The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger

Stephen King 

“The Man in Black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed” is the opening line to what is considered to be one of the best fantasy novel series ever written. 

"The Dark Tower" by Stephen King is considered by many to be one of the strangest and best-written series ever put to print. The first book follows Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, a group of Arthurian knights mixed with classic western marshalls and bounty hunters tasked with protecting the Allworld, a world that is “moving on” or dying. Roland is hunting the mysterious Man in Black for reasons that are unclear at best and foolish at worst. 

Roland himself is clearly based on classic spaghetti western characters like “The Man with No Name” from the film ”The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly” by Sergio Leone and if the Gunslinger is good at anything it's making you understand Roland’s demeanor and his character as a quiet yet sharp and deadly man who seems to look right into your soul and seems to know what you're going to do before you do it. 

King builds this barren world and an equal morally grey character around it while also giving little information about the villain that still builds him up as a formidable opponent to Roland. 

However, where this opening book shines is in its worldbuilding. King is able to build a dark barren landscape that coincides well with both the themes and tone of the book and the classic spaghetti western inspiration of the story. 

Despite the Gunslingers' many achievements it is not flawless and is in fact considered to be the weakest book in the entire Dark tower series. Its main issues revolve around the pacing of the story and certain moments where something is “explained'' but not really and it means the audience who don’t know much about the world or the backstory yet have to figure it out. 

While trusting the audience to come to their own conclusions is a good thing it's hard to do that right when half these references lead nowhere. Another criticism weighed against the Gunslinger and the Dark Tower, in general, is that you should read some of King's other work before you start The Dark Tower. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, reading a short story from King just to gauge his writing style is smart. But it has led to many saying the Gunslinger cannot stand on its own. 

All in all, I give the Gunslinger an 8/10. The book draws the reader in with the story and worldbuilding along with the interesting and well-written characters. However, some of the pacing and certain poorly explained moments keep it from being a 10/10.