Disappointed with Dark Tower

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Brooks

Well-Known Member
Nov 4, 2014
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I'm a SK fan who loves the various genres that he writes in. I've devoured most of his books and can't put most of them down once I start reading them.

That being said, I've started the Dark Tower series twice without continuing the book. The first time I started but got busy and returned it to the library. Second time I was much more dedicated and really tried to get interested. However, I just bored with it by page 100. I was actually starting to get depressed by the atmosphere of the gunslinger's travels.

The series has such a loyal and die hard following that I want to enjoy it. Should I just keep reading and finish the first book? Does it get more exciting? What am I missing?

I can't say I've ever had this problem with another SK book......
 

morgan

Well-Known Member
Jul 11, 2010
29,353
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North Dakota
I'm a SK fan who loves the various genres that he writes in. I've devoured most of his books and can't put most of them down once I start reading them.

That being said, I've started the Dark Tower series twice without continuing the book. The first time I started but got busy and returned it to the library. Second time I was much more dedicated and really tried to get interested. However, I just bored with it by page 100. I was actually starting to get depressed by the atmosphere of the gunslinger's travels.

The series has such a loyal and die hard following that I want to enjoy it. Should I just keep reading and finish the first book? Does it get more exciting? What am I missing?

I can't say I've ever had this problem with another SK book......
I didn't finish The Gunslinger the first time I started it either. Like DJ said - stay with it!
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
How about starting The Drawing Of The Three then? It's the second book in the series and it really does pick up the pace. You won't miss too much from the first book and you can always go back to the Gunslinger after you finish the second installment. The Gunslinger is very different from King's usual writing style- it's quite dry (pardon the pun!) and starkly written. The Dark Tower is King's greatest achievement (IMHO). You've got to read it if you're a true die-hard fan.
 

not_nadine

Comfortably Roont
Nov 19, 2011
29,655
139,785
Behind you
Wish I could like Spidey post twice.

Yes, do it. It was only until I joined these boards that I went on. Gunslinger was tough for me.. But in reading all the praise here I had to see what I was missing. I had read almost all of SK's works before that.


So I did.
And it changed me.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
I found the first read of Gunslinger difficult too.
But stick with it, Drawing of the Three is quite simply amazing.
A lot of CRs say something like the above about The Gunslinger. I found the prose dry, and so perfectly appropriate for the story since it occurs mostly in a desert, and reading it was so eerily reminiscent of some Clint Eastwood spaghetti western that I felt quite at home there.
 

carrie's younger brother

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2012
5,428
25,651
NJ
A lot of CRs say something like the above about The Gunslinger. I found the prose dry, and so perfectly appropriate for the story since it occurs mostly in a desert, and reading it was so eerily reminiscent of some Clint Eastwood spaghetti western that I felt quite at home there.
The Gunslinger is my favorite of all the DT books. I was actually disappointed with the direction the story and writing took when The Drawing of the Three came out. I got used to it though and wound up liking all the books for what they added to the entire story.
 

Opopanax

Well-Known Member
Dec 11, 2014
53
263
I tried the first three years ago, then kind of lost track waiting for Wizard and Glass to come out. Didn't reapproach until recently and had an ENTIRELY different experience. I don't know what changed, exactly, except maybe me. When I was younger I was always after the good scare, and consequently some of King's best work kind of... well, went over my head, though I'm loath to say something that makes me sound so oafish. :hammer: DT is his true magnum opus, and stands as one of the great fantasy epics ever written. It defies categorization, transcends genre, re-defines epic. Don't give up; you won't regret the journey.
 

MadBoJangles

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2015
255
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My second time through, I appreciated The Gunslinger in a whole new light too.
I won't point out any obvious spoilers, those of us that have read DT in it's entirety should get where I am coming from.

But that said, I still think of it as one of the weaker books in the DT series...maybe Sonnet is right and I should think about a reread sometime soon!
I wanted to read Swan Song and The Stand this year, Swan Song is done, I may have to start the Tower books again and slot in the other planned books inbetween!! :)
 

Aloysius Nell

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Apr 1, 2014
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The Gunslinger is my favorite of all the DT books. I was actually disappointed with the direction the story and writing took when The Drawing of the Three came out. I got used to it though and wound up liking all the books for what they added to the entire story.

YESSSS!!! Although I grew to love Eddie and Susannah, I was extremely disappointed at what I felt was a "hokey" mishmash of two ideas. I had loved the Gunslinger for its starkness and ability to bring a new world to life. Our world seemed so ...dirty...after Roland's.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
YESSSS!!! Although I grew to love Eddie and Susannah, I was extremely disappointed at what I felt was a "hokey" mishmash of two ideas. I had loved the Gunslinger for its starkness and ability to bring a new world to life. Our world seemed so ...dirty...after Roland's.
What two ideas do you mean?
 
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Aloysius Nell

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2014
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I was trying to avoid a spoiler, since I couldn't remember what to type for the spoiler magicthing and was too tired to look it up.
But basically, two universes. Roland's was its own thing, and I felt it was cheapened for airplanes and Pepsi to intrude. I got over it, though.
Waste Lands is my favorite, I think; even the Jake/New York sections feel "Roland-y".
 
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