“Size defeats us.”
A cat and mouse game of which we not know the cause or
nature, as a lone gunslinger walks across cities and deserts to reach a figure
known simply to be the man in black.
No one is perfect in this encounter – as both figures use people
as pawns in their pursuit of each other, never sure who is actually chasing
whom.
And we encounter Roland. The Gunslinger, called the
Interloper of the town which he comes across in his search of the Man in Black.
His overstay ends with deadly consequences, and if there are any to talk about
it – he might be known by one more garish name by Tull, the town he made an
uninvited home.
As a bloodbath ensures brought upon by resurrected souls and
false acolytes of the Man in Black, Roland is haunted by the encounters
throughout the story.
But that all doesn’t matter. For an unknown reason, all that
matters is reaching the figure he pursues. In his journey, he comes across the
hut of Brown and his hawkish raven Zoltan, followed soon by John ‘Jake’
Chambers.
While others are eternal members of this land, he is not. He
has been thrust into this world by the Man in Black, and in the game between
the two – he becomes the last pawn as the story ends with another story’s
beginning. And so, it continues.
The first part of Dark Tower doesn’t have much setup, beyond
teases of the past and brief mentions of the fallen. The only true people
fleshed out in some manner are in whatever passes for an afterlife by the end
of this tale. King is building something, as we are yet to discover a lot of
both the Gunslinger and the Man in Black. All we have are more questions and I
believe that is what we will discover as we continue on this path.
A solid entry, with a good blend of tragedy and adventure –
this begins something that I am not sure where it will go next. But the man in
black again flees across the desert, and the gunslinger and finally us follows.
So, I give this 8.5 out of 10.
+Interesting well rounded protagonist with a hint of mystery
+Vibrant world building
+Good usage of time to build in flashbacks and forwards
-The flow is very rushed with few establishing scenes
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