The Future... Gone Terribly Wrong (The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower - Stephen King)

Member Name: GoFigure

Product:	The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower - Stephen King
Date:	11/11/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent writing, fascinating story with great characters... a real page-turner.

Disadvantages: None

In a world that is a shadow of our own, Roland has managed to survive rebellions, wars, near total destruction of the world itself... he is the last gunslinger, the last of a rare breed of men who were raised to keep the world from changing, to keep order... a symbol of all that was good. In this dark twin to our own world, priests dressed in black do not always stand for good, nor do they bring the peace the surviving population are praying for.

In this dark world of endless deserts and tumbleweed towns, water is scarce, paper is more valuable than gold, and conscience is a thing that idiots possess. If you want to survive here, you need lots of luck on your side, and a strong stomach capable of eating whatever slimy mutants come your way.

Roland, whose father was a gunslinger - something akin to royalty - has seen it all... except the Dark Tower. The latter has become an obsession. He has no idea of the who, what, when or why of the Tower, only that he needs to find it, and the only man who can help him find it has been leading him on a merry chase for what appears to be decades.

Roland has been hunting the man dressed in black for so long he can hardly remember a time when he wasn't - the dark man has always been there, involved in Roland's life in one way or another - his numerous attempts to destroy Roland have failed, and he has succeeded only in turning an innocent and trusting lad into a tough and vengeful gunslinger who will hunt him down and kill him... after he's discovered how to get to the Dark Tower, of course. The dark man, dressed as a priest, is far from benevolent - he is a magician who can just as easily kill you as bring you back to life - but Roland is up to the challenge. He'll do whatever it takes to make it to the Dark Tower.

The first in Stephen King's 7-book 'The Dark Tower' series, 'The Gunslinger', although first released in 1978, was later revised [in 2003 I think] and a few new scenes were added... also, because so much time had lapsed between the writing of the first book and the writing of the last, Stephen King wanted to make certain, before the final books were published, that everything flowed smoothly - after all, as King stated himself, 'The Dark Tower' was never meant to be, or even written as, seven books... it is first and foremost one single long story... the story of Roland. If 'The Gunslinger' was revised it was because it had been written when King was much younger, and it contained, in relation to the other books in the series, a few errors that hindered the flow of the story. For those who read the original version, it would probably be a good idea to purchase this revised edition if you're planning on continuing or even re-reading Roland's epic adventure.

Now, down to the nitty-gritty... first I would like to say that although I was, back in the 70's, a big Stephen King fan, the seemingly endless and needless jabbering in his novels slowly took their toll and I turned away from King in order to embrace the work of Dean Koontz and John Saul [same genre, but a lot less gibberish]. Although I did pick up a few of his novels over the years, 'Misery', 'Dolores Claiborne', and a few others here and there, I did not actively 'look out' for Stephen King books.

A few weeks back, I read a review for 'The Gunslinger'... and was intrigued, but not enough to go out and purchase the entire collection [although I did look into doing so]. Having decided at the time that it was too big an expense, not to mention that 7 Stephen King books would very much be like reading the Webster Dictionary half a dozen times in the very least - although the story would probably be far more interesting, it would nonetheless be extremely time consuming. I decided against purchasing the series, but there was a part of me that still wanted to read the books... regardless of the cost and possible prattle that would no doubt cause me to skip pages.

When my stepson showed up with his belongings during his last visit, he pointed to a few bags of books and told me to help myself... although we share the same interests, I wasn't in a reading 'mood' at the time because we'd just learned that he was being shipped off to Afghanistan [he's a soldier]. At the end of his week stay, he asked his father and me to go through the bags of books and take what we wanted - whatever we weren't interested in would be put up in the attic with the rest of his belongings until his return. Realising that it had to be done, that his belongings needed to be packed away, I looked in the bags and my mouth dropped... it was the entire 7-book 'The Dark Tower' series. Fate had obviously decided that I would be reading this series, and so I have begun to do so.

Although I have read numerous King books over the years, I have to admit that 'The Gunslinger' came as a bit of a surprise. I knew Stephen King's intention was to create something along the lines of Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', but his subsequent fascination with spaghetti westerns set the tone and he was inspired to write something that is so impregnated with the deserted wastelands of the old west that the dust literally wafts off of the pages as you turn them.

As Roland travels through the desert, his throat parched, his skin dry and leathery, his mind slowly ebbing away as well as his life-force, you get a real 'feel' of what he's going through. The words on the pages swiftly turn to images in your mind, and you can see the story progress as though it were a movie. For once, King's jabbering serves its purpose... but only because it isn't endless. His descriptions, although running on at times, serve to highlight what's going on, and to emphasise 'feelings' and 'emotions'... they also serve to create an incredibly realistic setting regardless that the world of 'The Dark Tower' is not really the one we know.

'The Gunslinger', the first book in the series, also the shortest in length, sets the pace for what will become an incredible journey for Roland. Although it does touch upon portions of Roland's life, the first book is not a complete 'telling'. Roland's past very much remains a mystery throughout the first book and the second... which I just finished reading and which I will review later. We are given glimpses into his past, and to a certain extent we get to know the man behind the guns, but his nature is changeable, like the scenery, and as varied as the mutants that crawl through the pages of the book. We are never told 'exactly' what happened to Roland's world or how he came to be the 'last' gunslinger, but it will come... you get that feeling, as you're reading, that everything will be explained in time.

Roland is an intriguing character that is reminiscent of nearly every western movie hero I have seen, from Clint Eastwood in 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly', to Jason Robards in 'How The West Was Won'. The type of mysterious and mean-looking cowboys who slap their hats on their pant legs and cause a miniature dust storm... you know the type... with the rolled cigarettes just hanging at the corners of their mouths as they squint into the distance. Yep... that's what Roland is... he's a gunslinger. He's mean-looking, calm, distant, and incredibly fast with his 6-shooters, but he's also a man capable of great emotions.

Although the latter paragraph might put off those who hate westerns, don't turn your backs on this series because it isn't actually a western. Gasp, horror... in fact, you'll be hard put to find anything that even resembles a horse in this book. The truth is, it has the look and feel of a western, but Roland's world is actually far more advanced into the future than ours. Roland's world is... our world waiting to happen.

Summary: A gunslinger, the last of his kind, searches for a dark tower that could save humanity.