Warning: This review may contain spoilers about the book. If you are planning to read and don’t want to be spoiled, please proceed with caution!
Here begins the series of Dark Tower books, and to celebrate the movie coming out this summer, I will be reviewing EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! Now, I read this back in 2007, but this is one of the few books I remember enough that I can still review pretty easily, and I own every book from Waste Lands on forward, so I will reread every Dark Tower book I have in my possession, and the books I don’t have in my possession, I don’t need to reread because I remember enough of them to give a fair enough review on them. So we start with the book that started it all, The Gunslinger, which is centered on a lone surviving gunslinger named Roland Deschain. I feel the movie will cover this book, so it’s good I’m getting a head start here by reviewing The Gunslinger.
Now some complaints I have heard people I know say about this book is that this was the slow start to The Dark Tower series, but I find that I disagree. I actually remember when I read this that I went through it pretty fast for my age, which was unusual for me when it came to Westerns at the least. It felt like the beginning of something great, and it took a stray away from the usual horror story I might find and it actually felt like I was going on an adventure. This might be because Roland is on a legendary quest for The Dark Tower, which is said to be the center of the universe. Another character you’ll meet is Jake Chalmers, a boy that goes on the quest alongside Roland. Jake is actually really important here because he will be a major character throughout the series. Think Clementine from Telltale’s The Walking Dead and you’ll get an idea of Jake will become throughout the series.
Another thing I liked about the book is the flashbacks to Roland’s past and where he comes from. They’ll be present throughout the series as well, but from the first flashback you see in The Gunslinger, I really see myself get attached to Roland despite the fact that he’s made some very cold-blooded decision both present and past. The way they come up too works because Roland tells stories of his past to Jake just to give an idea of who Roland really is and how he became the way he is. I also love how the last chapter foreshadows and sets up the entire series. The whole Tarot Card segment was fascinating, and I couldn’t wait to see how it all unfolded with the whole Prisoner, Lady in the Shadows, Life, Death, etc.
The only negative I really have to say about the book is actually a minor one, but although this book did seem like I was going on an adventure, I knew full well that this only seemed like one long prologue to the true novel that spans the entire series, but The Dark Tower is meant to be like that, so it’s nothing major and it really tells me that I want to read more, and in the start of a series, you always want me anticipating the next book. I can also see why this book would confuse people. You kind of have to go forward with the sequels to make sense of The Gunslinger, so if you get too confused with the story, I don’t blame you. Just read on with the sequels and you might get a better understanding of what’s going on. So while this was not a long review by any stretch of the means, and neither should the review for the next book, it’s here to show you that I really want to cover The Dark Tower series and I am very excited to go and see the movie. So I will give the book 8.5/10, and that score is actually me being hard on this book because, as you will see later, The Gunslinger is NOT my favorite Dark Tower book in the series or anywhere close to it.
So, let’s explain how this whole system will be tracked. If you get the score right on the money, you will have an = by your name. If you within 1 point, an ! will appear by your name for the book. A – will appear if you were not close enough to make the close mark. Remember that you have to be at least close to the mark 6 times and get it right on the money 3 times to be eligible to win a gift.
So to take everyone’s guesses from the predictions blog for this book, let’s see how you all fared:
If you missed the previous blog, you can still enter the giveaway as there are still more chances to get the scores right. You may now guess how I will score for the next novel, “The Drawing of the Three”.
Good luck and happy guessing!
EDIT: Could you please plus the blog as you guess? I put time into these reviews.
