Review of The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, Book 1) (Paperback)

At under 300 pages, "The Gunslinger" - the first book from Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series - may seem oddly short, especially when compared to the latest volume from the epic, weighing in at around 700 pages. Andstill, Constant Reader, there are thousands more to go!

According to theafterword from this book, it took King twelve years to complete thewritings. He wrote the opening line, "The Man in Black fled across thedesert, and the Gunslinger followed"while an undergraduate, the middleportions when "`Salem's Lot" was going bad, and was inspired with anotherconcurrent writing: "The Stand." For King to have kept the Gunslinger, theMan in Black, Jake, and the other characters - and really the entire worldof the Dark Tower - alive for so long in his mind is a testament to notonly the power that this held over the author, but holds over us - hisConstant Readers. Moreover, since the first publishing of "The Gunslinger,"around twenty years have passed, a number of newer volumes in this serieshave come and gone - yet with this first, partially inspired by RobertBrowning's poem, "Childe Roland," and partially inspired by reams of greenpaper (read the afterword to the book), you know that this was a veryspecial creation indeed.

I am not a fan of King's horror fiction. Butwhen he gets down to writing about "other worlds than these," such as "TheStand," "Insomnia," "The Green Mile," and "The Talisman" (co-authored withPeter Straub) - there is no one better. His is an imagination to be jealousof. There is always a feeling that alternate universes exist, next to ourown. King imbues his other worlds with just enough of our own so that wefeel a tantalizing connection between our own perceptions of reality, andthose that King entertains us (Constant Readers) with.

At any rate, "TheGunslinger," at under 300 pages, is just right to introduce us to the worldof The Dark Tower, and keep us on course, with a desire to continue (and towait, ever so patiently for the next volume in the series) the journey theGunslinger started many years ago.



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