User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
INTRODUCTION :
A few things you should know before deciding how helpful this review will be for you.
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………….*** I think the Dark Tower series as a whole is a
staggering achievement and belongs in any discussion without qualification of the “
Greatest Fantasy Series of All Time.”
*** There are no spoilers in this review but I have read the series twice all the way through and am doing a third reading as part of a group read this month. Therefore, my review is colored by my knowledge of how the rest of the series is. Hence, I only give this book 4 stars because in comparison to the rest of the series, I thought this book was by far the weakest. In a vacuum, I would have probably given this 5 stars due to the “Chilly Palmer/Josey Wales” awesomeness of the character of Roland.
*** Roland Deschain is THE MAN and belongs among the truly ICONIC figures in 20th century literature and is certainly among my top ten favorite characters of all time. I think this is even more astounding given the Roland himself was initially patterned on the classic, iconic western gunfighter. Yet, through the series, I thought he grew beyond his original programming and became a truly unique figure.
*** I have read a number of Stephen King books beyond the Dark Tower series and have really liked some (The Stand, The Green Mile, The Night Shift) and really disliked some (Dreamcatcher, Cujo and The Dark Half). I just wanted to be clear that I like Stephen King but am not a “everything he writes is gold” fanboy…..beyond the Dark Tower series that is.
*** I
LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the ending of the series (don’t worry, no spoilers). I can not think of a better way to have ended this epic series and believe that it created a much more powerful memory of the journey through all 7 books. I think Stephen King should be applauded for allowing the story to take on such “MYTHIC” importance as I think he achieved with the way he ended this series. I know that MANY (and I mean MANY) disagree with me on this one and I can understand where they are coming from…….(
psssst however, just between us….they are all wrong and I’m right…
but shhhhhh).
*** I have listened to all 7 books are audio (the first 4 read by the late Frank Muller and the last 3 read by George Guidall). I believe that anyone who has read the books and not listened to these stories on audio is REALLY MISSING SOMETHING WONDERFUL. Those who have listened to the “Dune” series on audio can understand the incredible quality and enhancement that a superb reading of a great story can bring.
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………….As mentioned in the above introduction, this book only gets 4 stars from me. In large part this is due to both the quality of the later books and also the fact that it is plagued by some inconsistencies that arose due to changes that King made in the later books. I applaud King for going back and re-writing this story to resolve these conflicts, but I still think this book suffers from the fact that King did not know how LARGE the story would become when he wrote this.
That said, this book is an absolute essential read as it introduced the world to Roland Deschain of Gilead, Son of Steven, Gunslinger, Champion of the White, Descendant of the line of Arthur Eld, Bane of the Man in Black and Seeker of the Dark Tower. How best to describe Roland? Physically, he was inspired by Clint Eastwood’s “The Man with No Name” and so a younger Clint Eastwood is an excellent way to visualize him.
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From there, you need to mix in a little
MYSTICAL TEACHER/WARRIOR/MASTER SLOGAN DISPENSER:
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Add a helping of
NOBLE KNIGHT LEADER:
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And then top it off with a large
triple shot of
BAD ASS MOFO:
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…..with the end result being one of the most intriguing, layered (though it takes some time to peel those layers back) and complex figures in all of literature(in my opinion).
In this first installment, which is quite short compared to subsequent volumes we are introduced to Roland and the world he lives in as he is chasing the Man in Black. Roland’s world appears like a deranged version of the Old West but with occasional references to an older world that was much more technologically advanced. We are left with the impression of a very ancient world that is fading and running down. As Roland describes it, his world “has moved on.”
We also come to find that Roland’s world is not “our world” but that there are strange similarities between the two (e.g., Arthur Eld the great hero of Roland’s world would seem to be their version of King Arthur; both world’s have a version of the song “Hey Jude”, etc.). In addition, we learn that it is possible (though difficult) to travel between the worlds which is a fundamental aspect of the rest of the series. It is in this story that Roland first meets Jake Chambers who arrives in Roland’s world from a version of “our” New York City. I will leave you to learn for yourself the circumstances surrounding Jake’s appearance and the results
Through a lengthy flashback in the city of
JethroTull we learn of both the mad skills of Roland as a Gunslinger and the otherworldly powers of the Man in Black. My takeaway, Roland can shoot the eyes out of hummingbird and 50 paces.
From there, the book moves ahead briskly until the inevitable final showdown between Roland and the Man in Black. The details, the interesting nuggets and the time spent with Jake are best experienced fresh so I will avoid spoilers. Overall, a good introduction to Roland and his world but merely an appetizer to the warm buttery goodness that is to follow and the epic tale of the Gunslinger really gets going in the next book.
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed….” And you should follow to, all the way to the end of the story and discover the wonders of this most original journey. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!.
Rating: really liked it
(B-) 68% | Satisfactory
Notes: A discordant blend of flowery, terse and vulgar prose, difficult to follow and insufficient in explaining new concepts.
Rating: really liked it
Please don't hate me. I know it seems sacrilegious to give a Stephen King anything less than 4 stars, but this one was SLOOOOWWWW for the first 75%. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but I did find this was an easy book to put down and not feel an urgency to jump back into for days at a time.
I've heard many folks describe this as a nice prologue to the series and that, in a sense, the action and story doesn't become investment worthy until book 2. That, coupled with the fact that I did become very involved in the final 25% or so of this book has me itching to continue on with Roland because DEAR GOD THAT ENDING!!! I was just coasting, coasting, coasting, and then then I had to reread the final couple of pages a few times to make sure I was following along properly.
All in all, I got the sense that this is a really special series and worthy of the high praise it has received for decades, and I expect my future reviews will hold more gushing and fangirling than this one did.
PS- my prim and proper mother (we lovingly refer to her as Nonni) is the one who initially convinced me to read this series and also invest in The Stand because she read both way back in her day. Who knew Nonni was so cool and hip and in the know?!
Rating: really liked it
3/20/21: 5-stars yet again!!! Who's surprised?
Now the question is, do I continue to read the entire series and actually read the final book this time?
If ka says it is so, it will be.
3/15/21: It's been almost a year. I guess I should pick up
The Gunslinger again. Why not!?
I only have 1,100 other books I want to read.
Picking up for the 4th time! 🖤
6/3/2020: ALL HAIL THE KING!!!
Five mind-blowing stars,
again.
In contrast to the rest of the books in this series,
The Gunslinger, is like the black and white portion of
The Wizard of Oz.
By the time you enter
The Drawing of Three, you're in Technicolor, baby!!
EarlierReread number three.
Also, buddy reading with my dear friend, Shannon. It's her first trip to the Tower and I am so excited to join her at the start of her adventure!
Original Review:Every once in a while, a reread will come along that completely changes your outlook and opinion on a story.
This was
absolutely the case for me and my reread of
The Gunslinger.
Originally, I read it in my early 20's, just out of undergraduate school and to be honest:
I didn't get it.
I didn't like it.
I didn't like the atmosphere.
I didn't like the strange dialogue.
I didn't like the ending for one of my favorite characters.
I had read a lot of King books and this was
so different for me. Rereading it now, on the cusp of 40:
I loved it.
I love the atmosphere.
I love Roland.
I understand where this is going.
The palaver between Roland and Walter at the end left me in absolute chills. Where once I gave this 3-stars, I now give it a very solid 5.
I put it down and immediately went to my bookshelf and grabbed
The Drawing of Three: The Dark Tower II and started reading it, staying up way past my bedtime in order to do so.
Now this thought consumes me:
I need to get to this damn tower!
Rating: really liked it
All I could think throughout this book was… what the hell am I reading?!
This western fantasy has to be the most confusing book I’ve read in a long time. Some parts were more interesting than others but overall I was very disappointed.
After hearing everyone rave about this series I have a hard time understanding why. I don’t believe it would be this popular if it wasn’t for Stephen King’s name on it. There I said it!
I didn’t like the story very much nor the writing.
I had been warned that the first book wasn’t as great as the others but I’m currently not in a rush to continue.
Rating: really liked it
Nothing beats the real Wild West, except a dark fantasy infested badass Kingian character exposition starting one of the best fantasy horror hybrid series of all times.
It reminds me of the style of some of his short stories, in fact, it are 5 short stories put together to a short novel and young Kings´ writing was darker, more direct, and epic, different than during his drug years and again different than in the period after when he kind of calmed down (not got old, because he is the King!). One could call it the 3 main periods of his work, as it´s done with painters, but I´ll keep that one for later in the review of the last part.
I remember when I first read this novel after something between 10 to 15 King novels from different decades and was awed by the completely different style, brutality, and epic badassity of this one, there is no useless ballast (no, he didn´t become too wordy, every word has its legitimation). It´s the ultimate Hold my beer, Chuck Norris mixed with horror elements to get the septology (the one between doesn´t really count, it´s great, what else, but not a part of the series for me) started.
Analyzing how King evolved while writing this project is a bonus to the unique and amazing entertainment it provides, a masterpiece of one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time if not even the human writing the best literature ever. Next to Pratchett. When King was young, he wrote harsher, invested more time and space in detailed descriptions, worldbuilding, and less focus (but still more than many other authors) on characterization and focused on one plotline. One may find it hard to say if it´s the same author when reading one of his first and one of his newer works, as he changed to focusing on characterization and complexity and didn´t care so much about the epicality of the world and outer plots anymore. Or he just got too lazy to do all the extra work this brings with it.
However, why are you still wasting your time reading this drivel, immediately start reading one of the best fictional series of all time!
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
Rating: really liked it
ENGLISH (The Gunslinger) / ITALIANO
When I read this novel more than twenty years ago, I did not appreciate it. Clearly, Roland's story did not charmed enough my distracted and teenage mind. Therefore, I decided to prematurely stop the "The Black Tower" series. A few days ago in a bookstore I stumbled on a copy of the new edition of "The Gunslinger", and reading the preface I understood a couple of things. FIRST: not just myself, but also Stephen King was young when he wrote the same edition of "The Gunslinger" that I read eons ago. SECOND: to overcome the incomplete literary maturity possessed at that time, Stephen King thought to revise and enrich the original novel, publishing a new edition that for simplicity I will define "more mature". In fact, in that preface King confesses that when he starts writing a novel, he has no idea where he's going with this, let alone when he stars to write a multi-volume saga! In this light, the rearrangement of "The Gunslinger", done only after completing the last episode of "The Black Tower", was necessary.
The plot is simple. Roland is a gunslinger and chases the man in black. The deadly desert dominates on them. Some meetings take place along the way, new characters come into play, while flashbacks clarify the gunslinger's past. In my opinion the most beautiful parts of the novel are precisely Roland's memories, which begin to roughly make us understand the meaning of "The Black Tower". King give us the only hint about the time of the facts practically at the end:
«Gunslinger, our fathers conquered the-disease-which-rots, which we call cancer, almost conquered aging, went to the moon...»,
indicating that we are in a vague future, far from our day. The air we breathe is suggestive and desolate. Making an example that only the fans of Garth Ennis will catch, the atmosphere resembles the one created by the British comic artist when describing the events of the Saint of Killers, one of the key characters of his famous graphic novel "Preacher".
Although some details escape me at the moment, I expect a lot from this saga. I think this novel is a kind of introduction that I will fully understand after the next volumes, and probably I will return to these reflections once again in the future to update my personal judgment of "The Gunslinger". For now, I trust the positive reviews of the next volumes. Overall I trust the positive reviews of "The Black Tower" series. But above all I trust the author who, more than anyone else, always stimulated my imagination. And that's not a small thing!
My journey just started.
Vote: 7
Quando lessi questo romanzo più di vent'anni fa, non ne fui entusiasta. Evidentemente la vicenda di Roland non aveva colpito abbastanza la mia mente distratta e adolescente. Decisi pertanto di non continuare la serie de "La Torre Nera". Qualche giorno fa mi sono imbattuto in libreria in una copia della nuova edizione de "L'Ultimo Cavaliere", e leggendone la prefazione vengo a conoscenza di un paio di cose. UNO: non solo il sottoscritto, ma anche il buon Stephen era giovane, molto giovane, quando scrisse l'edizione dell'ultimo cavaliere che lessi eoni fa. DUE: per ovviare alla non piena maturità letteraria posseduta all'epoca, il buon Stephen ha pensato bene di rivedere ed arricchire il romanzo originale, mandando alle stampe una nuova edizione che per semplicità definisco "più matura". Difatti nella suddetta prefazione King confessa che quando inizia a scrivere un romanzo, non sa con precisione dove vuole andare a parare. Figuriamoci quando inizia a scrivere una saga di più volumi! In quest'ottica, il rimaneggiamento de "L'ultimo cavaliere", fatto solo dopo aver completato l'ultimo episodio de "La Torre Nera", è stato necessario.
La trama è semplice. Roland è un pistolero ed insegue l'uomo in nero. Su di loro domina il deserto, torrido e letale. Lungo il cammino avvengono degli incontri, entrano in gioco nuovi personaggi, mentre flashback di ricordi chiariscono il passato del pistolero. Sono proprio i ricordi di Roland le parti più belle secondo me, sono brani che cominciano grossolanamente a farci capire il senso della Torre Nera. L'unico indizio sull'epoca in cui avvengono i fatti lo si ottiene praticamente alla fine:
«Pistolero, i nostri plurisnonni debellarono il morbo che fa marcire, quello che chiamavano cancro. Quasi debellarono la vecchiaia, camminarono sulla luna...»,
ad indicare che ci troviamo in un futuro vago, lontano dai giorni nostri. L'aria che si respira è suggestionante e desolata. Per fare un esempio che coglieranno solamente i fan di Garth Ennis, l'atmosfera somiglia molto a quella creata dal fumettista britannico quando descrive le vicende del "Santo degli Assassini", uno dei personaggi chiave della sua graphic novel "Preacher".
Nonostante ci sono alcuni dettagli che mi sfuggono, mi aspetto molto da questa saga. Credo che questo romanzo sia una sorta di introduzione che comprenderò appieno dopo i volumi successivi, ed immagino che tornerò in futuro su queste riflessioni per aggiornare il mio personale giudizio de "L'Ultimo Cavaliere". Per ora mi fido delle recensioni positive dei prossimi volumi. Mi fido delle recensioni positive della serie "La Torre Nera" nella sua interezza. Ma soprattutto mi fido dell'autore che più di tutti ha sempre stimolato la mia immaginazione. E scusate se è poco.
Il mio viaggio è appena iniziato.
Voto: 7
Rating: really liked it
The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.
Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, is on a quest for the Dark Tower, a mysterious edifice that is the axle of worlds and holds all existence together. In this, the first volume, Roland pursues his nemesis across the Mohaine Desert. He follows the man in black's trail to a little town called Tull, then through more desert, encountering a boy named Jake from our world, and then into the mountains. Will Roland finally catch his arch-nemesis after years of pursuing him? And what means will he go to to achieve his goal?
When I first picked up this book, I had no idea it would shoot to the top of my favorites list. I wolfed down the first four books in three weeks, then entered an agonizing period of waiting for the last three to be published. I think I've read the first four books five or six times each. The whole Dark Tower series, while on the surface a fantasy-western, is really the story of one man's obsession. In this volume, we get a hint of what Roland will do to get to the Dark Tower.
The writing is great and it warmed me up to Stephen King. Roland's world is unique. Part fantasy, part western, part post-apocalypse. While it's the first book in a series, it's quite satisfying to read on its own.
If your looking with fantasy with a different flavor, look no further.
Additional Thoughts from the April 2011 re-read:Some of the additions in the revised edition of this book were much-needed and brought the first book into synch with the later ones. Others seemed a little ham-fisted and took away a bit of Roland's mystique.
(view spoiler)
[I like the idea a certain curmudgeonly Kansan reviewer proposed that the first edition of The Gunslinger and this one are from different cycles in Roland's quest.
I think it's a testament to Stephen King's skill as a writer that even on my sixth or seventh go round, I was still hoping Roland wouldn't let Jake fall.
(hide spoiler)]Additional Thoughts from the 2014 reread:In the forward, King mentioned he pushed everything else aside to finish the last three books because he felt like he had a sense of responsibility to his readers. If only George R.R. Martin felt that way...
It is mentioned that Roland is the kind of man who straightens pictures in strange hotel rooms. Is this a hint of his obsessiveness?
I notice something new every time I read this book. If I had to pick one book that made me want to write, it would be this one.
(view spoiler)
[
The following concerns my speculation regarding the end of the series. BE REALLY FUCKING SURE YOU WANT TO READ IT BEFORE YOU CLICK ON IT.
(view spoiler)[The Man in Black tells Roland he must slay the Ageless Stranger in order to reach the top of the Tower. Since Roland learns that HE is the Ageless Stranger in The Dark Tower, I think it means that he's going to have to put his obsession with the Dark Tower to rest if he's ever going to reach the top.
Also, I caught myself hoping Jake wouldn't fall AGAIN.
(hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]
Rating: really liked it
The best opening line in literature? For me that’s simple. Repeat after me —
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”When it was first written by a very young Stephen King five decades ago (1970-1982), it was a niche story,
a strange vision of harsh postapocalyptic spaghetti Western in the world that has “moved on”, the world that once upon a time was just like ours, but now sandalwood guns and echos of remnants of technology coexist in this world through which a steely-eyed enigmatic gunslinger Roland Deschain (inspired by young Clint Eastwood in
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in this case) is following his quest to reach the mythical Dark Tower.
Back then there was no sign that this will eventually lead to Dark Tower multiverse, with references to it going beyond the seven-book series, now found in majority of King’s stories. And King freely admits that even four books in, before his encounter with a van than almost ended his life, he had no idea where this quest will lead Roland and his ka-tet, let alone having any idea back when he himself was nineteen.
This was the first time I’ve read the “revised and updated” version, re-released after the final book in the series, with some subtle clues to the ending of the series, connections to King’s greater Dark Tower universe and overabundance of number “19” — and the first time I’ve read this story since my teens. (The differences between the original edition and this one are nicely summarized here - but spoiler alerts if you haven’t finished the series yet: https://web.archive.org/web/200710292...).
From King’s 2003 foreword to the revised and expanded version:
“When I looked back at the first volume, which you now hold in your hands, three obvious truths presented themselves. The first was that The Gunslinger had been written by a very young man, and had all the problems of a very young man’s book. The second was that it contained a great many errors and false starts, particularly in light of the volumes that followed. The third was that The Gunslinger did not even sound like the later books—it was, frankly, rather difficult to read. All too often I heard myself apologizing for it, and telling people that if they persevered, they would find the story really found its voice in The Drawing of the Three.”
So he revised it, and apparently removed quite a few of the adverbs that he detests.
“The world has moved on,' we say... we've always said. But it's moving on faster now. Something has happened to time. It’s softening.”
What I’ve always loved about this book is
the unescapable feeling of how off this world is, how strangely wrong and hauntingly surreal it feels. And how atmospheric it is — soaked in grim fatalistic moodiness, barren and bleak, bafflingly confusing and intensely perplexing, with cruelty and brutality being the law of the land, with that
“magnificent dislocation” that King refers to, with the strong feeling that being a bit buzzed may help to really appreciate it. It’s not easy to get through, really — but it’s worth it. And after you read the entire series, return here and reread
The Gunslinger — and it’s much more impactful this way.
“Do you believe in an afterlife?” the gunslinger asked him as Brown dropped three ears of hot corn onto his plate.
Brown nodded. “I think this is it.”
And so much more is to come — the three are yet to be drawn from our world, the ka-tet is yet to form, the friends are yet to be found and lost, the Beams are yet to lead us to the Tower at the nexus of the worlds. The tone and the language will shift to that more reminiscent of King we know and love — all as soon as we meet Eddie in the next book,
and everything will become just different enough for The Gunslinger to really feel like a febrile surreal uneasy prologue, a first chapter of the neverending story on the ever-revolving wheel of ka. “Go then, there are other worlds than these.”
4.5 stars. I can’t wait to revisit The Drawing of the Three - where the story
really begins, and my personal favorite The Waste Lands.
Rating: really liked it
Twelve years in the making, and kicking off the story that would envelop King's career, this was finally released in 1992. When I first read it, I thought it was OK, but had zero interest in the Dark Tower or the following books. It was only on reading it a second time, having now read some of the subsequent books, that I could appreciate this scene setting foundation of this series. On this, my third reading (second reading of this revised version), this book is more like a marker to outline the rest of the then yet-to-be written series. First time readers beware this is a magnificent series, so don't let this, at times meandering, other times engrossing opener put you off; and Constant Reader, this is a book you absolutely cannot skip.
A sombre introduction to one of the darkest anti-heroes in fiction, who brings a new meaning to the word collateral damage. Lots of the foreshadowing in this book is blatant, yet I missed it on previous reads - or forgot it. So much of the Dark Tower lore is set out in this book. On first read the ending didn't sit well with me, and even now it's far from one of my favourites. What King does well, as per usual, is tell a compelling coming-of-age story (Jake's). The storytelling style kind of works, but it feels like that there is not enough information in the shared tales told by the characters, this is probably intentional - but more depth in the characterisations would / may have served better. The characterisation of Roland however is on the money. All-in-all a quite laid-back start on the road to the Dark Tower. 8.5 out of 12.
Rating: really liked it
“I don’t like people. They fuck me up.”
Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, is after the Man in Black. Along the way he meets a young boy named Jake, who appears to be from a world that is different to Roland’s.
Ah, Roland. I had forgotten how difficult it was to like you in The Gunslinger. Some of your decisions are questionable, but that is the price of obsession.
The Gunslinger is so unlike King’s usual style of writing; the prose is beautifully poetic as we are introduced to a world that is starkly different to ours, yet some similarities remain. The differences in language and terms used, as well as the general workings of this world, are a bit jarring on the first read, but a reread is really so satisfying and rewarding!
The Gunslinger works perfectly as a prologue to the series itself. It’s an introduction to this other world, and Roland himself - we get glimpses into his past, his present, and even a few subtle hints into what his future may hold. Roland is initially portrayed as the strong silent Clint Eastwood type (thinking of Tony Soprano here LOL), but over the course of the series he becomes so much more than this, and evolves into one of the most complex characters I’ve ever encountered in literature. Thank you, King, for such a fantastic character.
I will never cease to be amazed and intrigued by the world that the Dark Tower series is set in. And although I feel like The Gunslinger works as a pretty great prologue and sets the scene for the series, there are still a huge number of parts that are iconic to the story itself. We have Roland's past in Gilead with his mother and friends, we also have an epic demonstration of his gunslinging abilities in Tull, and of course, our introduction to Jake Chambers and his journey with Roland through the mountains, which is eventful in itself! And then the book culminates with the Man in Black having a palaver with Roland, where he is told his future. This part in particular is so enjoyable on a reread, picking up on the different predictions mades and ALLLL the foreshadowing. It's fantastic.
On my first journey to the Dark Tower, and also on this one, I read the revised edition of The Gunslinger, as King went back to the original and made some some amendments to make it both an easier read and to fix some consistencies. I really want to get my hands on a copy of the original version so that I can compare!
Such incredible world-building and I feel like King intrigues you enough to make you want to pick up the next book right away. But I won’t be... as I am waiting until February - like the good readalong host that I am! *Yes I deserve some credit*
I’m giving this rating only because I know what is yet to come... can't wait to carry on with my reread of my most favourite book series. 4 stars.
Rating: really liked it
An intriguing book, it draws the reader in little by little.
It is fantastic, imaginative ... but inconsistent. Amid moments of brilliance there are also islands of abstraction so murky, almost Kafkaesque in absurdity, that I could not follow. But it is interesting enough that I will probably read the sequels.
Of course that is another detraction, this book does not stand alone but leaves the reader with many questions unanswered. Fun questions that lead the reader to seek further, but a work of literature should be able to be read alone (with obvious, but genius exceptions!). The ideas of alternate realities and worlds within worlds are very interesting and King may be uniquely qualified, as a literary descendant of Lovecraft, Matheson and Blackwood to pull it off.
****2015 amendment******
"The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed." The iconic opening lines have stayed with me for a couple of years and I find myself thinking about this series, and more specifically, what have I missed? Hundreds of thousands of people love this series and I am left on the outside looking in. I think when I first read this I was put off by the purely fantastic setting, but now, maybe three years after I read the first, I am ready to return and give this another try.
** 2018 - This series brings out so many mixed emotions from me. When I first read this, I thought I'd missed the boat and was going to be on the outside looking in. Years later I started the rest of the series, but I take these books slow. I like / love / dislike his writing here, but keep coming back. I just started Wizard and Glass, the fourth in the series, almost nine years after reading this one. So I'm reading on the pace of how he published these!
Rating: really liked it
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1), Stephen KingThe Gunslinger is a novel by American author Stephen King and is the first volume in the Dark Tower series.
As Roland travels across the desert in search of the man in black, whom he knows as Walter, he encounters a farmer named Brown and Zoltan, Brown's crow. Roland spends the night there and recalls his time spent in Tull, a small town Roland passed through not long before the start of the novel.
The man in black had also stayed in the town; he brought a dead man stricken by addiction to the opiate-like "devil grass" back to life and left a trap for Roland. Roland meets the leader of the local church, who reveals to him that the man in black has impregnated her with a demon. She turns the entire town against Roland, and Roland is forced to kill every resident of the town. When he awakens the next day, his mule is dead, forcing him to proceed on foot.
Roland arrives at an abandoned way station and first encounters Jake Chambers, a young boy. Roland collapses from dehydration, and Jake brings him water. Jake knows neither how long he has been at the way station nor exactly how he got there, and he hid when Walter passed through.
Roland hypnotizes Jake to determine the details of his death and discovers he died in a different universe that appears much closer in nature to our own. He was pushed in front of a car while walking to school in Manhattan. Before they leave, Roland and Jake search for food in a cellar and encounter a demon. Roland masters the demon and takes a jawbone from the hole from which it spoke to him. ...
عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «تفنگدار»؛ «هفت تیر کش»؛ نویسنده: استیون کینگ؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه آوریل سال2009میلادی
عنوان: تفنگدار؛ اثر: استیون کینگ؛ برگردان کتایون نصیری مجد؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، نشر زهره، سال1387، در296ص، شابک9789642981052؛ کتاب نخست از هفتگانه برج تاریک؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م
عنوان: تفنگدار؛ اثر: استیون کینگ؛ برگردان: فاطمه علیپور؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، عقیل، سال1388، در230ص، شابک9786005050691؛
عنوان: هفت تیرکش؛ اثر: استیون کینگ؛ برگردان: ندا شادنظر؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، افراز، سال1389، در231ص، شابک9786005050691؛
رمان «هفت تیرکش»، جلد نخست از سری رمانهای «برج تاریک »، نوشته «کینگ» است؛ «استیون (استیفن) کینگ» درباره ی این کتاب خویش میگویند: (این کتاب به نوبه ی خود، داستان کاملی دارد، اما در واقع کامل نیست! قسمتهای بعدی این داستان طولانیتر از قسمت نخست هستند، و تعداد صفحاتشان به سه هزار یا حتی بیشتر میرسد؛ من برای آفرینش این داستان حتی به مرز جنون، و قدرت طلبی هم رسیدم؛ کار با شتاب هرچه تمامتر پیش میرفت، و باید به اندازه سیصد سال زندگی میکردم، تا داستان برج را تکمیل کنم؛ نوشتن این بخش از داستان برج تاریک، با عنوان: «هفت تیرکش»، بیش از دوازده سال به درازا کشید؛ این طولانیترین زمانی است، که تا به حال صرف نوشتن کتابی کرده ام، و با آنکه نوشتن این بخش از داستان، طولانی شد، اما سوژه ی آن همواره در ذهنم زنده و پویا بود...)؛ پایان نقل
نقل از متن برگردان خانم «شادنظر»: (با قاطرش تا وسط خیابان آمد؛ خاک درون پوتینهایش را خالی کرد؛ مشکهای آبش از رکاب قاطر آویزان بود؛ مقابل بار شب ایستاد؛ «آلیس» آنجا نبود؛ به دلیل طوفان، کسی به بار نیامده بود؛ ظرفهای کثیف دیشب هنوز روی میزها بود؛ «آلیس» هنوز سالن بار را تمیز نکرده بود، و از آنجا بویی مانند بوی سگ خیس به مشام میرسید
خورجین قاطرش را از دانه های خشک و برشته ی ذرت پر کرد؛ چهار سکه ی طلا بر پیشخوان بار گذاشت؛ «آلیس» پایین نیامد؛ صدای پیانوی شب به سکوت دعوتش کرد؛ به خیابان بازگشت و خورجین را محکم به پشت قاطر بست؛ احساس کرد چیزی راه گلویش را بسته است؛ هنوز هم میتوانست از دامی که برایش گسترده بودند، بگریزد، اما شانس کمی داشت؛ به هر حال از نظر مردم شهر، او مداخله گر بود
از کنار ساختمانهای فرسوده و ساکت با پنجره های بسته گذشت و احساس کرد از میان شکافها و درزها، چشمهایی به دقت او را مینگرند؛ در «تول»، مرد سیاهپوش در مقام خدا بود؛ آیا این فقط طنزی رایج یا نشانه ی نومیدی بود؟ این سئوال اهمیت بسیاری داشت
از پشت سرش صدای فریادی بلند و عاجزانه را شنید، و ناگهان درها خود به خود باز شدند؛ پس دام را گسترده بودند؛ مردانی با شمشیر و لباسهای کثیف، زنانی با لباسهای گشاد و مندرس، بیرون آمدند؛ بچه ها در پی والدینشان میدویدند؛ در دست هر یک چوب یا چاقو بود
او خود به خود واکنش نشان داد؛ در حالیکه هفت تیرهایش را از غلاف بیرون میآورد، بر پاشنه چرخید؛ این «آلیس» بود، که با چهره ی ناخوشایند و کریه و زخم روی پیشانی اش به سوی او میآمد؛ کسی او را گروگان گرفته بود؛ چهره ی غیرعادی و نامانوس شب از بالای شانه های او پیدا بود.)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/12/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 18/09/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Rating: really liked it
Great world building and atmosphere. Definitely different from anything I've read before. It felt very scattered, like King didn't really have any idea what the next paragraph would hold. I'm sure that probably made it a blast to write, but it could've been better if it wasn't quite so disjointed.
The dialogue between characters is Star Wars Episode II level bad, unfortunately. I really enjoyed the world building though, which makes me think that the series may be worth continuing.
Rating: really liked it
صدرت بالعربية اخيرا بعنوان الرجل المسلح
Beaware that the movie's
following the Ending of the Last Book!!!
But in the first book, I suffered the Hard, Dry, Boring read of
following a Man in Black you don't know, in a weird hot dry desert in hot August for one reason,
To reach a Dark Tower you don't know where..or why..detailed in too much adverbs and ambiguity.That didn't help much to start the following 2 books I already bought...
Book one was a true disappointment for me, I never thought it'd be from you, Mr. King..
I believe in Old 'Gods' of King “‘Salem’s Lot” and the new “Under the Dome”..but this really I hated..
May be just me...but here's a confession that clear my doubts..
“Stephen King, on the foreword;
The younger man who dared to write this book had been exposed to far too many writing seminars, and had grown far too used to the ideas those seminars promulgate: that one is writing for other people rather than one’s self; that language is more important than story; that ambiguity is to be preferred over clarity and simplicity, which are usually signs of a thick and literal mind. As a result, I was not surprised to find a high degree of pretension in Roland’s debut appearance (not to mention what seemed like thousands of unnecessary adverbs). I removed as much of this hollow blather as I could,...”
Yes, that's why I hate most new authors work, but really young King here followed the rules very hard..
And it doesn't seem as if he really removed much.
The ambiguity here was in the character of the Gunslinger, who by half of the book you'd get to know some glimpse of his childhood past and coming of age.
He kills, he travel for totally unknown reason till the end of this volume…
Following another ambiguous Man in Black who's ambiguity evil and the reason he killed a whole small town.
Meeting ambiguity Boy killed in our real world and somehow he's alive in this ambitious world...which is even not the Gunslinger’s original world.
A world with wired Mutants, men with birds heads, while the Gunslinger world is even weirder.
Do you have an even small explanation on anything?
No.
“Stephen King, on the foreword;
Although I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time writing these books in the thirty-three years between 1970 and 2003, comparatively few people have read them.”
No wonder, simply because
this book defy the rules of First Book of a Series..Too ambiguous...dry dry lines for a supposed epic fantasy..
I don't believe anyone felt liking “Ronald, The Gunslinger” nor being okay with travelling with a dead boy “Jack”, or would get tense that something bad may befall him...he's already dead for God's sakes..brutal death as it is.
It's hard to love the characters if you don't understand them well enough…
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I'm not a fan of extreme fantasy, I love ASOIAF and Harry Pottet cause both more real than extreme fantasy, But till now I can't force myself reading Lord of the Rings..I loved the movies, And I loved the short “Hobbit” novel, it's short and the writing style is amazing but that's all.
Here's extreme strange ambiguous world and characters...in dry 19 years old writing by the rules of “how to be Shakespeare”, with all the strange old and weird language. and the 238 pages felt like 832 pages.
I find myself fast reading many lines, still I got it all..it's not too much stuff happening anyway. When now I have read the Wikipedia to write the review I find out the Summary ia totally enough, read it instead of this book and you're done with it.
“Stephen King, on the foreword;
The Gunslinger did not even sound like the later books—it was, frankly, rather difficult to read. All too often I heard myself apologizing for it, and telling people that if they persevered, they would find the story really found its voice in The Drawing of the Three.”
Well, Only 4 pages by the last chapter can gives u a glimpse of this tower request… it evolves God, religion, technology, creation, since...etc.
That's what I most cared for...that's the best scene of all the book..
Alas, The Man in Black doesn't know much anyway, so is The Gunslinger..
So do I, so do you if you only get yourself finishing this book.
I believe this book could have been way better if was just half the pages, and included in book two as 2 parts in one book.
It was 5 short stories once published separated. .God that'd have been awful.. Only the last one though making a bit good promise to an interesting adventure to come.
If this last one "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" came second in order of chapters that may have been at least better improvement.
I've read the preview of Book Two that included here..it was 12 pages of same prolonged one man tedious walk..till the mysterious door appears and that's when everything may change for way better adventure set in our real world..
I may love it I guess., may be when I read the next 2 books -but they're in detention till next February, the Movie release- may be then I'd appreciate this first book more.
So, till next February then.
Mohammed Arabey
From 5 Aug. 2016
To 8 Aug. 2016
Next King Stop, The Stand
