Stephen King: The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger

[MonkeyCatcher]

I had the same problem with The Gunslinger as you, Libre - I was also going to give it up. The story didn't draw me in, I found it hard to relate to the characters, and the plot was just so darn boring. However, everything changes in the second book. I loved it, and am now certain that I will finish the series. Continue on - it really does get better.

 

[Libre]

Just after I started this thread, I read the first passage that drew me in - the Coming of Age for Roland in which he has to best his brutish instructor Cort. All at once I was intrigued. Good passage, good action. Then it petered out again and he was in the mine/subway/underground passage for endless pages. I'm nearing the end of book 1, and thanks to all your encouragement, I'll pick up book 2 and hope for the best.

 

[lethaldose]

Just after I started this thread, I read the first passage that drew me in - the Coming of Age for Roland in which he has to best his brutish instructor Cort. All at once I was intrigued. Good passage, good action. Then it petered out again and he was in the mine/subway/underground passage for endless pages. I'm nearing the end of book 1, and thanks to all your encouragement, I'll pick up book 2 and hope for the best.

I really loved all the stuff about Roland's youth. Roland is a character with such a deep and rich history it is hard to not be intrigued. If you enjoyed that part then you will really like the fourth book Wizard and Glass it is all about his youth and most of the book is taken up with a great story that probably did more to shape the Roland we met in the Mohaine Desert than anything else.

 

[DiscoDan]

I really liked The Gunslinger, but I'll admit it's not the greatest book of the series. I wasn't expecting great things from The Drawing of the Three when I first started reading it, but all of a sudden all these amazing things started happening and I quickly became a Dark Tower junkie.

 

[angerball]

I had the same problem with The Gunslinger. I really struggled through it; it wasn't until the second book that I felt the story got moving, and then I got really hooked. Oh, and I loved Wizard and Glass - probably my favourite book of the series.

I suggest persevering with it, but if you still can't get into it by the second book, then you probably won't enjoy the rest of the series.

Stewart, Wizard and Glass can be a stand-alone read as well. That was the first book of the series that I read, because I was looking for a thick Stephen King book, and it was because I loved that book so much, that I picked up (and stuck with) The Gunslinger.

 

[Geenh]

I read the Gunslinger when it first came out (in the 80s) and I LOVED it! I feel the other way, that the books get worse as they went on. Maybe it's an age thing. It's been almost 20 years since I read The Gunslinger and I finished The Dark Tower (final book of the series) early-mid last year.

 

[mrkgnao]

Any actual thoughts on it though?

I have some small ones; there could be more but I'm tired and want to go and read... I'm now halfway through part 2, and I'm liking the series. So far I prefer The gunslinger, mostly because, as has been mentioned, it's full of riddles and half-told stories, where you're not sure what's happening, or where and when it's happening. It sets the stage and teases the imagination into interesting speculation (though I'm a little sceptic about the "let me tell you how the world is" palaver thing). The drawing of the three is more fast-paced action. And no, Roland (a great name for a gunslinger knight; Orlando furioso) is hardly lovable, but that's part of why he's so good - does hero/main protagonist have to equal clear-cut good-guy? Either way, he's, like, totally cool, dude (especially when one is a sucker for westerns, as I am)

The most annoying thing so far is that the books would have been even better if written by a better author. I'm sure there could have been even more dimensions, and better language. But maybe (hopefully) I'll have to eat the former part of that over the next 5½ books... and then all the other Kings I'll apparently have to read?

*mrkgnao*

 

[-Carlos-]

You really can't judge this book because it's only one-seventh of a story. You must look at the whole- all the books in the series and then see how well that section (book #1) contributes to the story.

The Gunslinger just sets the story up. How the characters develop throughout the books begins with the Gunslingler...although very few characters are introduced with this initial book. The Gunslinger is not my favorite of the bunch but events do arise later in the story (book #6) that resulted from the first book. I give this book three out of four stars.