The Gunslinger

So, a friend of mine offered to let me borrow this book. Being the book-addict that I am, I couldn't refuse. He told me the writing was very unlike Stephen King, so it might not be what I expected. Having never read a Stephen King novel before (honest!), I wasn't really expecting anything in particular anyway. I just hoped it would be a good read.

And yeah, it was.

Roland Deschain is the last Gunslinger of the world, and he is following the track of the Man in Black. In the beginning, this is all you really know. The rest of the book reveals more about the history between them through a series of well-done flashbacks (as they are all-too-often poorly written) at intervals during his quest. These flashbacks unravel the mystery of Roland's character, providing some clarity to his motives, and helping one understand what made him the person he is in the present. The man can be cold, can be caring, and be yet cold again a moment later. He's a warrior, through and through, and views the world through a lens of cruel necessity.

Stephen King paints a picture of a bleak world, which is said to have "moved on". Here and there are remnants of ages long past, remnants of the modern world. Roland travels through badlands and desert, and the only civilization he comes across are lonely ramshackle dwellings and a rundown wild-west style town. Most people are poor, most animals are mutated, good food is scarce. Or at least, this is what it is like in the part of the world we first start traveling alongside Roland. Not all is as it first seems.

The book is cool. The book is weird. The book can be creepy.

The book is also very short, for a fantasy novel. 231 pages in total, in the revised and expanded version (which is the version any prospective reader should get). And this shortness makes the one problem I have with this book all the more irritating: the pacing is slow. It simply does not have enough going on during those 231 pages to turn it into a real page-turner. And that is a shame.

However, it's still worth reading. What Stephen King does with The Gunslinger is give us a glimpse into the scope of his imagination. And from what I have been told, the books that follow only get better. And if that's true, there is absolutely no reason to skip this one.

Rating: Good