The Dark Tower Part 1

Stephen King. I want to like him, I really do. He just makes it so bloody hard for himself. The first part of The Dark Tower shows why I feel this way better than any other book I’ve read by him (i.e. The Stand).

The plot of this introduction to the saga serves to introduce us to the mysterious hero known only as ‘The Gunslinger’, who is currently chasing his evil nemesis ‘The Man in Black’ (AKA Johnny Cash) across the desert. The differences between them are subtle, however you know who the good guy is because the gunslinger doesn’t dress in black. Let’s ignore his willingness to murder a whole town or betray children for a moment, we are told he is the hero and that makes it true.

I am not going to question Stephen King’s ability to write, he has an unquestionable knack for knocking out large sections of great prose. I am, however, going to question his plotting and editing skills. Despite years of enduring critics far greater than I pointing out to him that he has neither of the aforementioned virtues, he insists his lack of direction or a delete key form his strengths.

Early on in the book the gunslinger heroically shags a hooker. To prove his manly credentials, we are told that ‘Even the love making had been a silent thing, and only at the last minute had his breathing roughened, and then stopped for a minute’. Surely anyone can agree that a sentence of this calibre is best left in a Mills and Boone reject, and yet this book is full of clangers.

The Dark Tower goes on to form a seven part epic, with another part on the way (to fit between parts 3 and 4). With so much at stake you would imagine King has a plot outline, or even a JK Rowling style final chapter done and dusted to work towards. If you did imagine this, you are as foolish as I. In a note at the end of the book he admits to not really knowing where the story is going, or who half the characters the gunslinger needs to meet in the future are. His argument is that his strongest writing seems to come when he makes it up as he goes along. This is fair, but it doesn’t mean once the story is completed he cant go back and re-work it. Jack Kerouac famously wrote On The Road in a month, but he then spent years fiddling with the plot and re-working sections before its release, and the book is a classic because of that later work.

I don’t expect Stephen King to change his style, he’s too late into his career and has spent too much time ignoring people who made any suggestions to improve his writing. As a result I can't see myself returning to the series for a long time, if at all. This is a shame. There is enough in the book to merit a great story, but if the author isn’t going to put in the effort, then why should I?