“The first volume, The Gunslinger, tells how Roland, the last gunslinger in a world which has “moved on,” pursues and finally catches the man in black, a sorcerer named Walter who falsely claimed the friendship of Roland’s father in the days when the unity of Mid-World still held. Catching this half-human spell-caster is not Roland’s ultimate goal but only another landmark along the road to the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower, which stands at the nexus of time.
Who, exactly, is Roland? What was his world like before it moved on? What is the Tower and why does he pursue it? We have only fragmentary answers. Roland is clearly a kind of knight, one of those charged with holding (or possibly redeeming) a world Roland remembers as being “filled with love and light.” Just how closely Roland’s memory resembles the way that world actually was is very much open to question, however.
We do know that he was forced to an early trial of manhood after discovering that his mother had become the ...mistress of Marten, a much greater sorcerer than Walter; we know that Marten orchestrated Roland’s discovery of his mother’s affair, expecting Roland to fail his test of manhood and to be “sent West”MoreLessShow More Show Less
User Reviews: