Book Reviews and Thoughts :: The world of Books and Literature

A mystical tale of weird beings.

First of the seven books in the Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger is supposedly not the best, as per Stephen King himself. This is one of his early-in-the-career books that he is not very proud of. Nevertheless, it is the beginning of something and hence, one reads.

The Gunslinger is the story of a man on a quest. What he searches is not very clear, the importance of the Dark Tower for this man, who claims to be a human in the world of ghosts, spirits, daemons, oracles, and mystical characters I know not, is hazy. Nevertheless, the book is an intriguing collection of curious incidents and adventures in the life of the Gunslinger and several others who cross his path.

But before you make up your mind, let me tell you that the author openly claims to have used two sources as inspiration for the series: LotR and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly! Yeah, and he combines the two well. The story is painted on a cinema scope canvas of The Good… and orphic characters run all over it to create a lot of confusion in the reader’s head. The book raises questions that, hopefully, the following books in the series answer.

King’s writing style is gripping and one reads till the end. Once you get there, you will probably pick up the next book as well. So Happy Dark Tower Hunting. I hope to complete the series some day.