Tuesday, February 11, 2014

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King


The first part of Stephen King’s major fantasy saga. I have read only a few of his books; probably the last one was the Firestarter about when it was published in Finnish a few decades ago. He has lot fans, but somehow I have never had an interest of his work. As this is a popular series I decided to give it a shot. The world where the book happens is fascinating and interesting. It is either a far future world after some kind of worldwide collapse or some sort of future alternative earth. A gunslinger chases an unnamed man in black, who is apparently evil, or at least he is some sort of representation of evil. The man in black seems to have some supernatural capabilities and can influence the minds of people he encounters. The gunslinger meets a few interesting charterers and tells to some of them parts of the backstory of what has happened to him earlier. By the end, we learn some version of what might be happening. The style is at places slightly confusing as at least once there was a story inside a story inside a story. The events were very surreal at places. The writing was pretty good, but this somehow this didn’t really appeal to me. I am not sure if this is fantasy or science fiction, but at least this first part felt slightly too fantasy like to my taste.

336 pp

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