Just wrapped up one of my few excursions into the world of Stephen King. Melissa is a huge fan and has read just about everything he's ever written (and that's a lot of stuff!) except the Dark Tower series. I don't know why it never appealed to her. Maybe because it was a series of books and not a one-shot like his usual fare. Whatever it was, I decided to get her the first set in the series (there are seven installments now!) for Christmas last year. Tis the season, after all.
She has yet to read a single one yet.
Now I know why.
She started reading it one evening in the Spring. She had a perplexed look on her face. She tried again the next night. She then proceeded to explain how great Stephen King can craft a riveting tale... usually.
The Gunslinger, the first installment of the series, follows the path of the titular character, a man named Roland who incessantly chases after "the man in black". He crosses deserts, mountains and pitch dark tunnels in his pursuit. Sounds riveting, doesn't it? But I can't tell you for the life of me why he did it. Or why he didn't shoot the guy when he caught up with him (oh, yeah, hate to spoil it for you but he catches up in the end for whatever good it does him). I mean he was The Gunslinger after all!
But instead they spend there entire time talking at each other. Which isn't inherently bad. It would help to give the reader a clue about what they were talking about, though. I still don't know why Roland chased down this guy, who this guy was, or what exactly happened to this guy in the end. It was all just a very long waste of time, in my humble opinion.
There are hordes of King junkies out there who compare The Dark Tower series of books to The Lord of the Rings.
Well, I know The Lord of the Rings and you, sir, are no Tolkien!
1 comment:
This is the one series that I did start reading of Stephen King. Started reading it twenty years ago. The problem being it took five years for each book release. Yes the Gunslinger jumps between time and space but why the lapse between the release of each book? I guess I'm in the wrong space-time continuum. The last book in the series that I started reading was book IV. It is still stuck on the shelf (only got about a quarter of the way thru it).
This is definitely not a LOTR series. Don't expect to be cheered up by reading it.
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