INTRODUCTION :
A few things you should know before deciding how helpful this review will be for you.
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*** I think the Dark Tower series as a whole is a staggering achievement and belongs in any discussion without qualification of the “Greatest Fantasy Series of All Time.”

*** There are no spoilers in this review but I have read the series twice all the way through and am doing a third reading as part of a group read this month. Therefore, my review is colored by my knowledge of how More...

The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.

Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, is on a quest for the Dark Tower, a mysterious edifice that is the axle of worlds and holds all existence together. In this, the first volume, Roland pursues his nemesis across the Mohaine Desert. He follows the man in black's trail to a little town called Tull, then through more desert, encountering a boy named Jake from our world, and then into the mountains. Will Roland finally c More...

A Gunslinger, a Man in Black, a Child Out of Time & Space, the Beginning of a Cryptic Saga...

A Second Read. the first time: unimpressed, bored, agitated, gave up. the second time: so much better, a lot to consider, an enjoyable experience...

A Strangely Sparse Narrative, perhaps too much mystery, perhaps too much of a tease and not enough action, perhaps too much to think about, a frustrating lack of detail...

A Tarot Card: THE HANGED MAN...
Sacrifice... Renunciation... Contemplation... Waiting More...

The Gunslinger
"The Interloper, The Lord of Flies, The Man in Black cometh!"
Stephen King our modern day Charles Dickens takes you on beginning of an epic journey with Roland 'The Gunslinger' in this poignant tale. The story takes us through the past and future and the coming of age of a man and a boy in search of The Tower.
'The more you eat the more you toot!' or should I say the more you re-read it the more you will appreciate it, that's what I felt second time round reading the novel and als More...

Recently, my comrades in literature featured a Dark Tower conversation on (prepare for shameless plug) Shelf Inflicted. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate because I had not yet read the series. It felt a little like being the uncool kid who gets picked last for kickball. I decided it was time to remedy this. I was going to prove I could kick that damn ball.

Now I have made vague promises for years to them and to others that, yes, I would read the book and I was sure that I would love it. More...

King is a gifted writer and has constructed a sort of intertwined "multiverse" (thank you Albert Einstein and Michael Moorcock)for his novels. It is compelling, detailed, gritty, and flawed. I have observed before that I can't really call myself a King fan. He seems unable to conceive of what I might call "actual good" or "altruistic good". His protagonists are usually terribly (even fatally) flawed in some critical way. In this I don't mean the in the "I'm human with feet of clay" type of flaw More...

What do you get when you mix the epicness of Tolkien, exalt in the cool of “The Good The Bad and The Ugly,” are partial to Arthurian legend, and possibly (some have suggested) have overindulged in too much weed? You get “The Gunslinger” the first book in Stephen King’s Magnum Opus “The Dark Tower Series.”

This will be the third time I’ve read “The Gunslinger,” and each time I read it the more I appreciate it. Not for its plot structure, which is often times as broken as Roland – but more for its More...

It was okay with flashes of some fantasy brilliance underneath. I have been informed by a friend I trust that this is one of the weakest books so I will push on and read others in the series. I just wasn't overly impressed by this as a novel.

The juxtaposition of the book was not great as an entry into a series. It jumped all over the place chronologically and didn't provide an easy smooth ride. I like to think of writers as pilots (well I just made that metaphor up then but I shall think of More...

Dear Stephen King,

I'd like to apologize for the times that I've made fun of you in any way, shape or form, including the kid in my English 2 class sophomore year who would not stop raving about you as if you were the only person to ever write a book.

It's not that I think that kid was justified for only ever reading your books and no-one else's, and it's not that I thought you were a horrible writer and now I think you're amazing.

But, this was really quite a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure what More...

The Dark Tower series was one of the great joys of my reading life. However, it also frustrated me to the point where I often wanted to bludgeon Stephen King with a hardback copy of It.

I was baffled by The Gunslinger when I first read it way back in my high school days. It had been an unobtainable limited edition that had popped up in the title card of King’s other books, and when it finally went into wide release I couldn’t wait to snatch it up. But then I couldn’t make sense of it. There was a More...

An awesome fan based movie trailer @ my webpage along with the review>>>http://more2read.com/review/the-gunslinger-the-dark-tower-1-by-stephen-king/

The Gunslinger
"The Interloper, The Lord of Flies, The Man in Black cometh!"

Stephen King our modern day Charles Dickens takes you on beginning of an epic journey with Roland 'The Gunslinger' in this poignant tale. The story takes us through the past and future and the coming of age of a man and a boy in search of The Tower.
'The more you eat More...

UPDATED REVIEW: I finally returned to the beginning of The Dark Tower and re-read The Gunslinger, and it is incredible. I stand by my review that it may be less incredible on first-reading, but as a completion to the cycle (as in read 1-7... and then 1 again), it's pure genius, as only King could manage.

Previous review:
My 3-star rating is based on what I remember thinking about the book when I read it nearly four years ago. I was not all that impressed by the Gunslinger nor by his endless quest More...

I have heard a lot of hype about this book and a lot of my friends are really into it. I saw the paperback cheap at a used book store and decided to pick up the first two in the series. I am probably never going to touch the second book.

I have never been a fan of Stephen King, I don't really like horror books and I really don't understand how many times you can read about a car killing people before you get bored of the man. The reason I read this is because the Marvel comic version of this is r More...

The imagery in this novel is awesome. The bulk of the story is in a western style post apocalyptic desert. There's saloons, gun fights and creepy abandoned towns. The Gunslinger also had flashbacks that took us to some kind of medieval-style fantasy world and we even meet a character that took us back to current time New York. I couldn't figure out how they all fit together though. I spent most of this story trying to piece together details to help me figure out the plot. Roland, The Gunslinger, More...

Let me say something first. There's really no point in reading any Stephen King story if you don't read "The Dark Tower" series first. I'm very serious about this. Every short story, every sentence in one of his huge novels will resonate so much more if you read these novels outright. Because King is a geek of the best kind - he writes for his fans, who are as obsessed, if not more, with the world of the Dark Tower. And so every story has a shout-out - whether it be momentary, or whether it prac More...

I wish I'd listened to my friends sooner and started this series a long time ago, because if the series lives up to the promise it shows in Gunslinger, I'm going to fall in love with it!

I had a solid 4 star rating in mind as I was reading, but then I loved the conversation between Roland and Walter at the end about the passage of time and the size of the universe so much, plus (as silly as it sounds) I loved King's afterward. I love the way he admitted he basically wrote Gunslinger having no clu More...

Executive Summary: This is a book that introduced me to Stephen King and my very first adult series. A friend gave me the book that first time and told me I must read it.

It's been many years since that first time, and many re-reads since then, but it was just as enjoyable this time as it was the first. Maybe more-so as I am much better read and more experienced than that teenaged version of myself.

Audio book: I borrowed the audible version of the revised edition of this book from a friend. The More...

I first read "The Gunslinger" almost five years ago, not knowing that it would indelibly alter my opinion of Stephen King's literary merit. I was so taken with the titular character and so wrapped up in his story that I finished the book in a matter of hours, immediately and hungrily scrabbling for "The Drawing of the Three" because I couldn't bear not knowing what happened to Roland next. When I returned to the introductory novel for a second helping of the series a few years later, it felt ver More...

The Gunslinger is not my usual type of book so I wasn't really sure how much I would like it. However, I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. The imagery is the one thing that really stuck out to me- King really succeeds at bringing the desolate world to life and I could picture every moment clearly which made the book really creepy at parts. Roland was a well developed character and I found it interesting to follow him through his journey. I liked all the interesting (often desperate) people he me More...

this was the first Stephen King book I ever read, and I read it about 6 months ago. King wrote the intro to one of the volumes of Neil Gaiman's nothing-short-of-epickly-awesome Sandman series, and I always wondered why. That probably sounds stupid to avid King fans. I just always assumed he was a schlocky writer, having more in common with John Grisham than Alan Moore. but after having a few friends rave about this series (even to the point of tattoodles ref'ing it), I decided to give it a go.

I More...

Well... the jury's still out on this one. But my overall impression was "Uh...."
I decided to read this book because one of the executive producers of Lost (which I love) loved this series. And I tend to like the fantasy quest type thing... so I had high expectations for Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
But this book was... weird. And icky. There was a lot of sex in this book that I found completely unnecessary, unenjoyable and kind of gross. And the protagonist is not particularly sympathetic... More...

I have read, both here and in the introduction of this book, that this first installment of The Dark Tower series is different than the others which are better. So I read this with an open mind. I loved the western fantasy setting. It's nice to read something that isn't the usual Old England tradition. An epic fantasy for America that doesn't go the urban city vampires and other ghouls route. I like the writing. Stephen King is usually dependable for a good read. One of the best character writer More...

"El hombre de negro huía a través del desierto, y el pistolero iba en pos de él"

I really liked the setting for the Gunslinger, the story itself is quite gritty and grim. Constant guessing game as to what direction the tale will take - and King (of course) manages to only give the background history to the reader as it progresses - other writers try this and it ends up being a confusing mess. This is a great weird west novel overall, and its one of my favorite genres so my 4 star rating may be a bit bias... which surprised me since I'm not one of the dedicated fans of this v More...

So here I was thinking that I could handle Stephen King; even though I don't like horror. I can make an exception for Stephen King. I've seen Cujo, Pet Sematary, & Carrie (ok, so it was a long long time ago and my cousins forced me to watch them.) The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption are on my list of all time favorite movies. And plus The Gunslinger was supposed to be about a guy chasing another guy across the desert. I mean, what's so scary about that? So I was prepared for whatever More...

I have a confession to make - this is the first time I have read a Steven King novel. Ever. Yes, I know he is reputed to be an excellent writer, but I don’t do horror. Period. But, I was talked into trying out this series and after reading the afterward (I tend to do things backwards), I was intrigued enough to read the book from the beginning.

I read it in one sitting.

Then I went and begged my friend for the rest.

In this book, we are introduced to Roland, the last of the Gunslingers. The stor More...

I have wanted to start this series for years now. The premise of a lone western gunslinger trekking a strange fantasy world in search of a dark tower has always been an intriguing one. King talks in his forward of a character reminiscent of Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's "The Man With No Name" series. Even before purchasing the book I had already anticipated the archetype and was sadly disappointed. Though that may have served as a basis, it is juxtapositioned against a feudal world with a kni More...

Here's the thing...

The Dark Tower is a culmination, a grand conjunction of Stephen King's literary world. It is his masterpiece. Most importantly, though it reminds us many times throughout that King is a horror writer at heart, these books are a work of modern literature.

King began this first book in 1970 and didn't finish it until 81' or 82. The next book came out in 87'... and the last three were published in 2003 and 2004. His writing style changes and grows as the series progresses, which i More...

Stephen King's The Gunslinger is simply a marvelous work. I started reading the Dark Tower series because a friend of mine suggested that there could be a Nietzschean element to the series (of all things). Perhaps I'll return to that topic when I finish the series (which, at this rate, might be a few years). Nevertheless, the book is first rate because Roland—the protagonist— is an almost perfect, masculine protagonist. He's a master of his art, tougher than nails, and wholly virtuous in a surpr More...