The Dark Tower, Book 1: Gunslinger | Paperback

Despite having read fantasy of all sorts since I was a teenager, I've only recently come to the Dark Tower novels. Having just finished reading the seventh (and last) novel of the set, I feel moved to share with others how these books have influenced and inspired me.

For reference (as they are not labelled very well on play.com), the books are ordered as follows: 1: The Gunslinger, 2: The Drawing of the Three, 3: The Wastelands, 4: Wizard and Glass, 5: The Wolves of the Calla, 6: Song of Susannah, 7: The Dark Tower.

The Gunslinger is the first novel in the set. King wrote it many moons ago, and the publishing history inside the cover gives a clue to the stuttered, twisted journey this novel took to its becoming.

The first thing to note is that this is a fragmented story, in fact made up of several parts, each written months apart. It introduces us to an initially nameless gunslinger; an stereotype from a Clint Eastwood western, all loneliness and grim purpose. He's… more »

Despite having read fantasy of all sorts since I was a teenager, I've only recently come to the Dark Tower novels. Having just finished reading the seventh (and last) novel of the set, I feel moved to share with others how these books have influenced and inspired me.

For reference (as they are not labelled very well on play.com), the books are ordered as follows: 1: The Gunslinger, 2: The Drawing of the Three, 3: The Wastelands, 4: Wizard and Glass, 5: The Wolves of the Calla, 6: Song of Susannah, 7: The Dark Tower.

The Gunslinger is the first novel in the set. King wrote it many moons ago, and the publishing history inside the cover gives a clue to the stuttered, twisted journey this novel took to its becoming.

The first thing to note is that this is a fragmented story, in fact made up of several parts, each written months apart. It introduces us to an initially nameless gunslinger; an stereotype from a Clint Eastwood western, all loneliness and grim purpose. He's pursuing a "man in black" across a desert, and the book tells us of his encounters along the way to catching said man.

The language is dream-like and lilting, almost poetic as it flows through your mind, and whilst this is a fine acheivement, coupled with the fragmented nature of the story it does make this novel very hard to read at times. There's a definite impression that King had thousands of ideas he wanted to use in his story, but not clear coherent whole (and the man himself will openly admit that the stories found their own plot as much as they followed a plan). He introduces many concepts that will later be forgotten or twisted to a slightly different purpose...

And yet, I stuck at it, and I'm very glad I did. His main character (we learn latetr in the book he is called Roland) has a harshness and an anti-hero believability that sets him apart from other fantasy leads, and I wanted to know how he would fare in his quest.

So my advice is this: if you've read some of ithis and given up, or have read it and then not bothered with the rest of the books, go back and try, because the effort is well worth it; you're missing out on some real gems in the later novels. If you've not read any of them, get this and the second part (The Drawing of the Three) and read them back to back. If you're not hooked after that, I'll eat my review!

PS: It's worth noting that these recent editions of the paperbacks come with a foreword and "thus-far-synopsis" by King, where he sharesd his inspirations for the Dark Tower books and some of his thoughts on writing, the universe and everything. They make for intriguing reading, and certainly improve the novels as a whole.