Is The Gunslinger any good? A friend handed it to me but I don't want to waste my time.

Gunslinger volume 1 is great.

The entire Dark Tower series is 8 books spanning 22 years of writing. As someone noted earlier some of the middle ones got a little "drifty" and it seemed he had forgotten the face of his father. I liked that he pulled himself into the book later and had Roland tell Mr. King how full of shit he seemed to have become.

IMHO, one of the best series ever written. We read these real-time as they were released beginning in 1982 and each book afterwards. After reading the last actually went back and plowed through the whole series again as better recall of the earlier editions became important. I've never done that before or since.

In our current coronavirus state I would definitely read The Stand if you've not already. Definitely!

He has become somewhat of a PITA politically and his current works bleed in some of that, but I've chosen to ignore that for the entertainment value of his writing.

As always, YMMV.

i don't vet politics of a author as criteria if I'll read their book or not.

Lots of information and entertainment to be missed using this judgement imo.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
...has become somewhat of a PITA politically and his current works bleed in some of that

this is what the thread is about. don't give a hoot what he says outside of writing as I don't read newspapers or watch t.v.

quote:

Originally posted by heatinajeep:
i don't vet politics of a author as criteria if I'll read their book or not.

Lots of information and entertainment to be missed using this judgement imo.

You're missing the point. I couldn't care less about his politics, but when he constantly interjects his politics into his works, that's when I put the book down. King started doing this over a decade ago, and it is pervasive and deliberate. That is much different than an actor or author having different political views but otherwise is enjoyable to watch or read because he or she is talented.

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:
Is The Gunslinger any good? A friend handed it to me but I don't want to waste my time.

I read the Dark Tower series and I wish I hadn’t. By the end I was just determined to finish because I’d already invested too much time to drop it. Most of the characters annoyed me, 3/4 of it was a slow boring drag, I’d say he could’ve condensed it into 3 books and been fine.

I definitely don't agree with his politics, but I stopped reading his books for an entirely different reason. In my opinion, they guy doesn't know how to end his books. They will be going along terrifically, and then it seems like he just gets tired of writing. I loved the Dark Tower series....until the end. "IT" was also great until the last two hundred pages or so, then suck. With few exceptions, this seems to be the case to me. There are a couple of exceptions, I really liked Bag of Bones, The Stand and Roadwork.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by heatinajeep:
i don't vet politics of a author as criteria if I'll read their book or not.

Lots of information and entertainment to be missed using this judgement imo.

You're missing the point. I couldn't care less about his politics, but when he constantly interjects his politics into his works, that's when I put the book down. King started doing this over a decade ago, and it is pervasive and deliberate. That is much different than an actor or author having different political views but otherwise is enjoyable to watch or read because he or she is talented.

Yep. As usual, Alan nails it.

I can think of one writer I was really enjoying: John Connolly. I've really been enjoying his Charlie Parker series. But, in the last one I was reading he makes some throw away jab about someone being as tight-fisted as a Republican at a children's hospital fundraiser.

That crack added nothing to the book and unnecessarily interjected his politics into his work. I finished the book, but it soured me on him and I'll probably never read another one.

The Dark Tower series sucked. Some of it was actually very interesting. Huge chunks were a boring nonsensical slog of a read. Never ended up finishing it because it was so damn boring.

quote:

Originally posted by cheesegrits:
King wrote and published a non-fiction essay called Guns. Even if I was interested, I wouldn't read it since proceeds go to the Brady Campaign.

Here's a piece he wrote after Sandy Hook. His view in a nutshell: I have nothing against gun owners, sport shooters, or hunters, but semi-automatic weapons have only two purposes. One is so that owners can take them to the shooting range once in awhile, yell yeehaw and get all horny at the rapid fire and the burning vapour spurting from the end of the barrel. Their other use – their only other use – is to kill people.

I quit buying his stuff years ago because the quality of his product was slipping. I still enjoy his older work.

Actually it depends on how he said that... I actually agree.. the main reason for a semi-auto weapon of any kind is to kill people... has been and always will be... why do you think all police officers now carry them? Duh?

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
the main reason for a semi-auto weapon of any kind is to kill people...

i own mine for sporting purposes and self-defense.

That a fucked up point of view. And wrong.

Enjoyed his books when he was in high school. Re-read some of his stuff as an adult and noticed some stuff I didn't as a kid. Lots of needless sexual shit involving kids. Add to that his politics and I'm done. He's probably some kind of pedo and he's a mouthy liberal. He can eat shit.

quote:

Originally posted by f2:

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
the main reason for a semi-auto weapon of any kind is to kill people...

i own mine for sporting purposes and self-defense.

Not for nothing, isn’t that the same thing? All you’re doing is changing the circumstances surrounding the killing

Self defense with a firearm is just justified killing

To me you said exactly what King said

sporting purposes (what he described as the range) and self defense (What he described as killing). All you’re doing is saying “well, I only use mine to kill people who are trying to kill me”. I will bet he doesn’t see that there are times when killing is justified, and those times are why you should own semi-automatic firearms