The Dark Tower is a series which I have consciously made a
decision to avoid for some years. I once tried reading The Gunslinger, the
first book in the series. However, I gave up after 30 odd pages. After reading
The Wind through the Keyhole, I think I must have been out of my fucking mind
back then.
The author’s introduction in the book mentions how he was
greatly influenced by Tolkien’s “Lord of The Rings” along with the spaghetti
westerns of the 60s by the great Sergio Leone. This is partly King’s homage to
Tolkien and Leone and partly an attempt to write a world class fantasy. It ends
up as a great futuristic tale which has more than its share of scary post-apocalyptic
moments.
For those who are new to Dark Tower, it is a series of eight
books. It is the story of Roland, the gunslinger, and his friends or “ka-tets”,
who move through a land “which is disturbingly like modern day US” as they make
their way to the Dark Tower.
The story unfolds in “Middle World” in the future. The
civilization as we know it has ended. The Middle World may remind the reader of
the famed Middle earth of the Lord of The Rings trilogy.
This book is unofficially subtitled Dark Tower 4.5. I
approached this with trepidation as I had absolutely no clue about the
different characters. To avoid inconvenience to the new reader, King tells
three things about the series in the introduction.
As far as the book is concerned, it is actually a story of three
tales which open up one inside the other. The first begins when Roland and his
mates are caught in a storm or “Starkblast”. Then Roland tells them a story
about a shape shifting man. The eponymous tale is of a boy’s odyssey to the
farthest corners of the forbidden land for his mother’s well being.
Like LOTR or A Clockwork Orange, the book has its own set of
words which may confuse the reader at first. However, the sheer beauty of the
language and the power of King’s description never allow the attention to flag
and slowly hook the reader in.
This is an excellent piece to taste King’s lyrical
narrative. I guarantee that the reader would love to go back and read all the Dark
Tower books. Very highly recommended for fans of dark fantasy tales.
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