January Book Discussion

[silly_ll4m4]

Here's the discussion thread for "The Gunslinger."  Can't think of anything to talk about?  Well, I almost didn't pick this book because while it is the start of an amazing series that everyone should read, it might be the weakest book in the series.  Another fun topic is the use of the Wild West as a loose historical background for fantasy instead

Comments

[know_your_story]

I read both, but I have to admit that they really didn't catch me. I'm a little bit curious to see what happens in the rest of the series, but probably not enough to read the rest of them right away.

I guess I agree with Liz that the dream-like quality was not always appealing. The sheer lack of knowledge of what's going on also made it hard for me to get into; I realize that this is maybe not fair, given that I think we the readers are supposed to figure out what's going on as Roland does, but not knowing made it difficult for me to care what was happening to him. I mean, he's doing all these difficult, painful, sometimes horrible things...and I have no idea why, because it all seems rather pointless. Sometimes it even seems pointless to him.

I didn't really find any of the main characters to be particularly sympathetic or admirable, either, although that's probably just me.

Anyway. I'm definitely not sorry to have read them, and I do think that at some point I'll try the rest of the series, because I think that learning more about what's going on would help me to like it better.