I first became aware of this book in late junior high or high school when I was reading all of Stephen King's books. This would have been maybe 1984 at the earliest. My mother had all of his books and she had raised me on horror movies (mostly inappropriate and terrifying. Like imagine seeing The Sentinel before you're even 10 years old. It's probably why I can't love anything properly and you try to jump scare me and I'll just stand there stone-faced showing no instinct for self-preservation at all) so I figured I'd read them all. I remember holding It in my lap in the passenger seat of her Camaro as we drove home from the bookstore, excited to dive into it and see why that claw is coming out of the sewer and going for the paper ship. It was during this time that I asked my mom why she didn't own The Gunslinger as it was listed in the "Books By Stephen King" section of one or more of her paperbacks. She told me it was some limited edition thing he put out and, if you could find a copy, they were really expensive. I was dying to get my hands on a copy. But I'd have to wait until 1988 when the book was re-released with glossy and exciting pictures to help my limited comic book imagination!
Was it worth the wait? Did it live up to my imagination? Fuck yeah it did! Roland was (IS!) fucking cool, man. He fucks every chick he meets! He shoots every dirty rotten scoundrel that besets him! He, like, walks all over the place! Wait. Is that cool? Maybe I just liked that part because I walked everywhere too (except when I skateboarded by that's sort of walking, right?). And he sacrificed children for his own personal gain! I was raised areligious so if the book was some kind of metaphor for faith or searching for some higher purpose or just riddled with Biblical allusions, I missed it all. I just loved that Roland's gun made such a loud bang! Kill them mutants, Roland old buddy! Get that man in black! Let Jake fall into some other world! Ha ha! So cool!
Well, I just re-read it at the not-so-young age of 54 and let me say this: Roland is fucking cool! I just know when he gets to The Dark Tower, it'll be the most satisfying conclusion to any story ever made! I'm sure it won't end in fire like Carrie or 'Salem's Lot or The Shining or Firestarter or, um, did The Dead Zone also end in fire? No, no, that one just had a huge fire as a major plot point. At least nothing burned up in Cujo (if you don't count Cujo's brains. Poor doggy!).
Four of the five stories told in the first Dark Tower book take place in Roland's memory, one in the recent past (the massacre in Tull) and the others in Gilead when he was a teenager. I suspect the revelations from Roland's past in Gilead are supposed to be the story bits which pull a reader into the story. How did Roland's quest begin? How did he become the gunslinger? What drives him? But I kind of couldn't give a shit about his Gilead history. I just want to read his adventures while he remains mysterious and God-like. I don't want to read stories about the first time he jerked off on the roof of the castle! Or the first time he fucked a lady! Or the first time he sacrificed a friend to get something he wanted! I just want to read about him meeting Jake and sacrificing him without having to know that kind of thing is a habit of his!
Even though a friend of mine assures me that The Eyes of the Dragon is not part of The Dark Tower series, I still can't help thinking that The Eyes of the Dragon is the story of Roland in Gilead. How come I think that? Was I just that stupid as a teenager that I couldn't tell two different stories apart?!
Anyway, this book is nice and short and interesting and fires the imagination with the stories to come. Later, a lot of it will fall apart in a lot of ways and I'm not just talking about having to read King's accent for Susannah whenever her dark side takes over. How many "Child!"s and "Sure 'nuff"s can a person read before they take a Sharpie and just start obliterating every passage where Dark Susannah speaks?! I'll let you know when I begin reading my old copy of The Drawing of the Three and discover when I began blotting out big blocks of dialogue with black marker.
I know, I know! "Why's the marker gotta be black?!" Get out of here, you smart ass!
Am I done with this review? I think I'm done. Man. Roland is so fucking cool!
Was it worth the wait? Did it live up to my imagination? Fuck yeah it did! Roland was (IS!) fucking cool, man. He fucks every chick he meets! He shoots every dirty rotten scoundrel that besets him! He, like, walks all over the place! Wait. Is that cool? Maybe I just liked that part because I walked everywhere too (except when I skateboarded by that's sort of walking, right?). And he sacrificed children for his own personal gain! I was raised areligious so if the book was some kind of metaphor for faith or searching for some higher purpose or just riddled with Biblical allusions, I missed it all. I just loved that Roland's gun made such a loud bang! Kill them mutants, Roland old buddy! Get that man in black! Let Jake fall into some other world! Ha ha! So cool!
Well, I just re-read it at the not-so-young age of 54 and let me say this: Roland is fucking cool! I just know when he gets to The Dark Tower, it'll be the most satisfying conclusion to any story ever made! I'm sure it won't end in fire like Carrie or 'Salem's Lot or The Shining or Firestarter or, um, did The Dead Zone also end in fire? No, no, that one just had a huge fire as a major plot point. At least nothing burned up in Cujo (if you don't count Cujo's brains. Poor doggy!).
Four of the five stories told in the first Dark Tower book take place in Roland's memory, one in the recent past (the massacre in Tull) and the others in Gilead when he was a teenager. I suspect the revelations from Roland's past in Gilead are supposed to be the story bits which pull a reader into the story. How did Roland's quest begin? How did he become the gunslinger? What drives him? But I kind of couldn't give a shit about his Gilead history. I just want to read his adventures while he remains mysterious and God-like. I don't want to read stories about the first time he jerked off on the roof of the castle! Or the first time he fucked a lady! Or the first time he sacrificed a friend to get something he wanted! I just want to read about him meeting Jake and sacrificing him without having to know that kind of thing is a habit of his!
Even though a friend of mine assures me that The Eyes of the Dragon is not part of The Dark Tower series, I still can't help thinking that The Eyes of the Dragon is the story of Roland in Gilead. How come I think that? Was I just that stupid as a teenager that I couldn't tell two different stories apart?!
Anyway, this book is nice and short and interesting and fires the imagination with the stories to come. Later, a lot of it will fall apart in a lot of ways and I'm not just talking about having to read King's accent for Susannah whenever her dark side takes over. How many "Child!"s and "Sure 'nuff"s can a person read before they take a Sharpie and just start obliterating every passage where Dark Susannah speaks?! I'll let you know when I begin reading my old copy of The Drawing of the Three and discover when I began blotting out big blocks of dialogue with black marker.
I know, I know! "Why's the marker gotta be black?!" Get out of here, you smart ass!
Am I done with this review? I think I'm done. Man. Roland is so fucking cool!
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