So, the beginning – the beginning of the
longest story I am ever likely to read!
As Roland Deschain, the last Gunslinger,
follows the man in black: death, preacher, shaman, et-al, across unyielding
desert, for a purpose we don’t yet know, he meets a corn farmer and we learn about Roland's escape from Tull, (the last town before the world turns to dust). Thirty-nine
dead and hardly a scratch!
Then, he meets Jake at a Way Station, and
as the desert morphs into mountains and Jake becomes companion, we learn that
the man in black killed Jake in modern day New York, brought him here: to use
him, weaken the Gunslinger’s hand, give Roland something to care about,
something to lose.
On entering the mountains,
Roland must face the Oracle, an ancient malevolent force that will not give
something for nothing, but the Gunslinger needs answers, he needs all the help
he can get, and like the gunfight in Tull, I particularly liked this part. It is
slightly surreal, which is the point, and feels like one of the older parts of
the book; more honest, less polished maybe.
Before finally settling Ka with the man in
black, Roland must let Jake go (for the good of the quest for the Tower), but
will he let the boy die a second time? Will he let the slow mutants take
him? Does he have a choice?
There are elements to this book that are classic
King, but there are parts that feel alien, as if they were written by another
author, which is somewhat explained in the introduction and forward of this revised
edition. The author was only nineteen when he first started
to garnish the idea for this novel, some thirty year before this edition was published.
A short novel then, (it is only a
beginning after all) and a slightly surreal one, but with the battle in Tull,
the Oracle in the mountain, the slow mutants and the almost biblical showdown with the man in
black, a rather good introduction to the quest for The Dark Tower.
Four stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment