SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

For those of you reading along who have not read this before, will you be continuing in the series? Trying out the comic books?

I won't be. The book didn't engage me enough to want to read the rest.

I haven't started yet because of an unexpected arrival of an interlibrary loan book. I hope to start The Gunslinger Sunday and finish it that day.

I'm only 1/3 through the book, but I don't anticipate reading the rest of them.

I will be continuing the series, and I've already picked up The Drawing of the Three — I'm hoping to get to it next month. My husband has read books 1-4 and he said that the series definitely gets better. King even said in his foreward that The Gunslinger is a difficult book for the reader, which I agreed with, even though I read the revised version which supposedly made things clearer. I guess the next book (maybe the next two books?) goes back before the events we read about in The Gunslinger.

I hate the comic book versions of book almost as much as i try to avoid movies of books I realy enjoyed.

I create a very vivid mental image of characters and setting in my mind as I read. the comics or movies almost never match and often contrast horible with my creation.

I have books 1-5 ... so I will continue reading as I have time; especially since they are reported to be significantly different (and improving as King matures as a writer).

The Gunslinger intrigued me enough to continue reading. I'm halfway through the Waste Lands right now and I'm looking forward to reading book 4.

I'm fortunate though, a friend had the series and lent them to me.

Maybe this has a lot to do with the fact that I have been a King fan for a long time, but I am surprised that so many people don't want to continue the Dark Tower series.

I know that the series is definitely not for everyone, but The Drawing of the Three is where the series really starts to get interesting, and in my opinion, only gets better from there.

I personally love the entire series, and have read it through from start to finish quite often. Once King gets going, he definitely brings his characters to life, and I feel like I am constantly learning something new about them and their world(s).

I wouldn't want anyone to waste time reading something that they aren't interested in, but I would hate to see anyone miss out on something they might enjoy simply because the first book wasn't the best representation of the series as a whole.

*shrug* Just my 2 cents! ;)

The comic books are kinda an adaptation of the books, they take place when Roland is young. I don't think you need to read all the books to enjoy them.

I read the first 4 and really enjoyed them; I was truly captivated.

But when I tried to read the 5th "Wolves of the Calla" something just did not work for me I was completely bored and not remotely engaged with the characters or the plot.

I don't know if that was just me at the time or something else but at the moment i feel no inclination to finish the series.

I am not a King fan. I always find that I start off liking his books and then about one third of the way through I grow frustrated, and two thirds of the way I am completely angry, so I approached The Gunslinger with no positive expectations. This was reinforced after I read King's intro and foreword in the book I have. Since The Gunslinger was supposed to be inaccessible, I really figured it was something I would hate. But I have been very pleasantly surprised. I am about two thirds of the way through and I am not frustrated; in fact, I am still liking it very much. There is something in the strange bent and twist he gives familiar things that makes it one of the most refreshing bits of fantasy I have read in a while (but, then, I've been reading crappy Forgotten Realms novels at the behest of a friend, so that is not hard). All this to say I will at least read book 2.

I've read them all and although Gunslinger is a little rough around the edges, I loved the entire series.

Cicero - Wolves of the Calla was probably the hardest for me to get into, but it's really worth finishing.

The Dark Tower series isn't for everyone, obviously... but as I progressed through the series, I grew to love all of the characters and thought the storyline was incredibly engaging. For me, characters are what King does best and by the end of the series, I really felt like I knew these characters.

(SPOILER )I finished the whole series. 7 books? I forget. It was last summer, borrowed from my son, and toward the last book, I just wanted to get through the damn thing, and have some closure. I liked many of the plot twists and the way he jumped into another persons life in the early books, but interacting directly with Stephen King (or his doppleganger??) got stupid and rather confusing. But by that time I was committed and as god is my witness I was going to finish it! But I certainly don't want to look at the comic books and you can't make me. ;-)

I read the first two and they were not bad. I may eventaully finish the series--I am a King fan. However, the real problem is I just have so many books to read, that I might night get back to them for a qhile.

I read this book a few years ago (and sadly wasn't able to re-read it for this), and I keep seeing books 5 and 7 everywhere but never the lower numbers. I wouldn't mind continuing the series but I can never find the second book! I could order it I suppose but it's not high on my list.

I found The Gunslinger to be pretty weird and by what friends have told me, the story changes quite a bit in the next books. I'm undecided. I'm not a huge Stephen King fan anyway.

Shannon, the rest of the books are definitely different from The Gunslinger, but it's hard to say whether you would like the rest of them or not. I know you like fantasy, and these definitely have a lot of that, but it also ties in with a lot of King's other books, and with King himself, as Lisa was saying. So, if you aren't a big King fan, you might not get as much enjoyment out of it as I do.

Lisa, I was confused with that aspect of the story too, but it does make sense on subsequent readings! ;)

And, I was really disappointed with the "Gunslinger Born" graphic novel (or comic book, or whatever the PC term is these days). Not because it wasn't good, it definitely was, but it was just a rehash of Roland's adventures in Mejis from Wizard and Glass. It brought absolutely nothing new to the series, which is what I was hoping for. I guess if you know that going in, then you're golden!
I have not yet seen any of the others though, maybe they are a little bit more of what I was expecting.

I read all the books, thoroughly enjoying them as well, until I reached the last book of the series and my friend (who had already read it) told me about the surprising turn of events in the 7th (mentioned by Lisa). The whole idea put me off and I never picked up the last book.

What a shame that your friend spoiled it for you, Anna. You invested all that time reading through 6 books and getting to know the characters, and now you don't know what happened to them... Unless your friend mentioned that too, of course, haha. :)

I am curious what specifically put you off though. Did you feel it was too egotistical? or too confusing? or a cop-out?

Thanks Becky, that's what I thought too :) I think if I had come across book 2 I probably would have bought it, so it's probably a good thing that I've never seen it!

The Gunslinger was a very weird book.

(SPOILERS--kind of)
Well Becky, to be honest I found the whole idea too egotistical and a bit of a cop-out as well. It's one thing in a silly romcom (like that film, Stranger than Fiction) but I had felt that the Gunslinger series was a bit more serious and intense than that.

My friend did briefly outline what happens in the last book when I asked him for more details, although I know that's not the same as reading it myself! I should one day put aside my reservations and read it myself, if only to finish up the series.

It's just, it seems like the equivalent of Mary-Sues in fanfiction, don't you think? I've actually just started a poll on this exact topic. ;)

You're welcome, Shannon!


**Further kind-of spoilers**

Anna, I can see how you can get those impressions, but that's not really how it feels reading it. It's hard to explain without getting all super-spoilery, hehe, but the way that book 7 plays out actually makes sense to me, rather than feeling like King just had no other ideas and thought he would write himself into the story.

If you've read up to Wolves of the Calla, which I believe you said you did, then you've already seen a bit of the way that King's universe, and therefore King himself, fits together.

I agree that you should give the book a chance. If you hate it, then you can say that you were right in not wanting to read it! But, you may think that it actually DOES work, after all. You never know!

Okay, okay, I am hereby ashamed for having judged a book by it's cover... :P

I love the cover art on the updated gunslinger! I also love how the hard covers in the series include a little taste of full color pages of art work. Here is some of the artwork from each book, this will not give away any spoilers unless you can figure out the story somehow from pictures? :)


http://www.stephenking.com/darktower/...

Angie, the newer trade-sized paperbacks have the same covers as the hardcovers.

I also had a trade-size "set" of the first three books, which contained the same artwork, but had different covers. These were issued I think in the early 90s...?

The art is lovely though... One of my favorites is the one of the Tet corporation building, with the rose bleeding down the side...

Anna, that's ok... I'm so guilty of that that the book police are probably planning their raid on my house as we speak!

That's why I love this site and the recommendations I get, because otherwise I probably would never read half of the great books I have read!

Too true, Becky! I've only been on this website for a short while, though, so yours is my first recommendation. ;)

Uh oh! *gulp*

Haha... If you take me up on it and end up still hating the book, blame King, not me! ;)

you sure? being a scapegoat can be fun at times!

I guess that we will just have to see... =\

I think you cant get the entire gunslinger bug until after the 2nd one im reading the series for the 2nd time had to wait so long in between books I cant remeber everything!

Unfortunately the Gunslinger doesn't seem to do a great job of getting many people to appreciate the series. I was interested myself, no problem, but I won't say I was hooked until I read Drawing of the Three (Second novel in the series.). If any of you out there have gotten even a little amount of pleasure from reading Gunslinger, please read Drawing of the Three. It's where Roland really builds his ka-tet and takes much bigger strides than the Gunslinger.

I agree Tek, The Drawing of the Three is where the series starts getting good. I think that The Gunslinger is really best appreciated when starting the series again the second time around. I've read the series through several times, and each time it just gets better.

I loved this series.

I;ve recommended skipping book 1 altogether. Its recapped in book 2 anyway. I think The Drawing of the Three and Wastelands are the best in the series. As for the last three books, alot of people complained about the hurry up job he did in the end as if He just wanted to be done with it. This may be true, but I think even so they were well done and clever.

One thing I will say is that the series doesnt truly grab you until the second book, Drawing of the Three. If you absolutely hated this book, then dont bother. But if you liked it enough to be curious, try Drawing of the Three. If you dont like Drawing then put it down and forget this series ever existed.

Tek wrote: "One thing I will say is that the series doesnt truly grab you until the second book, Drawing of the Three. If you absolutely hated this book, then dont bother. But if you liked it enough to be curi..."

I had the exact opposite reaction. I loved the The Gunslinger , and never got past the beginning of The Drawing of the Three .

I thought The Gunslinger was a decent story. I probably wouldn't have stuck with the series if I hadn't had strong nagging encouragement to do so, but I'm sure glad I did. (I ran through the whole series like a madwoman a couple of summers ago.) The Drawing of the Three is now one of my favorite books, and I enjoyed most of the rest of the series, as well. (There are notable exceptions - chunks of writing spread throughout the series I found highly irritating, but I won't get into that here.) The Drawing of the Three introduces many finely-drawn characters and is a taut, gripping narrative. It's genuinely great dark fantasy.

I honestly feel The Gunslinger is more of a prequel and can work as a stand-alone "set in the Dark Tower universe". I would read it for the set-up and backstory, etc., and as a character study of Roland, but I wouldn't say it actually establishes the feel of the world of the Dark Tower series. It's just not...epic enough, weird enough, vast enough, whereas The Drawing of the Three jumps right in with guns blazing.

You know, my advice to someone interested in the series but not really lovin' the first book: Read the graphic novelization of the first book. You'll get the gist, it will go much faster, and it's nicely illustrated to boot. Then jump in to the second book of the series, having had the crash course in backstory.