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“The rain in Spain falls on the plain.
There is joy and also pain
but the rain in Spain falls on the plain.
Time’s a sheet, life’s a stain,
All the things we know will change
and all those things remain the same,
but be ye mad or only sane,
the rain in Spain falls on the plain.
We walk in love but fly in chains
And the planes in Spain fall in the rain.”
I can not imagine Audrey Hepburn singing this version.
The Gunslinger is Stephen King at his most whimsical and lyrical, not two words you would associate with him but his “constant readers” know he is more versatile than he is given credit for. The first chapter of this book is stylistically atypical of King; he seems to be channeling Neil Gaiman, and the “High Speech” vernacular he invented for this series has a touch of Tolkien to it. The book’s first line “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” is King’s “It was the best of time”, an iconic quote for the author. There is nothing extraordinary about the sentence on its own, but the enormous epic tale that follows this one sentence is what makes it so memorable. The Gunslinger is the first book of King’s magnum opus, a western flavored dark fantasy epic series that spans eight (mostly long) books, and over a decade in the making, The Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger s an unusually slim volume for King, clocking in at a mere 224 pages (the remainder of the series are all long books).
The Gunslinger introduces Roland Deschain, the last of the gunslingers, a knightly order in a world that has “moved on”, the population is sparse, food and water are scarce, technology is a lost art, much of the land is inhabitable; even reality seems to be losing cohesiveness as time flows unreliably and sun rises an sunsets can not be depended upon. Roland is on a mission to catch a sorcerer called the Man in Black (among other names), to gain knowledge about the Dark Tower, the nexus of the multiverse. The reason why he needs to be there is as yet unclear but it is of overriding importance and he will not let anything stand in his way, not even his own conscience.
The Gunslinger vs the townsfolk of Tull!
On his epic journey across Mid-World, after barely surviving being lynched by the entire townsfolk of Tull, Roland comes across Jake Chambers a young boy apparently from our world, Roland soon comes to love him, only to eventually betray him for the sake of his mission (not to worry, this is clearly telegraphed early on). What Roland learns about the Dark Tower will keep him and us constant readers busy for years.
When I first read The Gunslinger in the 80s I was rather disappointed, the style was not what I expected from King who is always immediately accessible and generally without literary pretensions. The tone of this book did not seem King-like at all. This was the first King book I have read that is not set in contemporary America, the setting and language just did not click for me at the time. However, I was interested enough to read the follow up volume next volume The Drawing of the Three and that blew me away, but the review of that is for another day. This reread is of the revised 2003 edition where King added some additional scenes and made minor alterations for the sake of consistency and general improvement. I have to say, I love this edition, this partly owed to King’s revision, but also to my being a more mature than that first time. I am much more appreciative of the nuances the stylistic flair he puts into the text here. This time around I also enjoy the High Speech, the formal speech of the Gunslinger order, and the Low Speech (English with the odd twists) spoken by the general populace, tremendously. King has done his best world building with this series.
My intention is to reread the first four books of the series, with the addition of the recently inserted The Wind Through the Keyhole numbered as “volume 4.5”. Certainly I am very much looking forward to reading The Drawing of the Three, I have very fond memories of that book. As for this volume, The Gunslinger, it is much better than I remembered and stands alone quite well by itself. If you are a King fan you don't need to be convinced to read the Dark Tower series. If you are a fan of epic fantasy this series is one of the most unique and a must-read.
Long days and pleasant nights, stranger.
Notes:
• According to King (in the forward of the book) the additional material is only 35 pages.
• If you have read all the Dark Tower books and are looking for more "Weird West" (fantasy with Western aesthetics) check out David Gemmel’s excellent Jon Shannow series. For more about this little subgenre with a list of recommended books have a look at this Wikipedia page.
• Roger Zelazny’s classic The Chronicles of Amber series has a similar idea of a nexus world among the multiverse. There is a Western feel to some of it also.
Quotes:
“Go then, there are other worlds than these.” (another iconic quote)
“He had laid his fuel in a pattern that was not artful but only workable. It spoke of blacks and whites. It spoke of a man who might straighten bad pictures in strange hotel rooms.”
“Every now and then a perverse downdraft would make the smoke whirl and puff toward him and he breathed some of it in. It built dreams in the same way that a small irritant may build a pearl in an oyster. The gunslinger occasionally moaned with the wind. The stars were as indifferent to this as they were to wars, crucifixions, resurrections.”
“Then he puked, and it was black and full of blood. It went right through that grin like sewer water through a grate. The stink was enough to make you want to run mad. He raised up his arms and just threw over. That was all. He died in his own vomit with that grin on his face.”
“He put a shot into each of the crosspieces, blowing the roods to splinters, and four more into the woman’s head. She seemed to accordion into herself and waver like a shimmer of heat.”
Idris Elba as The Gunslinger
• The Worst Changes The Dark Tower Movie Made From the Books.
Oh, dear, as a fan of the series it looks I am not going to like the 2017 movie adaptation, but at least somebody made this memo after watching it:
Credit: "chungame" from Reddit.
There is joy and also pain
but the rain in Spain falls on the plain.
Time’s a sheet, life’s a stain,
All the things we know will change
and all those things remain the same,
but be ye mad or only sane,
the rain in Spain falls on the plain.
We walk in love but fly in chains
And the planes in Spain fall in the rain.”
I can not imagine Audrey Hepburn singing this version.
The Gunslinger is Stephen King at his most whimsical and lyrical, not two words you would associate with him but his “constant readers” know he is more versatile than he is given credit for. The first chapter of this book is stylistically atypical of King; he seems to be channeling Neil Gaiman, and the “High Speech” vernacular he invented for this series has a touch of Tolkien to it. The book’s first line “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” is King’s “It was the best of time”, an iconic quote for the author. There is nothing extraordinary about the sentence on its own, but the enormous epic tale that follows this one sentence is what makes it so memorable. The Gunslinger is the first book of King’s magnum opus, a western flavored dark fantasy epic series that spans eight (mostly long) books, and over a decade in the making, The Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger s an unusually slim volume for King, clocking in at a mere 224 pages (the remainder of the series are all long books).
The Gunslinger introduces Roland Deschain, the last of the gunslingers, a knightly order in a world that has “moved on”, the population is sparse, food and water are scarce, technology is a lost art, much of the land is inhabitable; even reality seems to be losing cohesiveness as time flows unreliably and sun rises an sunsets can not be depended upon. Roland is on a mission to catch a sorcerer called the Man in Black (among other names), to gain knowledge about the Dark Tower, the nexus of the multiverse. The reason why he needs to be there is as yet unclear but it is of overriding importance and he will not let anything stand in his way, not even his own conscience.
The Gunslinger vs the townsfolk of Tull!
On his epic journey across Mid-World, after barely surviving being lynched by the entire townsfolk of Tull, Roland comes across Jake Chambers a young boy apparently from our world, Roland soon comes to love him, only to eventually betray him for the sake of his mission (not to worry, this is clearly telegraphed early on). What Roland learns about the Dark Tower will keep him and us constant readers busy for years.
When I first read The Gunslinger in the 80s I was rather disappointed, the style was not what I expected from King who is always immediately accessible and generally without literary pretensions. The tone of this book did not seem King-like at all. This was the first King book I have read that is not set in contemporary America, the setting and language just did not click for me at the time. However, I was interested enough to read the follow up volume next volume The Drawing of the Three and that blew me away, but the review of that is for another day. This reread is of the revised 2003 edition where King added some additional scenes and made minor alterations for the sake of consistency and general improvement. I have to say, I love this edition, this partly owed to King’s revision, but also to my being a more mature than that first time. I am much more appreciative of the nuances the stylistic flair he puts into the text here. This time around I also enjoy the High Speech, the formal speech of the Gunslinger order, and the Low Speech (English with the odd twists) spoken by the general populace, tremendously. King has done his best world building with this series.
My intention is to reread the first four books of the series, with the addition of the recently inserted The Wind Through the Keyhole numbered as “volume 4.5”. Certainly I am very much looking forward to reading The Drawing of the Three, I have very fond memories of that book. As for this volume, The Gunslinger, it is much better than I remembered and stands alone quite well by itself. If you are a King fan you don't need to be convinced to read the Dark Tower series. If you are a fan of epic fantasy this series is one of the most unique and a must-read.
Long days and pleasant nights, stranger.
Notes:
• According to King (in the forward of the book) the additional material is only 35 pages.
• If you have read all the Dark Tower books and are looking for more "Weird West" (fantasy with Western aesthetics) check out David Gemmel’s excellent Jon Shannow series. For more about this little subgenre with a list of recommended books have a look at this Wikipedia page.
• Roger Zelazny’s classic The Chronicles of Amber series has a similar idea of a nexus world among the multiverse. There is a Western feel to some of it also.
Quotes:
“Go then, there are other worlds than these.” (another iconic quote)
“He had laid his fuel in a pattern that was not artful but only workable. It spoke of blacks and whites. It spoke of a man who might straighten bad pictures in strange hotel rooms.”
“Every now and then a perverse downdraft would make the smoke whirl and puff toward him and he breathed some of it in. It built dreams in the same way that a small irritant may build a pearl in an oyster. The gunslinger occasionally moaned with the wind. The stars were as indifferent to this as they were to wars, crucifixions, resurrections.”
“Then he puked, and it was black and full of blood. It went right through that grin like sewer water through a grate. The stink was enough to make you want to run mad. He raised up his arms and just threw over. That was all. He died in his own vomit with that grin on his face.”
“He put a shot into each of the crosspieces, blowing the roods to splinters, and four more into the woman’s head. She seemed to accordion into herself and waver like a shimmer of heat.”
Idris Elba as The Gunslinger
• The Worst Changes The Dark Tower Movie Made From the Books.
Oh, dear, as a fan of the series it looks I am not going to like the 2017 movie adaptation, but at least somebody made this memo after watching it:
Credit: "chungame" from Reddit.
