1. God
2. Mohammed
3. Stephen King
Looks like Mr. King is in pretty good company. OK, the above list is pure fabrication, but it illustrates my point: Stephen King must be the most popular novelist ever. As an aspiring writer of fiction, I thought it would be a good idea to check this guy out, and his Dark Tower books have come highly recommended. The Gunslinger didn't disappoint.
(brief note: I picked up my copy in a used bookstore on Khao San road, Bangkok's traveler's ghetto, thus this is not the new revised and expanded edition, and--I believe--is no longer in print, but easily attainable at just about any used book store; I am not sure how it differs from the more recent edition).
Basic Plot: Roland is a gunslinger, an order of well-trained gun-toting warriors in what seems to be a post-apocalyptic future (after the world has "moved on"), but also could be a surreal dreamscape. He follows the 'man in black' across a desert and encounters various characters; there are some flashback sequences filling in his past. The book moves towards the encounter of the gunslinger and the man in black, a sequence that illuminates the gunslinger's obsession with attaining the Dark Tower, the namesake of the series, and the reason why the gunslinger is following the man in black in the first place.
Likes: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." Thus King gives a near-perfect first line to a nearly-perfectly written book. King is popular for a reason: he is a terrific storyteller, a true master of the Craft of Story. And he, unlike many writers--especially speculative fiction ones--knows the power of never 'telling,' only 'showing.' In other words, he doesn't tell you what a gunslinger is in an awkward info dump, he shows you; he doesn't tell you why the world is how it is, he shows you (and just barely!).
If you are at all interested in the craft of writing, then it is worth reading something of King's; it is almost uncanny how proficient his prose is. Some might find it too sparse, but it works.
Dislikes: Not much to dislike. If I had to pick something it would be that I don't like flashback sequences that much--King dedicates perhaps a third of the text to them. I guess I just want to find out what happens next.
Recommendation: This is an excellent book and highly recommended; I'm surely going to read the rest of the four-book series. King captures that most essential element of speculative fiction and rides it to the end: a sense of wonder.
The Gunslinger is more of a surreal fantasy than a horror story, which King is most well-known for. There are some spooky elements, but just enough to spice it up. Imagine the wild west with supernatural elements and an atmospheric mood, and an underlying metaphysical quest to tie things together. If that sounds good to you, check this book out.
