| The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger |
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| 1982 |
| Hardcover: ? pages Trade Paperback: 224 pages Mass-market paperback: 315 pages |
| A glance at the book "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." And so Stephen King unknowingly set the stage for one of the most expansive series in literary history. By "expansive", I mean not only in page length-which is extremely impressive-but also the active longevity of the project: "My brief synopsis of the action to follow suggests a length of 3000 pages, perhaps more?At the speed which the work entire has progressed so far, I would have to live approximately 300 years to complete the take of the Tower?"-Stephen King, Afterword to The Gunslinger Thankfully, in the years since the writing of the first novel, King has upped the pace, publishing three additional installments of the series in the last nineteen years. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. The story revolves around the tale of Roland of Gilead, a mysterious man in an equally mysterious world, in search of the man in black, in the hopes that he will lead him on to the Dark Tower, which seems to be all that holds his world, and all other worlds-including ours-together. The Dark Tower is slowly crumbling, space and time are distorting; the distances are increasing, time slips and snaps back, all making Roland's quest more difficult. The world has moved on? There is an ominous undertone in this book reminiscent of The Stand in this novel. We catch glimpses of a forgotten civilization in the gunslinger's nearly deserted world, suggesting that, once upon a time, his world was not that different than our own. A rusting gas pump, an automatic water pump, men in bars playing Hey Jude on their honky-tonk pianos. Is this a world that was once similar to ours?or was ours? The gunslinger meets a boy named Jake, who is unsure of where he is from, and how he came to be where he is. From Jake, Roland comes to learn of a world of skyscrapers, economic geography textbooks, Oreos, romance novels, supermarkets, Kiss, and death on wheels, in the form of a blue 1976 Cadillac. These things, which are so familiar to us, are utterly foreign to Roland, relegated to his world's most archaic myths and legends. The ancient technology of Roland's world has long since been replaced by kings, wizards, demons, and gunslingers-of which Roland is the last remaining example. This book is but the first chapter in the saga of Roland and the Dark Tower. It is interesting to note that just as the Dark Tower holds an endless number of worlds together, the story of the Dark Tower holds the worlds of Stephen King's imagination together, and this is becoming more apparent all the time, as any reader of Insomnia, Hearts of Atlantis, or Wizard and Glass will tell you. When we finally witness the Dark Tower, side-by-side with Roland and his friends, I'm not sure if my first emotion will be joy?or sorrow. It will have been a journey to remember, fifty years in the making. Many years ago, a boy named Steve King began a journey with a man named Roland; many years from now, an elderly man named Stephen King, hobbled by age and nearly done with his life, will for the last time make a stand, and lead Roland to the Dark Tower? "The gunslinger waited for the time of the drawing and dreamed his long dreams of the Dark Tower, to which he would someday come at dusk and approach, winding his horn, to do some unimaginable final battle." My take on the book This book will be the hardest of the series to get into, but just read the damn thing. Hopefully, you'll thank me later. Rating: 8/10 Parental Review This is a quick list of some of the more inappropriate content in this novel. This should help you determine whether this is something you want your kids reading. --Language: A couple incidences of foul language, but nothing really bad. --Violence: Plenty of people die. Wait, isn't that a prerequisite for any King novel? --Sexuality: Roland sleeps with Alice a few times. |
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