I'm not really a Stephen King fan, I don't get my kicks from horror films, jump scares and bump in the night creepy stuff, so horror or thriller novels have never really tempted me. If it has a vaguely fantasy, science fiction or supernatural theme I AM THERE, but you know, that's not King's normal shtick. I did discover many years ago, that King does actually write some loosely fantasy stuff. I read The Eyes Of The Dragon when I was in high school and found it's high fantasy style to be absolutely to my taste, especially when you throw in a bit of regicide via poisoning. It seems that the land in which that was set actually relates directly to the setting of The Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger is the first book of eight and having finished it I finally allowed myself to do a little bit of googling. SPOILERS ARE THE DEVIL. Looks like the series is supposed to be one long novel, and the revised version of The Gunslinger that I read was published in 2003, but the original seed began in 1982. This series is older than me. The seventh novel was published in 2004 and there's an upcoming film starring freakin' Idris Elba - though this is not an adaptation but rather a sequel to the series. I started reading the book purely because I wanted to see the movie and now I find myself back-pedaling. I am going to end up spoiling the series for myself because I have no idea what's happening... Oh well I guess some journeys are published in a time jump format and I'm fond of those... This is a real weird magic western, my dudes. A magical, post apocalyptic, sword swinging, gun toting, western magic land with mutants and crazy people and some evil voodoo-looking, mind control nonsense. In the opening chapters we are introduced to a character of calm tenacity, a strangely familiar landscape and a gentle disconnect from the world we know. Oh, this is set on Earth, sort of. Most of his experience of the world is a different reality, some completely different land, but many of the words and sayings come from the culture of Earth we recognise. Carefully added words separate the Gunslingers world from some sort of duality, incorporated slowly and with just enough context to guess at the meaning. What's most apparent from the outset is that this guy has already seen some serious shit in his lifetime. He's on a journey of pursuit that he doesn't fully understand, and we barely come to grasp by the end of the book. The instant mystery surrounding his motives make him interesting and puzzling. He's a lonely figure with no friends, all spoken of in the past tense, and no family, revealed slowly as distant and likely deceased. Everyone he knew seems to be gone and he doesn't allow himself to ruminate too much, though for the purposes of the narrative he does play out scenes in his memory to give a better picture of his background. I say background, but really, we know next to nothing about him most of the way through. The gunslinger himself makes observations that are dreamy and then by turns matter-of-fact, taciturn and flat. You could almost comment that he holds no illusions about his place in the world but I think, and I'm guessing here based on everything I've read about this series and the impression I get of the character so far, that maybe his entire reality is an illusion. One thing is for sure, I love King's writing chops. "The wind moaned, a witch with cancer in her belly. Every now and then a perverse downdraft would make the smoke whirl and puff toward him and he breathed some of it in. It built dreams in the same way that a small irritant may build a pearl in an oyster.The gunslinger occasionally moaned with the wind. The stars were as indifferent to this as they were to wars, crucifixions, resurrections." I think I'm becoming a fan of Stephen King. Maybe. The thing is, nothing really happens in this book. The whole thing is a tease. He's after the Man in Black, playing a game of cat and mouse where we aren't sure at any point who the cat is and who the mouse might be. Things happen, he goes places, he journeys, he fights, kills, is kind, drinks with locals and then guns them down when they're possessed by the magic of the Man in Black. He encounters a young man, takes him under his wing so to speak, and eventually he catches up with his quarry. This doesn't turn out to be a rage fueled battle of aggression, though sure, he's mad as hell... They sit down to "palaver". He sits down with him and basically has his third eye blitzed wide open magically, expanding his understanding of the universe vastly but also, not at all. It's a subtle novel one moment and obvious the next with it's duality. I think that's important now, given the fact that I've done some reading about the series. I really don't want to encounter spoilers and I think that's also a ridiculous expectation considering the movie is about to come out. I don't know how I'll fare reading the rest of them if I'm essentially skipping to the end. For sure a few books I've read this year were first installments and I feel zero desire to continue the series, but those weren't adapted into movies starring Idris Elba and Matt McConaughey. If you don't know who Idris Elba is, you've been hiding under a rock and if you don't think McConaughey is a great actor then you've not seen True Detective and you absolutely should. There's a lot of uncertainty in finishing this and knowing that there's another seven of them, plus a short story and an impending movie. Will I bother finishing them? Probably not this year, but yes I think I will. Apparently if you can get through the first book and still find that your interest is piqued, then everything gets a whole lot more interesting in book two - The Drawing Of The Three. Overall, weighing content, tone, writing, character development... I'd give this a 7.5, it's actually pretty good. If you're looking for a great series, well maybe I can get back to you once I've read the rest! Look at this movie poster though, ooooooh. Book 20 in 2017
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