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The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (Dark Tower, The)
"An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King's greatest literary achievement" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series. A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King's most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake. Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," The Gunslinger is "a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center" (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is "brilliant and fresh...and will leave you panting for more" (Booklist).
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Community Reviews
I really wanted to love this book but I just didn't. It was hard to get connected to the main character for me.
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
I don't believe there has ever been a more iconic and well know quote than this one other than "Fear is the mind-killer." from Dune. Even though this is the first time I have began a journey to The Dark Tower, I have heard that quote hundreds of times.
The Gunslinger is the first book in the much loved series, The Dark Tower. From what I gather so far, it is a fantasy series, but on the haunting, darker side of the spectrum. This story follows Roland, The Last Gunslinger as he pursues the Man in Black across a brutal and unforgiving desert in what appears to me to be either a world set in our future or perhaps a parallel world. There are so many questions raised: Who is the gunslinger? What is his purpose exactly? Who is the Man in Black? Are these names representative of good and evil, an angel versus a demon? There is a very dramatic religious flair in this story - mention of them conversing in High Speech that sounds extremely biblical. Yet, the way religion is portrayed and regarded by the characters Roland meets, it felt to me that the author was using this story to do some personal exploration into what he thought of religion. I don't know, but I can tell you I found the religious element absolutely FASCINATING. I was hooked from the beginning for this very reason.
A couple other important questions I had while reading: WHERE are they? WHEN are they?
"The mystery of the universe is not time but size." - this quote really stood out to while having these questions in mind. I could never quite get a handle on where/when the Man in Black and his pursuer were. At first, I thought it was the future. With the introduction of Jake, I think shifted to thinking it was a parallel world. All I did figure is this "Tower" was the key, or the portal. The quote regarding this mystery being not time, but size - what does that mean? I went round and round on this one. The world building on this story was pretty small, a town, a desert and some mountains....so was that all there was to its existence? Are these two foes not from there, just passing through because of this chase?
“Yet suppose further. Suppose that all worlds, all universes, met at a single nexus, a single pylon, a Tower. And within it, a stairway, perhaps rising to the Godhead itself. Would you dare climb to the top, gunslinger? Could it be that somewhere above all of endless reality , there exists a room?...
You dare not.”
And in the gunslingers’ mind, those words echoed: “You dare not.”
Is Roland chasing after the Man in Black due to searching to discover if God is real? Is the Man in Black taunting Roland that he doesn't want to know the truth because it is exactly as he fears? This could go either way - God is real, which causes Roland to feel an abundance of guilt for his doubts...or God is NOT real, which makes real the knowledge that his way of life and those of his family were a complete and utter waste.
"Time's the thief of memory."
This quote really stood out to me. The more you recall a memory over time, the more degraded and changed that memory actually becomes. Each time you recall it and change it, it gets stored/saved in its new format. This quote draws attention to this, over time, your recalling of memories changes them until they are completely different, thereby stealing the truth of your past. I have puzzled and puzzled over what this could really mean.
TLDR: This little book was absolutely fantastic. As you can tell, it sucked me in from the beginning and had so many interesting elements that have kept me thinking about it for all the days since I finished it. I cannot wait to continue this series to see where this path leads. If I had to pick something about it that I didn't like, then the only thing I can think of is that it ended in what I thought was a rather abrupt manner. Probably only because I wanted more.
I don't believe there has ever been a more iconic and well know quote than this one other than "Fear is the mind-killer." from Dune. Even though this is the first time I have began a journey to The Dark Tower, I have heard that quote hundreds of times.
The Gunslinger is the first book in the much loved series, The Dark Tower. From what I gather so far, it is a fantasy series, but on the haunting, darker side of the spectrum. This story follows Roland, The Last Gunslinger as he pursues the Man in Black across a brutal and unforgiving desert in what appears to me to be either a world set in our future or perhaps a parallel world. There are so many questions raised: Who is the gunslinger? What is his purpose exactly? Who is the Man in Black? Are these names representative of good and evil, an angel versus a demon? There is a very dramatic religious flair in this story - mention of them conversing in High Speech that sounds extremely biblical. Yet, the way religion is portrayed and regarded by the characters Roland meets, it felt to me that the author was using this story to do some personal exploration into what he thought of religion. I don't know, but I can tell you I found the religious element absolutely FASCINATING. I was hooked from the beginning for this very reason.
A couple other important questions I had while reading: WHERE are they? WHEN are they?
"The mystery of the universe is not time but size." - this quote really stood out to while having these questions in mind. I could never quite get a handle on where/when the Man in Black and his pursuer were. At first, I thought it was the future. With the introduction of Jake, I think shifted to thinking it was a parallel world. All I did figure is this "Tower" was the key, or the portal. The quote regarding this mystery being not time, but size - what does that mean? I went round and round on this one. The world building on this story was pretty small, a town, a desert and some mountains....so was that all there was to its existence? Are these two foes not from there, just passing through because of this chase?
“Yet suppose further. Suppose that all worlds, all universes, met at a single nexus, a single pylon, a Tower. And within it, a stairway, perhaps rising to the Godhead itself. Would you dare climb to the top, gunslinger? Could it be that somewhere above all of endless reality , there exists a room?...
You dare not.”
And in the gunslingers’ mind, those words echoed: “You dare not.”
Is Roland chasing after the Man in Black due to searching to discover if God is real? Is the Man in Black taunting Roland that he doesn't want to know the truth because it is exactly as he fears? This could go either way - God is real, which causes Roland to feel an abundance of guilt for his doubts...or God is NOT real, which makes real the knowledge that his way of life and those of his family were a complete and utter waste.
"Time's the thief of memory."
This quote really stood out to me. The more you recall a memory over time, the more degraded and changed that memory actually becomes. Each time you recall it and change it, it gets stored/saved in its new format. This quote draws attention to this, over time, your recalling of memories changes them until they are completely different, thereby stealing the truth of your past. I have puzzled and puzzled over what this could really mean.
TLDR: This little book was absolutely fantastic. As you can tell, it sucked me in from the beginning and had so many interesting elements that have kept me thinking about it for all the days since I finished it. I cannot wait to continue this series to see where this path leads. If I had to pick something about it that I didn't like, then the only thing I can think of is that it ended in what I thought was a rather abrupt manner. Probably only because I wanted more.
The Gunslinger is chasing after The Man in Black but when he catches up to him, things take a cosmic turn. There are parts of the story that might scare away the reader from continuing the books but book 2 is really where the heart of series is beginning.
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