I’m taking on “The Dark Tower” series! It starts with The Gunslinger.
It was reassuring to read King’s preface to the edition I picked up, in which he describes the creation of the story: he was very young, and he was very green, and it took him a very long time to finish the series. And then, as he finished, he went back and revised for clarity and consistency. I admire this, and appreciate it as a reader, and knowing that he was young and green and that there’s more depth to come gave me some patience going into this first book.
I needed that patience because it’s a little heavy handed. I’m looking forward to continuing with the series, but it doesn’t yet have the epic sense of proportion that I got from The Stand, or even The Mist, which while incredibly intimate, is so wonderfully deep and dark.
The Gunslinger is a little forced. King leans into the set-up of the two lead characters as two sides of the same coin, forces for good and of course evil. I imagine that we’ll discover that they are both equally good and equally evil, but always in balance with one another. It’s a world full of magic, and the magic is fascinating and consistent and interestingly new and fresh. If there’s one thing I’m particularly looking forward to when I pick up the second book, it will be learning more about the rules of this universe and honestly, what the point of the story is. This was a big book of exposition, the long beginning of probably a very long journey.
Let’s do it, Steve.
Yay! I love when people start on their quest for the Tower!
I’m really looking forward to more! It’s got such a big, smart, superfan base!
When you get to book 7, he’ll tell you to stop at a particular point and not keep reading. Listen when he does. You probably won’t (I didn’t) but if you read past that spot, you will deserve the heartbreak you feel. Or maybe not, it’s a lot of heartbreak, but you could have stopped.