Gunslinger (The first book of King’s Dark Tower series)

I’ve never read the Dark Tower series. I’m not sure why, it’s just one of those thing I had on my ‘to do…eventually’ list. So when it turned up in a discount bookshop I was interested, but not overly. But a friend wanted to know what it was like so I forked out a few quid and decided to give it a go.
I’ve read only one piece of writing of King’s before this and let’s just say, I wasn’t impressed. Check it out if you like. The Man in the Black Suit. Oddly, Gunslinger has a ‘man in black’. Anyway, I found it, at best, boring. The idea had merit but it wasn’t given enough time to develop its full potential in the short story format.
So, I read Gunslinger expecting a mediocre book at best. Aaaaaand that’s pretty much what I got. Perhaps, as a King newbie, I simply don’t get his style and if I persevered, I might grow to like him. But I think a book should be accessible to fans and newcomers alike and I just don’t get this from Gunslinger. He uses a lot of colloquialisms that go right over my head and, because I don’t understand them, I get confused and that completely ruins my immersion.
This is my main problem with King’s writing. At no point did I not know I was reading, which is unusual for me. Every time I hit one of King’s odd words or turns of phrase, I had to stop and re-read the sentence to understand what the word might be referring to. Which would be acceptable if they weren’t on every page.
My other main problem with Gunslinger is the lack of information King gives me. He’s quite happy to tell me that ‘the sky was the yellow color of old cheese’ – and to be honest, that doesn’t really tell me much because I’m not sure how old cheese differs from fresh…and what sort of cheese? Gorgonzola, roule, chedder? – but not, for instance, what the sodding hell is going on, who’s involved or even what time period it’s set in. Hey Jude makes an appearance and there’s mention of ‘coaches’, ‘a café’ and ‘New York’ but so far the only settings that have been mentioned are rocky deserts and a town out of a Wild West film. I can’t picture this world King’s set up and I’m forty pages in.
I will read to the end and I’ll post an addition to this review once I have, but my initial reaction is thus: too difficult to get into and, so far, not worth the effort.