Do you like fantasy fiction? Like far-out, fantasy-horror-western fiction with parallel universes? If you do, you will love this series. If you don’t, well, you probably wont.
These books are much, much different than most of SK’s other work. Still, if you are a SK fan, you should read 'em. It’s definitely his magnum opus.
I say read it.
The first book is what really drew me in. I like the rougher style, and Roland’s world and his ability with his guns is what really drew me into the character. I, too, was a victim of the big wait. The series takes directions all over the place. It’s not exactly efficient writing. In one of the later books, either Wolves or Susannah, he explains that he is trying to draw everything together (everything he’s ever written), even writing himself into one of the novels. Apparently, he’s trying to make one giant StephenKing-verse. (Will there be a crisis? 
)
Am I the only one who wants to hear more about his world, when he was growing up to be a gunslinger? Exactly how did his world move on? What happened to his father? Someone spoil me please. I just looked at Wiki, oh my how did I miss the last book in this series? :eek:
If SK-in-the-book weren’t such a lazy drunken loser, who almost screws everything up, I might agree with you
I think he more like retired from actually contracting to write more books for grillions of dollars each. From what he’d written about the experience, I got the impression he was tired of “cranking them out” to satisfy his contractual obligations. I believe he intended to keep writing as his Muse directed.
It took me three attempts to get through “The Gunslinger.” It just didn’t engage me at all. I started “The Drawing of the Three,” got a ways in and gave up on it. Later on I got it at the library on an audiobook, waded through the first boring part, and kept going. About the time he picked up Eddie it got interesting.
Pretty much liked all the rest of them except I could have done without the lengthy flashback in “Wizard and Glass.”
If you’re a King fan, you’ll probably like them, but the first one and about the first third of the second are a long sit, IMO.
I love the (original!) Gunslinger. It’s so out there and different from any fantasy I’d ever seen. I loved the spareness of it, and the mystery of a world tantalizingly similar to ours, yet amazingly different. This book is unlike anything else of King’s I’ve read. It may not even have a snot-based grossout in it!
*Drawing of the Three * is great because of Eddie. *The Wastelands * starts veering into more typical King territory, but I really loved Jake’s story, and again, Eddie is a laugh.
I hate Wizard and Glass as part of the series. Personally, I think one should read the beginning and end, where the central plot advances, and then go back later and read it for the background story. It is much more in the spirit of Little Sisters of Eluria, and to wait for so long for more story, only to slog through a pretty pointless flashback, was nigh intolerable.
After King got run over, the series went to shit, IMHO. It became literary therapy for King over the accident, and suspension of disbelief went out the window. The ending is really stupid and a cop out.
Actually, that’s not totally true. Wolves of the Calla is readable as a standalone story, if you skim over the Pere’s story.
But if you’re in the mood for fantasy approached from an oblique angle, search out an original printing of the first book at least.
I just finished book 7 (the final one) last week, and… ultimately I don’t think the view was worth the climb. Book 4 was boring, 5 and 6 were okay, but 7 was tooooo looooong, had too many tenuous, useless connections, and
almost gleeful annihilation of several key players.
The concept behind all the self-insertion meta of King’s was interesting enough, and I realize he tried to be self effacing about it all, but it ended up reading like embarrassingly self-indulgent wank, to me.
That said, I think the final, final ending was pretty darned good…given all the buildup and all the waiting, I don’t know that he could have handled it any better, actually.
I’ve only read up to Wizard and Glass but I would recommend it to most people. I’ve told those I recommend it to that it’s not like Stephen King. If you dislike him in general, you’ll probably like The Gunslinger because it’s so different from his normal style. The re-write, however, I’ve not heard good things about. My favorite was The Gunslinger, followed closely by The Drawing of the Three.
The phrase, “You have forgotten the face of your father and should be sent West,” gives me goosebumps. I like those heroic-type lines. It’s right up there with, “You shall not pass!”