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A review by chasecassandra
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
2.0
To begin, I understand why people adore The Gunslinger by Stephen King.
The world is mysterious, powerful, varied, and impossible.
The gunslinger is a worthy hero with mortal flaws, a worthy purpose, and the attitude of an anti-hero.
King's writing is brutal, honest, just plain good.
However, I liked very little of this book.
Many times throughout the book, it felt as if Stephen King had pulled sentences out of nowhere and slapped them down on the page. While I appreciate a narrative that lets me discover the world as the story progresses, nothing in The Gunslinger's world made any sense.
As is true of any Stephen King novel for me as well, despite good writing, I can only take small doses. This short book took me almost two weeks to read because I constantly had to put it down and pick it back up again to give my head a rest in between.
Honestly, the book felt like a waste of time. I recognize that this book is establishing a foundation from which to grow but I have no interest in continuing on. If the first book cannot serve the purpose of hooking the reader, what is the point of doing so much grunt work?
Readers who love high fantasy, abstract worlds, and enjoy a decent amount of confusion in their books will certainly love Stephen King's The Gunslinger. For those that do not love but like these elements but have a lot of patience, I would also recommend this book.
Everyone else should not bother. If you want a Stephen King novel to read in order to get a sense of his style and a good chill down your spine, pick up one of his more famous one-off titles: Carrie,
Pet Cemetery, It, or The Shining.
The world is mysterious, powerful, varied, and impossible.
The gunslinger is a worthy hero with mortal flaws, a worthy purpose, and the attitude of an anti-hero.
King's writing is brutal, honest, just plain good.
However, I liked very little of this book.
Many times throughout the book, it felt as if Stephen King had pulled sentences out of nowhere and slapped them down on the page. While I appreciate a narrative that lets me discover the world as the story progresses, nothing in The Gunslinger's world made any sense.
As is true of any Stephen King novel for me as well, despite good writing, I can only take small doses. This short book took me almost two weeks to read because I constantly had to put it down and pick it back up again to give my head a rest in between.
Honestly, the book felt like a waste of time. I recognize that this book is establishing a foundation from which to grow but I have no interest in continuing on. If the first book cannot serve the purpose of hooking the reader, what is the point of doing so much grunt work?
Readers who love high fantasy, abstract worlds, and enjoy a decent amount of confusion in their books will certainly love Stephen King's The Gunslinger. For those that do not love but like these elements but have a lot of patience, I would also recommend this book.
Everyone else should not bother. If you want a Stephen King novel to read in order to get a sense of his style and a good chill down your spine, pick up one of his more famous one-off titles: Carrie,
Pet Cemetery, It, or The Shining.