Does The Dark Tower get better?

[Kos Mos]

I've read about 70% of The Gunslinger today (and really enjoyed it) and I'll finish it.  But...

 

...does it get better?

 

At the moment it all seems as though SK was picking the best bits out of a Thesaurus and it's all a bit..disjointed.

 

I've heard that you get the best out of the series if you are familer with the SK universe so, as I'm not, is it worth perservering?

 

Thank you.

 

[Bushtopher]

Yes, definitely!

 

Stick with it. I enjoyed it much more from book 2 onwards. 

[cassidy]

Yup 100% better. First book is nothing compared to where the series goes after it. 

[Darren]

It was the first Stephen King I read and I loved it. The Gunslinger is a decent start but it gets much better from the next book and maintains that level for the rest of the series (the last few books have their detractors but I thought they were awesome). You don’t need to know anything about any other King books to enjoy them.

[Padaxes]

I love the gunslinger, but he was very young when he wrote it and that shows. Books two and three are where it really shines. Four and five are great too. Personally I think he lost his way after that and the last two were a bit of a disappointment to me. Still it's a fantastic epic, at it's best it's unparalleled - stick with it! 

[Harsin]

Yep it gets better for a good while... then worse, much worse.

[Vespa Alex]

Read 2-4 then be prepared to bail out

[Matt Defis]

4 hours ago, Harsin said:

Yep it gets better for a good while... then worse, much worse.

Pretty much spot on

[Darren]

Nah, the last few books are great. And the ending is perfect (IMHO, obvs).

[Jamie John]

Books 1-3 are good, then it all starts to go too meta for its own good.

[cassidy]

1 hour ago, Matt Defis said:

Pretty much spot on

 

34 minutes ago, Darren said:

Nah, the last few books are great. And the ending is perfect (IMHO, obvs).

Yup I’m with Darren. It’s about the Journey and I enjoyed nearly all of it. 

[Cosmic_Guru]

Hmm.  For full disclosure I still have the final volume to read, which is lengthy and of small type on cheap paper which doesn't endear it to me these days .  I read all the others last summer and I got the distinct impression SK warmed up to the task each time - he is such a natural storyteller that he almost can't write a bad book but there seemed to be signs of starting slowly and then gathering pace in each volume.  I thought the book which dealt with the young lad escaping and joining up with the others was absolutely classic King - I didn't mind the Western one or the Fantasy one and the meta stuff is fairly cool (although insufficient to raise the series to greatest of all time or anything like that).  The good thing is that SK writes a decent summary of events in the beginning of each volume so you can afford to leave gaps between reading.

 

I don't think you need to have read the books from which a few characters have been borrowed for this - I haven't.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Cosmic_Guru

[Kos Mos]

So I just finished The Gunslinger (I know but busy life and all that)

 

It all gets a bit Biblical at the end doesn't it 'LET THERE BE LIGHT' etc but...

 

...but it really makes me want to continue.

 

Next up is The Ritual by Adam Nevill for a change of pace but then I'm all over The Drawing of the Three.

[Swallow]

I've recently read The Gunslinger for the first time too so this is a timely thread. Thanks for the reassurances, I have the next two on the shelf so will definitely be carrying on.

[Illyria]

I'm with @Darren on this one, I thought the entire series was fantastic. It does seem to attract extreme opinions towards the end, either you love what he does with it, or you hate it. I absolutely loved it

 

And book 2 is definitely a change of pace and atmosphere compared to the Gunslinger. The Gunslinger feels more like a prelude, really.