Book Review: The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I" by Stephen King

Hello!

               In this post I’m going to be reviewing the book The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I by Stephen King. This book is one of King’s older novels, and was recommended to me by my brother a while back. I actually read it a few months ago, but re-read part of it yesterday because I’m on the fourth book in the series now, and needed a refresher on a particular piece of the backstory.

               The setting of The Gunslinger is a scene straight from an old western, complete with deserted towns and epic quick-drawing gunfights. The “gunslinger” mentioned in the title goes by the name Roland. Gunslingers in The Dark Tower series are a mixture of sheriffs, noblemen, and outlaws.  Roland is portrayed as your standard bandana-and-jeans-wearing cowboy, never without his trusty pair of revolvers. He’s also a man on a mission – chasing down a man who has somehow wronged him.

               Although Roland is a pretty solid main character, I think that a few more characters could have been a bit more fleshed out. The man who Roland is following, for example, as well as a person who he meets along the way. Although they’re left without much in the way of a background to make them seem more mysterious, to me it made it seem like the story was unfinished. King also had the same problem with some key parts of the plot. Although it leaves room for continuation in the next books of the series, it seems like it could have been done better.

               Another negative I saw in this book was the ending. I won’t spoil it for you, but I’ve never been a real fan of King’s endings. As a suspense writer his books are great in the beginning and middle, but he doesn’t really know how to end them because he wants to keep you “on edge.” One final thing that bugged me in The Gunslinger was the repetition. If I had seen “And the man in black fled across the desert” ONE MORE TIME, I probably would have shredded the book and never read anything again, ever.

               So although Roland’s level of awesome pistol-toting badassery comes close to outweighing many things I saw in the book as flaws, it doesn’t quite make it. There were too many plot holes and similar things for me to truly enjoy the book as a whole. I would give it a 4.5/10, with Roland earning 3 of those points for the book.

Thanks for reading!

Matt Finley