Roland – Tony's Horror Corner

“The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.”

Im doing this reread with the always awesome, Olivia. Beginning with those iconic first lines, “The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger,” was originally released in 1982 and heavily revised in 2003 to fit the ending of the series. When you write a series of 7 novels all about one thing over a 20-year period, ideas are bound to shift.

We start with the last gunslinger, Roland Deschain of the fallen city Gilead, following the mysterious Man in Black. Roland is on a quest to reach the mythical Dark Tower, but first needs answers from the Man in Black. Roland’s world is “moving on” a phrase he continually uses to describe its death. He hopes that reaching the Tower will give him the answers to fix it.

“The Gunslinger” is a little on the slower side, pace-wise, but it is still a really intriguing read and King’s revisions were excellent in placing subtle hints about the upcoming novels. I enjoyed reading this more the second time than I did the first, and that is probably since I know more now. Going into “The Gunslinger” for the first time it is a tad confusing, but trust me, push through because the next books are some of King’s best work.

Below is a slightly spoilery synopsis so beware.

During his travels through the desolate Mohaine desert, we get glimpses into Roland’s childhood and learn just how this dark figure came to be. Roland is quiet and intimidating with an air of danger surrounding him. Throughout the novel you have a hard time deciding whether or not you like him.

Roland enters the town of Tull, following the Man in Black’s steps. Here he discovers the Man in Black has spread his influence on the people of the poor desert town. After shoving his gun up the cooch of a crazy religious fanatic and killing the entire city’s population, Roland moves on. He’s a savage, plain and simple. (side note: I hate to condone the movie… because it sucked… but the gifs are cool)

After leaving Tull, Roland happens upon a way station which seems to resemble today’s gas stations. Here he finds a boy named Jake Chambers. Jake is from New York and was transported to this world when he was pushed in front of a moving car and died.

Roland tells Jake of his past and how he bested his teacher Cort to become the youngest Gunslinger. Roland learns Jake is a sacrificial pawn in his journey to reach the Man in Black and the Tower. This part of the story gets interesting because King makes the reader attached to Jake and shows Roland’s growing affection for the boy.

Roland and Jake follow the Man in Black into the mountains where they fight off slow mutants (monstrous subterranean creatures) before coming to an abyss with a small, rickety piece of track across it. With the Man in Black on the other side of the abyss, waiting, Roland and Jake attempt to cross.

Roland makes it but before Jake can, the track breaks and Roland, instead of helping him, allows him to fall, but not before Jake utters one of the many famous lines in this series:

“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”

After Jake’s sacrifice, Roland and the Man in Black, aka Walter aka Marten, palaver (talk). The two discuss Roland’s fate with tarot cards: The Sailor, The Prisoner, The Lady of Shadows, Death, and the Tower. After some trippy scenes where the Man in Black shows Roland the universe and explains the Tower, Roland sleeps for 10 years, wakes up, and ends up on the beach watching the sunset.

“The Gunslinger” is a great intro to an even greater series, I’m really looking forward to the second installment, “The Drawing of the Three.” Before I get there though, here’s my rating for “The Gunslinger” after my reread:

4 out of 5

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”

Amazon has purchased the rights to Stephen King’s expansive sci-fi/fantasy/western series, “The Dark Tower.” The intention is to create a TV series. This is great news to every King fan out there because the 2017 film adaptation just didn’t cut it.

After production finished for last summer’s film, starring Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, the last Gunslinger of Gilead, and Matthew McConaughey as The Man in Black, Roland’s nemesis, director Nikolaj Arcel announced he would be working on a TV series related to the backstory of Roland.

The film more or less tanked. It was a sad excuse for an adaptation and the 90-minute run-time didn’t nearly cover enough of the material from a SEVEN book series. Due to the films failure, plans for the series were dropped. In comes Amazon to the rescue!

The new show, rumored to be helmed by “Walking Dead” executive producer Glen Mazzara, is supposedly going to be a complete reboot of the series. HALLELUJAH!

“The Dark Tower” is Stephen King’s magnum opus. It is a seven book series which also includes an eighth book that is more of a side story.

“Magnum Opus: a large and important work of art, music, or literature, especially one regarded as the most important work of an artist or writer.”

What is “The Dark Tower?” Here’s a short synopsis: “The Dark Tower” series tells the tale of Roland’s search for the Dark Tower, a tower that stands at the center of the world, the axis from which everything else revolves around.

Roland’s world is dying, and he believes if he reaches the Tower he can fix it. Of course, there are people attempting to stop him; people who want to see the world destroyed; people like The Man in Black and the Crimson King.

Throughout his journey, Roland makes new friends; Eddie Dean, Susannah, Jake Chambers, Oy (a billy bumbler which is a sort of fox/raccoon-like creature). Together, they form a Ka-tet (definitions of all the weird words used are at the bottom).

Roland and his Ka-tet face many hardships on their journey to the Tower. They save lives, shoot bad-guys and travel between dimensions through doorways or portals. The series is a roller coaster from start to finish.

The seven book series, written from 1981 to 2004, contains over 4,000 pages of material and even expands into King’s other works. “The Dark Tower” is considered the center of King’s storybook universe.

Below, is a rudimentary diagram of how his other novels and stories connect to “The Dark Tower.” There are also more possible connections that haven’t been confirmed or denied yet.

If you have read previous posts, you may notice some familiar titles such as “One for the Road,” and a lot, if not all, of the Castle Rock stories.

Listed here are all “The Dark Tower” novels in order, but the diagram above features 19 other novels, 4 novellas and 8 short stories that have ties to the series. There are also 16 comics for the “The Dark Tower.” “Gwendy’s Button Box,” a novella by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, was written after the diagram was created, but it also contains possible ties to “The Dark Tower.”

“The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger” (1981) (231 pages)
“The Dark Tower 2: The Drawing of the Three” (1987) (399 pages)
“The Dark Tower 3: The Wastelands” (1991) (509 pages)
“The Dark Tower 4: Wizard and Glass” (1997) (781 pages) This novel is mostly about Roland’s past
“The Dark Tower 5: Wolves of the Calla” (2003) (709 pages)
“The Dark Tower 6: Song of Susannah” (2004) (411 pages)
“The Dark Tower 7: The Dark Tower” (2004) (830 pages)
“The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel” (2012) (307 pages) This novel is about Roland’s past and a fairy tale his mother used to tell him as a child.

As mentioned before, there are other novels and stories that may have connections to the series, but they have yet to be confirmed or maybe no one has noticed them yet. That’s on you to read, discover and theorize on your own (or find a group of King fans to nerd out with… trust me it’s fun).

“The Dark Tower” contains a plethora of strange words, phrases and places, so, as promised, here’s an extremely small list of definitions:

Ka: life force, consciousness, duty, destiny, fate
Ka-tet: a group of people summoned together by Ka
Thankee: thank you
Sai: sir or madam
Gilead: fabled city where Roland grew up, located in Mid-World
Mid-World: one of the many worlds or levels of the Tower. It is the world Roland inhabits
The Dark Tower: the center of all creation

As always, read the books before the show! Don’t even bother with the movie. The series is truly incredible, and the connections are endless. Once you get started, you will never want to put these books, or any King books, down. Enjoy, and as always feel free to leave comments and don’t forget to follow!