The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)

Whaddya know, Stephen King focuses on fantasy and that kind of blew me away because of my narrow center of attention on horror books such as Carrie, The Stand, The Shining, Misery, etc.

With multiple Dark Tower volumes spanning several decades, the scope of his writing is extraordinary, in addition to penning other books under the Richard Bachman pseudonym and getting involved in all sorts of other ventures.

He is a very prolific writer!

The Gunslinger is mostly a mix of fantasy and science fiction with a smattering of dystopia and horror, in a wild west style as we venture into the desert, discover rickety old towns with saloons, slatterns, memorable characters and some frantic action.

And then things get extra weird (and not necessarily for the better) as it heads off after the black man at about 50%.

Although I rate this book 4 stars, there are issues with it - a topic that has been addressed many times before - and as my first personal read through I'm going to touch base again.

The retrospective returning to memories of the past, sometimes right smack in the middle of the action can make for jarring reading, a bit like Indiana Jones or an episode of Sherlock Holmes but with the brakes suddenly put on to cut the pace.

This is a necessary character building process that leads to the next volume, but done in the wrong sequential order, which is especially confusing because of medieval concepts, references to castles, handheld weapons, going on hunts, etc., but with modern guns from the wild west and references to the future, similar to a spaghetti western oddly juxtaposed with The Once and Future King by T.H. White where anything can happen, wizards, transformation into animals, and swords in the stone.

There are even elements from the Mines of Moria in the Lord of The Rings, but instead of Aragon, Gandalf and orcs we get mutants.

The philosophizing in the latter part of the book is also a bit rich, like a summary of why we exist, but totally forgivable when you consider this is a first volume seeking its course and only getting going, originally started by a then 19 year-old budding author!

As a standalone read The Gunslinger is all over the place, perhaps like 1980s Adam & The Ants dressed as red-indian pirates with swashbuckling 18th century military attire and Burundi drumming going on in the background - a total mess - but sometimes quite brilliant.

It's a good attempt and mostly entertaining with a lot of potential and I especially enjoyed the wild west scenes in the town of Tull, and I'm now looking forward to Vol. 2 that I hear is even better?

There you go: Stephen King does fantasy, a right mishmash of styles and ideas but fascinating nonetheless!