A MAN IN TATTERED BLACK WITH TWO ANCIENT AND VAST 45'S IS ON A QUEST IN AN ALTERNATIVE WORLD. FROM TIME TO TIME A DOOR OPENS UP BETWEEN THIS PARALLEL UNIVERSE AND OUR OWN LATE TWENTIETH-CENTURYURBAN CIVILISATION. PEOPLE UNDER INTENSE PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESSURE AND IN EXTREME DANGER CAN PASS THROUGH THE GATE INTO THE OTHER UNIVERSE AND BY THIS PROCESS THE GUNSLINGER COLLECTS A STRANGE CREW OF MISFITS TO JOIN HIM IN THE QUEST. THE FIRST IS RICK, A STREET-WISE KID FROM NEW YORK WITH A SEVERE HEROIN PROBLEM AND A NO-HOPER OLDER BROTHER TO WHOM HE FEELS DESPERATELY BEHOLDEN. THE RULES THAT GOVERN TH MATERIAL WORLD ARE NOT CHANGED BY GOING THROUGH THE GATE SO RICK'S FIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE GUNSLINGER'S DOMAIN IS THAT OF COLD-TURKEY HEROIN WITHDRAWL. THE SECOND PERSON TO JOIN THEM ON THE QUEST IS A VERY DANGEROUS BLACK WOMAN WHO IS COMPLETELY SCHIZOPHRENIC. 05/09/88 PROD LAUNCH--100000X79PX$6.99(80000X81P). DEMY.400PP+10PP COLOUR INSET. 19/9/88--BETTER PAPER ,LESS BULK THAN VOL.1-TAMLUX 80GSM.SUB-70000. A GREY ACCOUNTANT, CAPABLE OF SPASMS OF APALLING RAGE. IN NEITHER UNIVERSE IS THERE ANYTHING REMOTELY CUTE.
THIS EPIC FANTASY IS THE AUTHENTIC VOICE OF THE 1980S. IT IS STRANGE AND EDGY WITH AN ATMOSPHERE OF ITW OWN. IT IS PROJETED TO EXTEND TO SIX VOLUMES - LARGER THAN TOLKIEN AND MERCIFULLY FREE OF ELVES AND FAIRIES.

• ISBN10: 0751503312
• ISBN13: 9780751503319
• Publish Date: 1 January 1988
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 30 December 2009
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Time Warner Paperbacks
• Edition: New edition
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[scarr]

Rounding up from 3.5 STARS I don't know if it's because the edition I read is the "revised, expanded" edition but I really liked this book! Everyone who has read The Dark Tower series advises that that first book is the weakest link but getting thru it to the next in the series is worth the effort.

Anyway - I'm hooked, can't wait for The Drawing of the Three.

[CrowNoYami]

While I love Stephen King, this is not the book for me. I found it confusing, and after 50 pages decided to call it quits. I will not be finishing this novel in order to give a full review. I did, however, ask a friend of mine and she enjoyed it, so if you want to give it a shot go for it! As I am making this as complete, to keep my reading challenge fair I will be adding another book to my goal.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

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

For a lifetime, Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, has been following his precious quarry.  His mission is to reach the Dark Tower, and the man and black can give him information to aid him on his quest.  But he is no easy man to catch, for the man appears constantly vigorous while Roland pursues him across a desert, low on water and sustenance.

The gunslinger does not move without causing destruction and despair in his wake.  Wherever he goes, death follows.  When he befriends a young boy at a way station, he brings Jake along on his journey, knowing that somehow the boy is the key that will help him reach the man in black.  He will reach the man, at whatever cost.

The beginning of Roland's story.

I have read The Gunslinger at least four times.  It's a short book, especially as King's novels go.  It's also fascinating.  Roland Deschain is a ruthless, gritty character carved somewhere out of the American Old West.  He's seen his world fall apart, his friends killed, his family destroyed - he's also seen the literal crumbling of Gilead.  His final quest - to reach the Dark Tower - is the only thing winding him up to move forward, like clockwork.

Roland's character is an interesting one in a hero, and I think that's why I keep going back to The Gunslinger and Wizard of Glass.  His history plays such a strong part in his motivations.  His training comes into play as well.  In The Gunslinger we see a little of his early days, before he was a gunslinger.  Back when he was a slightly softer person.  We see the first glimpses of his deadly potential.  And it's fascinating, because while you don't really want to root for him, you are interested to see where he's going.

Stephen King apologizes for nothing.

An interesting aspect going into The Gunslinger and the Dark Tower series in general is that you know from the beginning that this is King's story, and he's not writing it for you.  If anything, he's writing it for Roland (something that becomes abundantly clear in later books).  You won't get one of those heartwarming love stories and you won't get a whole lot of character redemption.  Roland Deschain is who he is and that's all there is to it.

The world in general seems very much the same way.  Everyone is aware that things are falling apart.  Again, you won't find some white knight riding it to save the day.  People have accepted their lives and the way of things.  Some see Roland as a hero.  More see him as a curse - especially in these early books.  Ultimately The Gunslinger sets up Roland's character for the rest of the series and gives you a hint of what's coming.  You won't have that warm fuzzy feeling when you finish this book.  But, you may be intrigued, may be enflamed, may feel that primal need to know if it was all worth it.

Having read this several times, I think it's fair to say I enjoy it.

While The Gunslinger isn't perfect, it is fascinating.  It's also got some of the best lines in the series, one off quotes that are strong and striking.  The first line of the book (and my review) is a good example of this.  Also Jake's prophetic, "Go now, there are other worlds than these."  I'm a sucker for a book with perfect quotes like that.  But also the grittiness of this first books really gets to me. The dark, desperation of it is something I don't see a lot in science fiction and fantasy, and it's an alluring premise.

I will freely admit that The Gunslinger isn't for everyone.  As with many of King's works, the Dark Tower series starts off very slow and with a lot of back story and things don't really get moving until the middle of book three or (arguable) The Wolves of the Calla.  But it's still an interesting story and essential if you're going to read the entire series.  Which, yes, I heartily recommend everyone do.

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Find more reviews and bookish goodies at The Literary Phoenix.

[celinenyx]

A book that seems more like a prologue than a true book. The Gunslinger to me is more like the King from Lisey's Story than that of The Shining or It - it's King at his most lyrical.

The Gunslinger has a fascinating Western post-apocalyptic vibe that I haven't seen before. I'm not a huge fan of Western stories - the simplistic good vs. evil plot lines and narrow definition of masculinity generally doesn't appeal to me - but in this case, the setting worked well. Roland is not a particularly likeable character. He is too cold, too narrow-minded for that. Yet his determination in pursuing the man in black is what pulls the reader forward.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

This book has been recommended to me over and over and over again, but I can’t really see why. There are things I do like about the book but there are also a lot I didn’t like. My main issue with this book is I think Stephen King was trying way too hard to write a metaphor and that didn’t really help this book tell a decent story. I’ve been lucky to read a decent western style book recently in [b:The Sisters Brothers|9850443|The Sisters Brothers|Patrick deWitt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1291999900s/9850443.jpg|14741473], so I think that this book feel really short when comparing the two. The writing style of this book was one of the things I really did enjoy, King’s prose were bleak and matched the book style perfectly, I was just never sucked in completely.