The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (edition 1988)

Cover to cover, a waste of time. No, I will NOT give the second book a chance... What is wrong with all you people? ( )

A man known only as "The Gunslinger" is tracking a man known only as "the man in black" through a mostly deserted world. Not a lot actually happens, but you learn about The Gunslingers past as he goes along.
I probably would have enjoyed this more if I had read it all in one go instead of slowly over the course of two months. It was good, but I didn't absorb much of it. I'll read the sequels eventually I'm sure. ( )

This is a re-read. I listened to it this time and found that I love it just as much as I did in 1988. This time, however, I understand it a bit better. And oh, the clues that are strewn here and there. Roland, I am most pleased to make your re-acquaintance. I do love this series. ( )

I am glad I waited to read The Gunslinger until after Stephen King revised and expanded the first novel in his series, The Dark Tower. I bought the Kindle version and it was a positive experience to see the color illustrations, use the X-Ray feature that presents a time line for the important characters, and to search easily the Dark Tower Wiki via the Google link. I love Mr. King's style of integrating current language, customs, and preoccupations with his universe building fiction.

The structure of Volume 1 sets the stage for Roland Deschain's quest for all universes' power nexus the Dark Tower, the nexus of time and size. Roland, the son of a gunslinger, comes of age as a gunslinger and embarks on his destiny to find the Dark Tower. He leaves from Mid-World, once a land of milk and honey, that has been destroyed by revolution. Roland has a mind that is slow, plodding, and tenacious but without imagination. Only this unique mind can approach the Dark Tower with its all-worlds power. Roland is the last of his kind.

The great maturity of Stephen King's writing ability can be seen in the differences between his 1978 work, The Stand, and his current extensive revision of The Gunslinger first published in 1982. This revised 2003 edition includes concise descriptions of landscape, action, character development, and communication that are more exiting, engaging, and satisfying than before when he wrote about world existential topics. I have already bought Volume 2 of The Dark Tower series, The Drawing of the Three and am looking forward to reading the entire 7 volume series. ( )

The Dark Tower The Gunslinger

"The Man In Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed. The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions."

Back in the 80's, before "The Dark Tower" became the huge hit it is today, I lucked out, coming upon this jewel of modern American writing in a tiny little used book store in a tiny little town in Texas. King dreamed up the story from a reading of "Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, and carries all of the angst, pain an despair which fills that poem.

The series centres around Roland Deschain, The Last Gunslinger, who may be a creature of myth and legend, or simply a man, as he tracks the Man In Black across a bleak and hopeless desert - a desert of reality and of the soul.

"My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the working of his lie
On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford
Suppression of the glee that pursed and scored
Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby. " Robert Browning

The Gunslinger immediately gripped my attention and refused to release me. Poetry, mythology, pain and loss, a searching of the mind soul and body. As a Browning fan, the concept touched me deeply.

Over the years, I was thrilled every time a new Tower came out, and was never disappointed. This is King stretching himself, moving outside his "horror" boundaries, while still remaining true to his writing style in many ways. The world of the Tower is desolate, painful and digs deep into archetypes of the human soul.

Is this another world, somewhere lost among the tides and times of the Universe, old beyond measure and dying? Or is this our world, old itself beyond measure, stretched thin and worn, fading into the universe with a whimper, rather than a bang.

The story grows and develops over the subsequent editions, building and expanding on its mythos, its archetypes, its heart. A serialized novel of depth and power, of heartbreak and redemption, with characters unlike any others, The Tower is a blend of poetry, art and prose unlike any other. Read "The Gunslinger." Then gift your soul with the rest of the series. And think - - - what is real? Are we? Is Roland? Is the world of Roland just on the other side of our own reality?

George Guidell does his normal, spectacular job as the voice of the Audible.com edition of the series. His voice, which has narrated over 900 audio books, and won two Audie Awards for Excellence in audio book narration, is perfect for the part and never deviates from its power and perfection.
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