The journey to the Dark Tower has begun! The second book for July in the #ChronologicallyKing readalong!
THR GUNSLINGER – Stephen King (Originally Published 1982)
Book Description:
In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, “The Gunslinger” leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.
Chandra’s Thoughts: 3/5 stars
I have been recommended this series by SO many people and honestly, even I wonder why I haven’t read these yet. Then I remember I read The Gunslinger about three years ago and my memories included that I was meh about the whole thing and it felt like some strange acid flashback. BUT, since I am doing #chronologicallyking for my King journey… I decided that I’m clearly going to continue the series so may as well give this another go. Also, I need to talk to my 2017 self, because I don’t quite understand why I rated it a 4… and then was excited that these last couple chapters must make up for the extremely slow first hundred pages or so like my young self was so adamant to tell everyone. Nope. I was wrong. 🤣
To be honest, I did enjoy this second read a bit more because I at least knew I was going to go in probably getting confused again. Things did make more sense to me but I still did find it a bit slow and I suppose it’s a starter book so we get to start knowing characters as the journey just gets longer and more epic as I have been told. If I’m being completely transparent, I went to wikipedia after I turned the last page and read about it there just to make sure I got everything correct. And I’m happy to report that I did. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like this is truly that hard of a read to follow. There’s just a lot going on and the imagery is gorgeous so my mind would start daydreaming.
My Thoughts: 3.5/5 stars
With the #ChronologicallyKing readalong we finally hit the beginning of the journey to the Dark Tower. I know that THE GUNSLINGER is typically the least favorite for most when it comes to this series, but I think the second time around I enjoyed it a little bit more. Simply because I know where this is leading us and I feel like I caught a few more things this time than I did the in my first experience with it. Starting this reread has me even more anxious to get to the second book!
This is a little bit slower than I remember it being, but that didn’t ruin the reading experience for me. This review is going to stay short and sweet because I don’t want to spoil anything, and please make sure you aren’t going into this expecting the same story as the movie adaptation. I’m in the minority on this, but if you solely look at the movie from the stand point of it being an action/fantasy film, then it wasn’t all that bad (in terms of the story, it definitely fell flat, but give me anything with Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey and I’ll watch it). My husband, who has zero knowledge of the books, really enjoyed it for the basic story. I hope this series gets the adaptation it deserves – and ideally in the form of a show and not one film.
Jessicamap Reviews 