LittleRedRidingHood’s Comments (group member since Oct 20, 2016)

LittleRedRidingHood’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Day 1 Questions:
June 22nd - chapter 1

1. I love the first line of this book, “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” What do you think? Did it draw you in right away? Do you think it sets the tone for the book?

The opening line is strong and captures the theme of the book very well. But that said it made me think that the gunslinger is hot on his trail, rather than a few weeks apart, as mentioned in the comment above by Colleen.

2. Why do you think the Gunslinger is chasing he man in black? Will he catch him? What will he do if / when he does?

My first thought was that man in the black did something terrible wrong. Gunslinger comes across as righteous man, who has to bring justice and in the light of that he is set to catch the wrongdoer. He will catch him, but I doubt that will happen in this book. Since his weapon of choice are guns, gunslinger is probably going to kill the man in the black.

3. What do you think of the world building or the world the story is set in? I find it interesting that there are so many differences and yet some similarities to our world, like the singing of “Hey Jude.” It feels a bit like our world has seeped into theirs.

I don't really have a sense of world or era in which the story is set. It seems so vague. Maybe because I'm listening to audiobook and some important notion escaped my attention. As much as I gather there once was greenland that now become wasteland and it might be because of some catastrophic event. But I did pick up some western vibe. Maybe we have dystopian western on hand. Or there are two worlds or dimensions and the man in the black is able to jump from one to another and gunslinger must prevent this distortion.

4. What or who do you think the man in black is? He certainly seems to have some special powers, but with evil undertones. Any ideas yet?

Clearly he is a wizard, necromancer more precisely, who resurrects dead people and brings havoc in the world of living. It seems he doesn't care for consequences of his deeds, therefore he is a threat. I would say everyone that can mess with your head definitely doesn't have good intentions.

5. Why do you think the townsfolk were so anti-gunslinger? Was it just because of what he represents as a gunslinger, because he’s a stranger, or because of the man in black? Some other reason?

Most likely the black man’s doing (although I would not exclude the idea of a stranger in town that shows off with more money the locals see in a day). Prior to coming in Tull gunslinger meets the man in the desert and there is no incident. Upon coming to town, the hostility slowly grows, much to the stirring of a preacher woman. I think that man in the black put a whammy on townsfolk and the number that he confides to the waitress was some sort of a trigger for a massive mob attack to stop gunslinger from chasing him.

6. What do you think of what happened in Tull? Was there another way for the gunslinger to leave the town without the destruction that occurred or do you think it was necessary or predestined? When Brown asked him if he felt bad about it, the gunslinger said, “Why would I feel bad?” Do you think that’s just because of his training or maybe he believed there was no other way or maybe he just lacks empathy for the death of others?

I believe it was meant to end that way. The wizard set the townsfolk on gunslinger and they kept coming, so in my opinion they would not stop until they would have had him dead. Including children. It looked like he didn't really have much choice. It doesn’t say how long he's been the gunslinger, but he's more likely used to dirty business and is no more affected by the gruesomeness of the job, for which he was probably trained and tested. He sees that something needs to be done and he does it.

7. What do you think of the story so far? Anything you particularly like or don’t like?

At this point I have more questions than answers. I do like the writing and the story is not as bad as some try to make it look (in a sense that first book is the worst), I enjoy it. But I would like to know more about the world and era that is set in, what is the history between gunslinger and the man in the black, and how do you become a gunslinger, since he is the last one of his kind.

Introduction & Chapter 1

Yes, there is no Morgernstern. :-) I actualy didn't know, totally bought it. Until I checked the cover again. If this would be an abridget version Goldman wouldn't be named as author due to violation of authors rights. Thank god we have google.:-)

Parenthesis didn't bother me. I was more annoyed by Goldman's explanation slapped right in the middle of the scene about why they are there.

When it comes to Buttercup, I guess he's poking fun at fairytale stereotypes. Princess are all pretty, lovely, smart, kind and constant. And our Buttercup well she's pretty alright, but quite frivolous, silly, rude and dumb or I shall say slow, pot calling the kettle black. Poor Westley.

The death was quite a shock. Just when I started enjoying Westley is killed. Well I guess that means one down, more to go. There are mentioned adventures and romance. Buttercup will have her hands full for sure.

I also didn't watched the movie, but the main actor played in Robin Hood parody, so I'm definitely watching it after I finish reading the book.

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Can broken-barriers and I please have a buddy read thread for for June 19th?

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Eunice wrote: "Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye"

Yes.

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Right: A, E, N, D, L, O, W, U
Wrong: R, I, M

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Right: A, E, N, D, L, O, W
Wrong: R, I, M

D _ _ _/AND/_ _ ADO _ by L _ ND _ A _/_ A _ E

Right: A, E, N, D, L, O
Wrong: R, I, M

D _ _ _/AND/_ _ AD_ _ by L _ ND _ A _/_ A _ E

Right: A, E, N, D, L
Wrong: R, I

D _ _ _/AND/_ _ AD_ _ by _ _ ND _ A _/_ A _ E

Right: A, E, N, D
Wrong: R,

_ _ _ _/AN _/_ _ A _ _ _ by _ _ N _ _ A _/_ A _ E

Right: A, E, N
Wrong:

_ _ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ by _ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz?

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