THE PREPOSTEROUS BOLLOX OF THE SITUATION
-
She has such an interestingly beautiful face
-
Rose Leslie by Rebecca Miller for Bust
-
Carice van Houten by Janey van Ierland
-
Drew Barrymore
-
Léa Seydoux
Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God by Lavie Tidhar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this. The comparisons with King’s Dark Tower and Howard’s Conan are inevitable, but to go even further back, there is a distinct flavour of Lieber’s Lankhmar and Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique series in here, all mixed up in a proto-Asian setting, and with added sex, drugs and violence. There is mystery about the beginnings of this tale, and mysteries to follow, and I eagerly anticipate reading more. For such a slim volume, there is a great deal in here to enjoy.
View all my reviews
“The Gunslinger is a quiet, meditative novel; as inauspicious a way to start a sprawling epic fantasy series as I’ve ever encountered. In Roland Deschain, the titular Gunslinger, there’s a superb, violent, powerful and thoughtful protagonist – Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name by way of Robert Browning’s poem, Childe Rolande to the Dark Tower Came. He’s cold and dark, and we see him wander through dusty western towns, shooting and fucking his way towards his nemesis, The Man in Black. This is Randall Flagg, whom you might remember from The Stand (though he is never called by that name here). He’s a Very Bad Man. It transpires that he’s been a part of Roland’s life, in various guises, since the Gunslinger was a child, and that’s he’s responsible for some horrible things. Roland has to find him, catch him and kill him. That’s what a Gunslinger does…”
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A continued return to form (along with 11.22.63 and Duma Key) from the recently lacklustre King, and a substantially better Dark Tower novel than the series (which took a drastic nosedive in quality between books four and five) has seen for many years.
I would have preferred to have spent more time with Roland and his Ka-Tet - the principal characters of most of the series - but I was drawn into each successive story-within-a-story to the point where I was surprised and wistful as they came to an end and I was returned to the enclosing narrative. The mark of a master storyteller, and King is on fine form here.
View all my reviews
(via earlgreyjoys)
Sci-fi movie posters from an alternate universe.
