By Stephen King
Signet Books
315 pages
Available at Goodwill Bookstore
Inspired by a Robert Browning poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," The Gunslinger is the first in a series of books in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. A quick check reveals that King actually began the series during his college years and completed it intermittently over a period of 12 years — the same years wherein King scribbled his way into being one of the greatest horror writers and best-selling authors of our time. Surprisingly, however, The Gunslinger, or the entire Dark Tower series for that matter, is not a horror tale. Part fantasy, part science fiction, it retains its own identity in the growing Stephen King collection.
Roland, the main character, is a gunslinger that is straight out of the wild, wild west. But instead of battling outlaws and whatever critter the desert spews out, Roland — or "the gunslinger", as he is referred to in the book — finds his own eerie adventure in a world that has "moved on": a dying world filled with macabre menace (like wizards and strange creatures) and ominous landscapes (like portals into different worlds), which is a dark picture of what the world as we know it could become. Bound by honor, the emotionally-dead gunslinger impassively seeks out an elusive sorcerer — "the man in black" — and the dark tower in a quest to save the world.
In a burst of the metaphysical, which the indifferent Roland hardly bothers to reflect on, he encounters one interesting character as he crosses the desert: Jake, a boy who abruptly left the human dimension under the wheels of a Cadillac, courtesy of "the man in black". Jake becomes a companion of sorts for Roland, and together they embark on a horrifying journey, in complete darkness, through a mountain train tunnel. The end of the tunnel finds Roland’s honor put to a test as he chooses between saving the boy and pursuing the dark tower.
The Gunslinger, like most of King’s books, is more heavy on character rather than plot, but, as always, it is this style that puts King’s talents in the best light. Roland hardly elicits sympathy, being the unemotional character that he is, but Jake’s more passionate and opinionated character becomes his perfect complement.
This book being the first of a series, later books would thresh out the story further, exploring the subplots, providing a richer backdrop (like the circumstances that led to Roland’s quest), and explaining other important characters (like the gunslinger’s teacher, his fellow gunslingers, his lover, and the elusive man in black). The Gunslinger, however, and despite the fact that it is a very short novel, makes for a worthy introduction, sowing the seeds of one of King’s masterpieces. – Althea Lauren Ricardo