Library Finds: The Gunslinger

This book marks my first experience reading Stephen King. The last time I encountered Mr. King was in 3rd grade watching The Stand on VHS and drinking Jolt Cola in order to make it through all four hours. It was awesome, and like most things from 3rd grade, not awesome. So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I entered The Dark Tower series.

So why commit so much of myself and my time (seven books long!) with someone I hardly know: LOST. The writers of the show say that the DT series has probably influenced the direction of the show more than any other written works. This being so, I feel it's like the baby I unintentionally knocked up my girlfriend with. As a diehard LOST fan and Catholic-raised man, I have to commit.

Now, I feel the same way about the sci-fi/fantasy genre and women: I like'em a little quirky, but not too quirky. Too much in fantasy direction and you lose me in alternating waves of pity and incredulity; too much in the opposite direction (realism/too serious women) and you lose me in alternating waves of apathy and incredulity.

So, which side does The Gunslinger fall on? Put it this way, if book one of the series were a girl in high school, she'd be the girl that wore one of those beanies with cat ears on it and drew anime on her notebook. It's pretty goddamned nerdy. Luckily, I picked up the revised edition, which King wrote a forward explaining that he wrote the book when he was 19, so he applied a little of what he now knows as a writer to the book. Thank you, Mr. King. I can only imagine what it was like before. Woof. The premise is pretty cool, but the language is pretty difficult to get through at times without gagging or rolling your eyes. I mean, it's still better than anything Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) wrote. That guy eats my poo.

The premise: Take Clint Eastwood's character from The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly, mix in a little Arthurian legend, and a shake of Cormac McCarthy's American dystopia. Voila. The gunslinger chases down the Man in Black (why, we don't really know yet) until the very end of the book, where he finds a little of his destiny (to reach the dark tower, a nexus of time and space).

If you can make it past some of the stilted language and pacing, it's not a bad read. The end' is promising, and, apparently, the quality of the books improves drastically with each successive installment. I've already got book two on hold.

Let me know what you think of it.