Paperback, 212 pages
English language
Published March 14, 1997 by New English Library.
Roland of Gilead, the Iast Gunslinger, sets out in pursuit of the Man in Black into a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.
In his first step towards the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower. Roland encounters an alluring woman named Alice and begins a friendship with Jake, a kid from New York. Faced with an agonising choice, Roland is torn between damnation and salvation as he determines to find out what the Man in Black knows.
Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter . ..
And the Tower is closer ... --back cover
Roland of Gilead, the Iast Gunslinger, sets out in pursuit of the Man in Black into a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.
In his first step towards the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower. Roland encounters an alluring woman named Alice and begins a friendship with Jake, a kid from New York. Faced with an agonising choice, Roland is torn between damnation and salvation as he determines to find out what the Man in Black knows.
Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter . ..
And the Tower is closer ... --back cover
It was odd to read this book. It felt to me like Stephen King was impersonating Cormac McCarthy impersonating someone writing fantasy. Some interesting stuff in here, but I do think a good bit of it was lost on me because I have little fluency with the Bible.
I definitely enjoyed this book, but it is also definitely the start of a saga. Throughout the whole novel there's so, so many hints of a larger world, and bursts of rapid-fire world building. The world King is creating is strange and intriguing enough that I want to continue with this series just to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. There are also a fair few Stephen King-isms in here, to be sure, though I'm told not as many as the later entries. Really, it's a matter of how much you can tolerate the particular style. I'm writing this a long time after I read it so I apologize for the vagueness.
I definitely enjoyed this book, but it is also definitely the start of a saga. Throughout the whole novel there's so, so many hints of a larger world, and bursts of rapid-fire world building. The world King is creating is strange and intriguing enough that I want to continue with this series just to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. There are also a fair few Stephen King-isms in here, to be sure, though I'm told not as many as the later entries. Really, it's a matter of how much you can tolerate the particular style. I'm writing this a long time after I read it so I apologize for the vagueness.
People say this is a good book and series but I can't agree to that. It's just chaotic and doesn't make any sense, the writing seems overly dramatic and "flowery", meaning he describes things so weird, with weird details and weird metaphors. I couldn't even read it to the end and stopped at like 80 or 90%. I have no interest in reading the other novels in the series, it's just not my type of writing I guess. I never liked any Stephen King books until this one and I read a bunch now. It's not getting any better, maybe I should just give up on trying to like his writing.
People say this is a good book and series but I can't agree to that. It's just chaotic and doesn't make any sense, the writing seems overly dramatic and "flowery", meaning he describes things so weird, with weird details and weird metaphors. I couldn't even read it to the end and stopped at like 80 or 90%. I have no interest in reading the other novels in the series, it's just not my type of writing I guess. I never liked any Stephen King books until this one and I read a bunch now. It's not getting any better, maybe I should just give up on trying to like his writing.
It gets better nearer the end, maybe worth 3 stars...
