ected and read several of Mr. King's books, but I never wanted to delve into The Dark Tower series because, whenever I heard about it, or read synopsis' of it, I was like, I don't give a shit about this "Gunslinger" or "The Man in Black." What do I care about two dudes chasing each other through the desert trying to reach some mystical tower? I don't care! Which is why I never bothered to pick up these books and just held fast with his other library of fiction. I've always been content with all the other works, and never wanted to explore his Magnum Opus. I guess I was just being a fiction snob.
Well, if you're not living under a rock, you may have heard that a movie is being made about The Dark Tower. As a King fan, I feel obligated to see this movie, whether it's shit or not. Most of the films based on his books are straight up garbage. Probably some of my favorites are the aforementioned Dreamcatcher, Stand By Me, Misery. I also enjoy Pet Semetary despite the fact that it's an awful, festering turd of a movie. So, The Dark Tower movie is supposed to be out this winter, I figured it's high time that I haul ass and get to reading these books so I can be critical and compare the movie to the books. I'm sure filmmakers being as they are will try to stretch out this series, it's eight books in total, so they may turn this in to eight separate movies. If that's the case, then I've already got the first book down and I'm ready to watch this flick.
As I began this book, my initial thoughts were holy shit this is boring, I wish I was reading anything else besides this. To me, King's writing style in this book is not very reminiscent of the majority of his other work, but maybe that's the whole idea. Maybe that's why he's a writing master. The book started out with Roland, the Gunslinger in some desolate town, probably looking for a rest after chasing Walter, The Man in Black. The time isn't really specified in the story line, it seems to be some sort of alternate reality, such that, our reality for example, exists, but Roland has no knowledge of it. While he's on the hunt for Walter, he sees mirages and experiences mind tricks sent to him by Walter. In this dusty little town, he meets a woman, naturally. She owns one of the little taverns. She tells him about the town loony toon who's trying to push her crazy religion on everyone. Roland and the tavern woman begin humping, he gets more information about Walter out of her after each hump session. He suspects this woman is placed before him as an obstacle, that the whole little town is placed before him as an obstacle. Crazy church lady is holding service a few days later and is spewing nonsense about Roland being an evil sorcerer and he needs to be stopped. The townspeople become zombies, essentially and Roland has to blow everyone away, including his hump buddy.
Through the story, we flip flop back and forth between now and Roland's childhood. He was brought up to be a gunslinger by his teacher who is a total dip shit and treats the kids like shit. Eventually, when Roland reaches the age of 14, he decides it's time for the student to become the teacher and challenges his teacher to a fight to the death. Roland has a pet hawk named David that he's going to use as his weapon. The teacher uses a staff. When they arrive to fight, Roland commands David to attack the teacher. He does so, clawing at him with his talons and ripping his eyes out with his beak. It's some pretty graphic business. Teach and Roland tussle, Teach inevitably kills David with his staff, which I found to be the saddest part of the whole book, thank you. Teach gives up and gives Roland the key to the gun cabinet so he can take his father's guns and frig off. And.. we're here with the Gunslinger today.
He moves on to another sleepy town where he encounters a youngish boy, Jake. Jake is apparently from our reality, he talks about living in a city and bus lines, the whole nine, and Roland has no idea what the hell he's talking about. It's implied that Jake may be an apparition, but he sure as hell seems pretty real. Roland agrees to let Jake come with him since he is on his own, and we basically follow them through the desert for the rest of the book until they make it to a cave where Walter is apparently hiding. In the cave they are attacked by some random creatures. and after fighting them off once, the creatures return and Jake inevitably falls down a crevasse and is seemingly worm food. Roland pays no mind and continues on to Walter. He meets with him and one would expect them to start duking it out, but they just hang out, have a fire and have some nice conversation. Walter says he has no intentions of killing Roland, but warns him a drawing is taking place, and Roland should be prepared. The next book in the series is aptly named "The Drawing of the Three" so... a little foreshadowing, eh?
My take on it is... I really had no idea what the hell was going on the entire time. The writing was obviously great, but I'm glad it was a shorter book. I'm sure it was just meant to be an introduction to the key characters and to set the basis for the entire adventure. Last night, as I was finishing the book, I found my mind wandering to different books in my "to-read queue." In any case, I'll be starting book two tomorrow, maybe that shit will make more sense to me.
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