A mix of fantasy and western motifs, The Gunslinger is set in Mid-World, a future dystopia which vaguely resembles the Old American West, except that technology has largely been forgotten. A rusted gas pump bearing the name Amoco is worshipped as a totem of a thunder-god. Highways and train tracks lay in disuse, obscured by devil-grass, sand, and the ruin of time. Guns are rare weapons.
The story begins with the last gunslinger Roland of Gilead following the Man in Black into the Mohaine Desert. It is just the first of many lush passages which make this book such an enjoyable read.
The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions. It was white and blinding and waterless and without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which sketched themselves on the horizon and the devil-grass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death.
Roland meets several characters during his pursuit — first, Brown the hut-dweller, and then Jake Chambers, a boy from New York brought to Mid-World by the Man in Black. He palavers with each and the narrative begins to reach backwards through Roland’s flashbacks. He tells Brown the fate of Tull, a shanty-town on the edge of the desert where the Man in Black used sorcery to raise the dead. Roland reveals that he has been chasing the Man in Black for much longer than the beginning of the book — ever since the age of fourteen in New Canaan, where The Man in Black attempted to have Roland exiled.
And when Roland catches up to the Man in Black, he is treated to a revelation about the Dark Tower — it is a nexus of time and place which encompasses the entire universe and is controlled by the Crimson King.
The Gunslinger offers lush, descriptive prose, as well as fantastic twists, but suffers from uneven pacing: the story’s early peak is followed by a slow chase to the finish. It flashes enough promise, however, that readers will be enticed to continue the rest of the series. There are some pleasurable and exciting scenes — expansive landscape descriptions, a harrowing sermon and heart-pounding action sequence in Tull, ominous foreshadowing, and tender moments between Roland and Jake which help portray the Gunslinger as a more complex character, if only slightly, than the stoic anti-hero he appears to be. It’s a great start to the series and definitely worth a read.
For more information about the Dark Tower series, head over to Tor.com and check out Suzanne Johnson’s excellent coverage.
The Aberrant Rag 