Fantasy and Vampire Book Club discussion

Come read along for a buddy read with Sana and Amy if you are up for some Stephen King.

I'm planning a 15th start to read. I'll come back if it is sooner or later.

So I went out and got the recent revised edition of The Gunslinger. I've only managed to read the introduction and foreward by the author. I'm going to start it as soon as I finish my current book.

I just got my audio copy from the library. I've had the digital for almost a week so I have a little over 2 weeks to read it, but will probably end up listening, so 3 weeks. I'll start it this week after my re-read of White Hot, I'm 1/2 way through and Darkling 1/3rd there. I'm predicting 3 days for a start.

I wonder how the revised edition compares to the original? I'm just starting today so will probably catch up with the introduction and forward, if that is even in the audio.

The revised edition is thirty five pages, or about nine thousand words more. And added two or three new scenes.

confession time: I've never bread a Stephen king novel. so I might join in but I'll try the first book and see how I go from there.

I think the Gunslinger is the first book. Though there might be a short story first?

It also is the book that the movie "The Dark Tower" is based off of. I haven't seen it so cannot say for certain, but it didn't do well at the box office.

Well I've started this and then pushed through the slow beginning and got to the slow middle. He doesn't even meet the kid until 1/3 in. It is all him, following after the man in black. (view spoiler)[ Except he stops for a night and considers killing a man because he might not be able to sleep at night. Also kills a whole town because they turn on him when he is about to leave, at first I thought the guy was trying to steal his mule. He slept(sleeps) with an older woman with a scar that has a number in her head from the man in black for this town. There is a crazy religious zealot and we get the preaching. The man in black had resurrected a dead man before he had left, which is the main point, other than the woman with the number. And he tells this story to the man with a campsite he stays at for a night, the one he though about killing. Pretty boring stuff, then he goes into the desert and meets the kid and goes to the south, the dark tower, to follow the man. (hide spoiler)] Wow, I don't know which of those are great spoilers since pretty much all of it is hokey. Truly, I don't know what kind of world I'm in, an alternate, a future, afterlife? I don't really know that the gunslinger in good, in fact by his thoughts, maybe not, or that the man in black in bad, probably is as resurrection is not usually good. And, I really don't care at this point.

I don't think this is going to be a book I like and it will probably paint all my thoughts on Steven King. I read my friends and follows and they are 3.4 stars but what is funny is the 3 star reviews don't sound like 3 but 1 or 2 in what they say and the 4 stars are not raving saying wow, that was pretty good, no they are like, hey it is a start and probably gets going in the next book. What? I'm not going to the next if it doesn't have something more in this one.

OK here is my 1 star, yes, 1 star review. It had no definite reason behind the simple, chase after the man in black plot. He explains some things at the end but it is vague and uninteresting to me.

He sees the all encompassing white light representing the universe and hey there is a blade of grass, yet he is infinitesimal, and the blade of grass is purple.

To me this is reminiscent of Life the Universe and Everything when Zaphod sees the whole universe supposedly and is supposed to go crazy because it makes him so small and insignificant. Still he is so big headed that he "discovers" that he is the greatest thing of all. Now that was funny. The purple blade of grass, no idea what it is supposed to mean and not interesting because it is meaningless.

I went on a bunch of forums where people say to skip this first book if you want to read the Dark Tower series, and I wish I had.

My first Stephen King was NOT a success. You might want to read the next book first.

i might start with the second book and then go to the first( if i get too confused)

The first book will not help you in confusion as I think that is all it really does. It hypes up and just vague and strange enough to leave you hanging with, what was the point of that? Maybe the 2nd book would clear up the confusion of the first but I just cannot do more of that. Let me know what you think of the 2nd because right now there is no way but if you love it...

Finally, I finished it and gave it 3 stars. I have no idea what to make of this book. Baffling and intriguing. The writing felt disjointed and full of weird descriptions and phrases.

What I enjoyed most was the apocalyptic, western world of the Gunslinger. It's in ruination or in Roland's own words "the world has moved on" and somehow the Dark Tower is at the center of everything. It's an alternate world, with doorways opening in our own. That's how Jake ended up here.

I'm a huge fan of Stephen King but his writing style is just isn't for everyone. He's a great story-teller but a bit difficult to understand. Even with all the ambiguity and a very dry narrative it managed to drew me in to the complex world of Gunslinger and his quest for The Dark Tower.
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed….” So I'm definitely gonna follow them and hopefully get some answers.

Oh, I understood Jake happening in on a doorway, maybe from death, but really it was so "disjointed" and without a true reason for the main plot of chasing after the man in black, that it bored me. Maybe the descriptiveness of the world can carry it for some as a lot of people really like description, I guess I did in Outlander, but for me the plot didn't carry it. I will be interested to hear if you like the next ones more as most say that is where the story really starts. This is like an intro to the Gunslinger, who at the end, I didn't really like much.