A review by zakcebulski
The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I by Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0


52! This is it! My fifty-second book of the year! That is super thrilling to me. It is also my first step into the world of Stephen King's far reaching saga the Dark Tower. And I found it.... fine.
Let me explain.

Now, I have a bit of a storied history with King's works. I find myself gravitating more toward his "less" popular books, and finding less enjoyment out of the titans for which he is known so fucking well.
That is to say, I prefer 'Salem's Lot to Pet Sematary and I prefer the Green Mile to something like It - I am fully aware that these are not totally equivalent comparisons, but, damn, I just like his comparatively less popular books.
But, as a largely new fan of King, I felt like it was time for me to embark on this story which has its hands in so many different King stories.

The story of this book follows the titular gunslinger- Roland Deschain as he tracks with feverish dedication the man in black toward the Dark Tower. I have to say that from the start, the book is set up amazingly with such a concise sentence that tells us everything that we need to know as a foundation. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed". I truly think that this has to be one of the best opening lines which I have ever read- it immediately hooks the reader in, and informs us that the main character has his goal. 
I thought that this was exemplary, to be completely honest. 
The rest of the book follows the gunslinger (as he is referred to, and as I will refer to him here) as he continues pursuing the man in black. Throughout the story we learn tidbits about the gunslinger's back story and how he came to be the last remaining gunslinger.
I thought that this was interesting to a point, though I admittedly did find this book to drag on here and there. I found instances in the past to not be as interesting to me as reading through the current goal of the gunslinger.

One big thing which I have to commend King for is how the backstory of the gunslinger is illustrated in flashbacks, however, the personality of the gunslinger is written in a way that I love. He is shown to be cold and calculating, and possessing a "by any means necessary" mindset, which I think makes him so fucking interesting. When he meets a boy in his travels-Jake- who is already dead, and who is the "key" to the man in black, and thus to the Tower, we learn that the gunslinger will kill the boy as a means to justify the end- which is exactly what happens. We also learn in a flashback how he willingly sacrificed a bird who he befriended as a means to pass a trial. I thought that this illustration of his personality was fantastic and it truly makes me more interested in reading how his character develops in the future. 

I have always liked the man in black as a villain- who we all know as different names. I love the feeling of evil omnipotence that he exudes puts him at a level above the gunslinger. I love that this shows the disparity between the gunslinger and the man in black wherein we question if the gunslinger is on a fool's errand in trying to complete his goal. 

I did find most of the characters not totally memorable, in my view. I didn't really care about the characters from the gunslinger's past, and I didn't even much care for the boy, Jake. He truly just seemed like a character who was introduced to die and show what a stone cold bastard Roland is. 
I am hopeful that the rest of the books in this series are more fleshed out, as I am sure that they will be, because, as of now, I don't have much of an investment in learning more about any of the characters which were mentioned. 

I am fully aware that this book is commonly listed as one of the weakest entries into the Dark Tower series. I don't think that that gives a pass to any of the issues which I felt I encountered while reading. But, I will return to the Dark Tower series. I feel like if I had no knowledge about the rest of this series, and the promise that it was going to get better and more interesting, then I would have viewed this as a fine albeit forgettable book in King's canon. I am mainly interested to read how this series plays in to so many other books by King- I am a person who fucking loves some goddamn fan service or cross book references. 


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