Critic Girl

An image from "Gunslinger Born," a graphic novel based on the Dark Tower series. From rollingstone.com.

The Gunslinger is not an easy book to read. Of course, I knew this after reading the pages before the actual story. The introduction by Stephen King offers an interesting look at how he developed the idea of his Dark Tower fantasy epic and how he revised it. He admits that the first couple of books had inconsistencies, and that the action doesn’t pick up until later in the series. I think it’s quite perceptive of him to realize his errors.

The opening of the book has no dialogue; it is just pages of a gunslinger’s observation of his desert environment. I must say that I casually glanced over that part until the fun started. However, it didn’t get interesting until the gunslinger title character, Roland, began revealing his past. His childhood stories, and as well as his experiences in the Western-like town of Tull, are the most fascinating parts of The Gunslinger. His journey across the endless desert in pursuit of the mysterious man in black is by contrast tiring and slow.

The Gunslinger gives out less answers as to what’s going on than “Lost” does. I was left scratching my head as to who the man in black is, why he is important, why is Roland searching for some Dark Tower, what is the Dark Tower, and why does Roland think the man in black knows anything. Only a few of these questions get answered, and it left me feeling uncommitted to the series because I didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t really connect with the characters.

Roland is not very likable. He is a cold-hearted and detached gunslinger who murders anyone who presents a challenge, even innocent children. Roland also sacrifices something that becomes very dear to him, and without giving it away, it certainly did not make me appreciate Roland. I did fall for the character of Jake though. He is a young boy who was killed in our world, but ended up in Roland’s bizarre world. Jake is brave and quiet, despite all of the trauma and mind-bending experiences he has had to endure. He is much like a boy version of Roland, and they become travel companions after Roland befriends the lonely and confused kid.

The Gunslinger is hard to describe to someone who isn’t familiar with it: it’s a Western, fantasy, horror, science-fiction adventure. The plot is difficult to articulate as well. Overall, the book is hard to trudge through; I can imagine fantasy diehards and Stephen King fans becoming tired of the sluggish progression and confusing environment. It is, however, the first book in the series, so the books can only go up from there. Who knows what lies further in the series? C+