From the book jacket:
Eerie, dreamlike, set in a world that is weirdly related to our own, The Gunslinger introduces Roland Deschain of Gilead, of In-World that was, as he pursues his enigmatic antagonist to the mountains that separate the desert from the Western Sea. Roland is a solitary figure, perhaps accursed, who with a strange singlemindedness traverses an exhausted, almost timeless landscape. The people he encounters are left behind, or worse — left dead. At a way station, however, he meets Jake, a boy from a particular time (1977) and a particular place (New York City), and soon the two are joined — khef, ka, and ka-tet. The mountains lie before them. So does the man in black and, somewhere far beyond...the Dark Tower.
Moe's Review
The first novel in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger, introduces us to the Roland Deschain, the last of the gunslingers. Roland lives in world that has "moved on", it's a world that is dying and all that remains is a barren wasteland. Roland is a man of action, a, driven, honor-bound, and emotionless.
The book begins with one of King's greatest opening lines: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." This line perfectly sets up the rest of the novel. Roland pursues his nemesis, a mysterious man named Walter, the "man in black", and as he does he leaves behind an ever growing body count. Roland will do anything in his pursuit of the man in black and his Dark Tower even though he knows little about it. All he knows is that he can save himself as well as the world around him if he can make it to the Dark Tower, and the only thing that will stop him on this quest is death.
As Roland makes his way across the desert on the tail of the man in black, we begin to learn more about the Gunslinger, his past and his quest for the Dark Tower. King doesn't give us a whole lot of information but drops lots of hints about Roland's violent past, a revolution in his birth place Gilead, a tragic family betrayal - all of which seems to stem from Roland's father's old sorcerer, a man named Marten. We do learn about Roland's training to become a gunslinger at the hands of a man named Cort, and we learn of some of Roland's childhood friends who are also on the path to become gunslingers.
On Roland's journey across the desert he meets Jake, a young boy who died in our world by being hit by a Cadillac, pushed into traffic by the man in black. How his death led to him being transported into Roland's world is left a mystery but Roland quickly befriends the boy and the two of them continue on their pursuit of the man in black. They make a harrowing journey through a mountain and at the end Roland is forced to choose between the boy's life and his pursuit of the man in black. The Gunslinger finally catches-up to the man in black where he tells Roland's future with a deck of Tarot cards and then dies.
Not the strongest book in the Dark Tower series but a great start and introduction to Roland and the world that he inhabits. Roland is one of my all time favorite King characters, he is just such a badass. The Dark Tower series could be King's greatest achievement, and if you are going to read it (and you really should) you have to start here. |
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