Every lover of horror fiction I know can immediately answer this question: What was the first Stephen King book you read? For me, it was a paperback copy of Carrie I found on a spinner rack in my local library (shout out to the Maple Heights, Ohio Public Library). At the time I was 14 and I was reading science fiction and fantasy almost exclusively, but the back cover copy on Carrie hooked me, and from then on I added horror to my genres of choice.

Since then I’ve read nearly everything King has written, with one glaring omission—The Dark Tower series. No good reason for this. Somehow I just never got around to reading them. Then my son, a high school English teacher with similar reading tastes to mine, mentioned that a wonderful podcast we both listen to, Talking Scared, was going to be doing a reread of the series over the next couple of years. My son decided he was going to join Neil, the podcast host, in the reread, and he challenged me to read The Dark Tower series for the first time.

Challenge accepted.

I’ve just finished the first novel in the series, The Gunslinger. It seems silly to do full reviews of these novels, given how long they’ve been around, so I’m thinking I’ll just share my general thoughts.

I enjoyed The Gunslinger for what it is, an intriguing, novel-length piece of world-building. Roland Deschain, the main character, is a great, mysterious creation—a deadly gunslinger who leaves a trail of bodies as he chases after The Man in Black and seeks the Dark Tower of the series title, a monolithic structure that seems to be a nexus of sorts between all worlds. The landscape Roland travels through during the course of the novel is equally mysterious, and King does an excellent job of grudgingly sharing its secrets. Having finished this first volume, I have more questions than answers, but that’s okay. I’m looking forward to the next novel.

Is this top tier King? Not for me. Apparently this is a fix-up novel, five separate stories stitched together, and at least for me, there are places where the seams show. King has become a much, much better writer in the decades since he wrote this. According to my son, The Dark Tower really hits its stride in volume three, and then just gets better and better. Will I agree with his assessment? I’m looking forward to finding out.

Have you read The Dark Tower? Please share your thoughts. And if not, consider joining me in reading the series over the next couple of years. Think of it as a quest, much like Roland’s quest to reach the Dark Tower.