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The Gunslinger
(The Dark Tower #1)
by
In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begin
...more
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Paperback, Plume Revised Edition (USA/CAN), 231 pages
Published
July 2003
by Plume
(first published June 1st 1982)
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(B-) 68% | Satisfactory
Notes: A discordant blend of flowery, terse and vulgar prose, difficult to follow and insufficient in explaining new concepts.
Notes: A discordant blend of flowery, terse and vulgar prose, difficult to follow and insufficient in explaining new concepts.


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 ...more

Please don't hate me. I know it seems sacrilegious to give a Stephen King anything less than 4 stars, but this one was SLOOOOWWWW for the first 75%. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but I did find this was an easy book to put down and not feel an urgency to jump back into for days at a time.
I've heard many folks describe this as a nice prologue to the series and that, in a sense, the action and story doesn't become investment worthy until book 2. That, coupled with the fact that I did becom ...more
I've heard many folks describe this as a nice prologue to the series and that, in a sense, the action and story doesn't become investment worthy until book 2. That, coupled with the fact that I did becom ...more

Oct 27, 2015
megs_bookrack
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
stephen-king-read
3/20/21: 5-stars yet again!!! Who is surprised?

Now the question is, do I continue to read the entire series and actually read the final book this time? If ka says it is so, it will be done.
3/15/21: It's been almost a year. I guess I should pick up The Gunslinger again. Why not!?
I only have 1,100 other books I want to read.

Picking up for the 4th time! 🖤
6/3/2020: ALL HAIL THE KING!!!

Five mind-blowing stars, again.
In contrast to the rest of the books in this series, The Gunslinger, is like the bla ...more

Now the question is, do I continue to read the entire series and actually read the final book this time? If ka says it is so, it will be done.
3/15/21: It's been almost a year. I guess I should pick up The Gunslinger again. Why not!?
I only have 1,100 other books I want to read.

Picking up for the 4th time! 🖤
6/3/2020: ALL HAIL THE KING!!!

Five mind-blowing stars, again.
In contrast to the rest of the books in this series, The Gunslinger, is like the bla ...more

Nothing beats the real Wild West, except a dark fantasy infested badass Kingian character exposition starting one of the best fantasy horror hybrid series of all times.
It reminds me of the style of some of his short stories, in fact, it are 5 short stories put together to a short novel and young Kings´ writing was darker, more direct, and epic, different than during his drug years and again different than in the period after when he kind of calmed down (not got old, because he is the King!). On ...more
It reminds me of the style of some of his short stories, in fact, it are 5 short stories put together to a short novel and young Kings´ writing was darker, more direct, and epic, different than during his drug years and again different than in the period after when he kind of calmed down (not got old, because he is the King!). On ...more

Jan 14, 2017
Emily (Books with Emily Fox)
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1-star-plz-make-it-stop
All I could think throughout this book was… what the hell am I reading?!
This western fantasy has to be the most confusing book I’ve read in a long time. Some parts were more interesting than others but overall I was very disappointed.
After hearing everyone rave about this series I have a hard time understanding why. I don’t believe it would be this popular if it wasn’t for Stephen King’s name on it. There I said it!
I didn’t like the story very much nor the writing.
I had been warned that the fir ...more
This western fantasy has to be the most confusing book I’ve read in a long time. Some parts were more interesting than others but overall I was very disappointed.
After hearing everyone rave about this series I have a hard time understanding why. I don’t believe it would be this popular if it wasn’t for Stephen King’s name on it. There I said it!
I didn’t like the story very much nor the writing.
I had been warned that the fir ...more

ENGLISH (The Gunslinger) / ITALIANO
When I read this novel more than twenty years ago, I did not appreciate it. Clearly, Roland's story did not charmed enough my distracted and teenage mind. Therefore, I decided to prematurely stop the "The Black Tower" series. A few days ago in a bookstore I stumbled on a copy of the new edition of "The Gunslinger", and reading the preface I understood a couple of things. FIRST: not just myself, but also Stephen King was young when he wrote the same edition of "
...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
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

An intriguing book, it draws the reader in little by little.
It is fantastic, imaginative ... but inconsistent. Amid moments of brilliance there are also islands of abstraction so murky, almost Kafkaesque in absurdity, that I could not follow. But it is interesting enough that I will probably read the sequels.
Of course that is another detraction, this book does not stand alone but leaves the reader with many questions unanswered. Fun questions that lead the reader to seek further, but a work of ...more
It is fantastic, imaginative ... but inconsistent. Amid moments of brilliance there are also islands of abstraction so murky, almost Kafkaesque in absurdity, that I could not follow. But it is interesting enough that I will probably read the sequels.
Of course that is another detraction, this book does not stand alone but leaves the reader with many questions unanswered. Fun questions that lead the reader to seek further, but a work of ...more

“I don’t like people. They fuck me up.”
Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, is after the Man in Black. Along the way he meets a young boy named Jake, who appears to be from a world that is different to Roland’s.
Ah, Roland. I had forgotten how difficult it was to like you in The Gunslinger. Some of your decisions are questionable, but that is the price of obsession.
The Gunslinger is so unlike King’s usual style of writing; the prose is beautifully poetic as we are introduced to a world t ...more
Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, is after the Man in Black. Along the way he meets a young boy named Jake, who appears to be from a world that is different to Roland’s.
Ah, Roland. I had forgotten how difficult it was to like you in The Gunslinger. Some of your decisions are questionable, but that is the price of obsession.
The Gunslinger is so unlike King’s usual style of writing; the prose is beautifully poetic as we are introduced to a world t ...more

Great world building and atmosphere. Definitely different from anything I've read before. It felt very scattered, like King didn't really have any idea what the next paragraph would hold. I'm sure that probably made it a blast to write, but it could've been better if it wasn't quite so disjointed.
The dialogue between characters is Star Wars Episode II level bad, unfortunately. I really enjoyed the world building though, which makes me think that the series may be worth continuing. ...more
The dialogue between characters is Star Wars Episode II level bad, unfortunately. I really enjoyed the world building though, which makes me think that the series may be worth continuing. ...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
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

صدرت بالعربية اخيرا بعنوان الرجل المسلح

But in the first book, I suffered the Hard, Dry, Boring read of following a Man in Black you don't know, in a weird hot dry desert in hot August for one reason,

To reach a Dark Tower you don't know where..or why..detailed in too much adverbs and ambiguity.
That didn't help much to start the following 2 books I already bought...

Book one was a true disappointment for me, I never thought it'd b ...more
Beaware that the movie's following the Ending of the Last Book!!!![]()

But in the first book, I suffered the Hard, Dry, Boring read of following a Man in Black you don't know, in a weird hot dry desert in hot August for one reason,

To reach a Dark Tower you don't know where..or why..detailed in too much adverbs and ambiguity.
That didn't help much to start the following 2 books I already bought...

Book one was a true disappointment for me, I never thought it'd b ...more

My third time reading! I have also read this same part of the story in graphic novels and remember references to it through the rest of the Dark Tower saga. I am definitely looking at this much differently knowing more about what happened before and after this book. I think back to the first time I read it and how I struggled some trying to imagine this fitting into a bigger mythology. Now it all flows much smoother.
This is also a part of my rereading all of King’s books in chronological order. ...more
This is also a part of my rereading all of King’s books in chronological order. ...more

The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.
That is the line I remembered for years and years that made me think that someday I would revisit THE GUNSLINGER...As a young teenage girl I read THE GUNSLINGER and really didn't like it that much. I didn't hate it- it just confuuuuuused me. And to review this I will have to take you back to when I first read it as a teen...
Stephen King is special to me. Special because when I first discovered him- it was the first time I went ...more
That is the line I remembered for years and years that made me think that someday I would revisit THE GUNSLINGER...As a young teenage girl I read THE GUNSLINGER and really didn't like it that much. I didn't hate it- it just confuuuuuused me. And to review this I will have to take you back to when I first read it as a teen...
Stephen King is special to me. Special because when I first discovered him- it was the first time I went ...more

My father is currently reading 11/22/63 which I gifted to him on Christmas since he is an admirer of JFK and he once told me he wanted to try King. He is completely mesmerized by King’s writing (rightly so) and I thought it will be a nice idea to tell him about the King’s novel I’ve been reading in the same time. My tentative to explain the plot of Gunslinger went kinda like this: a guy, a Gunslinger, travels through a desolated desert to catch a Man in Black, who is a sort of a sorcerer. The fo
...more

Apr 01, 2020
Anne
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Not my cuppa.
Since the book is called Gunslinger I sort of thought there would be guns being slung, but I found that's not really the case. I mean..I wish, but no.

I was told this was the worst of the Dark Tower series, but that it was also the shortest, so that would help make up for it. But I've got to say that even though this was a relatively small book, there was just nothing in it to make me want to continue. I wasn't interested in anything that was happening.
He goes to a gross town, m ...more
Since the book is called Gunslinger I sort of thought there would be guns being slung, but I found that's not really the case. I mean..I wish, but no.

I was told this was the worst of the Dark Tower series, but that it was also the shortest, so that would help make up for it. But I've got to say that even though this was a relatively small book, there was just nothing in it to make me want to continue. I wasn't interested in anything that was happening.
He goes to a gross town, m ...more

Apr 20, 2008
Ahmad Sharabiani
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
adventure,
fiction,
thriller,
horror,
apocalyptic,
fantasy,
united-states,
20th-century,
science
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1), Stephen King
The Gunslinger is a novel by American author Stephen King and is the first volume in the Dark Tower series.
As Roland travels across the desert in search of the man in black, whom he knows as Walter, he encounters a farmer named Brown and Zoltan, Brown's crow.
Roland spends the night there and recalls his time spent in Tull, a small town Roland passed through not long before the start of the novel.
The man in black had also stayed in the town; he b ...more
The Gunslinger is a novel by American author Stephen King and is the first volume in the Dark Tower series.
As Roland travels across the desert in search of the man in black, whom he knows as Walter, he encounters a farmer named Brown and Zoltan, Brown's crow.
Roland spends the night there and recalls his time spent in Tull, a small town Roland passed through not long before the start of the novel.
The man in black had also stayed in the town; he b ...more

As a first book. I hated this fucking book. Roland and his quest. Psth! He who let my favorite character die. It may have taken me at least 5 or more readings, with the rest of the series to appreciate it. I love many characters, across many storylines.
I still think of Roland. Where is he now? Who has he found? Will he remember to pick up that freaking horn!
Why are those gunslinger memories lost? That is the most awful thing of all. It's all been lost. That warmth, friendship. Just sharing a s ...more
I still think of Roland. Where is he now? Who has he found? Will he remember to pick up that freaking horn!
Why are those gunslinger memories lost? That is the most awful thing of all. It's all been lost. That warmth, friendship. Just sharing a s ...more

I get the popularity, obviously I do. And as a massive King fan, I dish out this rating sadly, for I would have loved nothing more than to tell you this is my new favourite book. Alas, it was not my taste- and as is such with all my reviews, my rating must be based on my own personal enjoyment and less on a novel's possible literary merit. So I can't tell you if this book is objectively good, I just know that I did not find it to be so.
...more

This is the beginning of Stephen King's famous magnum opus, the Dark Tower. This is where the master of horror writes his great work of fantasy based on a combination of The Lord of the Rings and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
This simple and beautiful sentence is the opening line, the trademark and even the summary of The Gunslinger. In most ways, this single sentence is what defines this book.
For that is how it all begins. ...more
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
This simple and beautiful sentence is the opening line, the trademark and even the summary of The Gunslinger. In most ways, this single sentence is what defines this book.
For that is how it all begins. ...more

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
So here's the deal . . . THE DARK TOWER obliterated my long-running book funk. I read all ten of the original series graphic novels, then I read the five from the spinoff.
FIFTEEN graphic novels. In three days.
Then I had to read the real thing. #cantstopwontstop
You: Why?
B/c after reading all FIFTEEN of the graphic novels, Roland still hadn't made it to the tower. *bangs head against wall*
And after reading THE DARK TOWER (the novel), I discovered that with the addition of ...more
So here's the deal . . . THE DARK TOWER obliterated my long-running book funk. I read all ten of the original series graphic novels, then I read the five from the spinoff.
FIFTEEN graphic novels. In three days.
Then I had to read the real thing. #cantstopwontstop
You: Why?
B/c after reading all FIFTEEN of the graphic novels, Roland still hadn't made it to the tower. *bangs head against wall*
And after reading THE DARK TOWER (the novel), I discovered that with the addition of ...more


Well, I'm trying this thing where I don't DNF books. Let's face it, I'll probably mess up that resolution though. On a similar note, who here is still hitting the gym? Ha! Thought so. Don't judge me then. Anyway, I know this was a short read but it took me forever to finish it. I think that the idea is fine but it's the writing that is putting me off. I feel the same way about Neil Gaiman, in that I really like the premise and want to read their works but I'm just not feeling their style.

Apparen ...more

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
And our BR gang followed the gunslinger as he tracked the devil, and when he paused to relax and make camp, he told stories of his latest gunfight, his old world, his childhood training and the tests he went through to become a gunslinger... and we just followed him, you know, like these flamingos!

King has masterfully created a unique world that integrates fantasy genre with American old west: A mysterious world th ...more

This book is something of an oddity. That being, the first time I read it, I would probably have given it 3-stars, and felt quite generous doing so. It was really "meh" and though I was a King fan, I wasn't pleased with it after the hype. I even delayed reading Book 2 for awhile because I was somewhat turned off. I didn't hate it, but it left me ambivalent for the most part.
But this is definitely a book that gets better with time, with re-readings, and with the rest of the series. The second tim ...more
But this is definitely a book that gets better with time, with re-readings, and with the rest of the series. The second tim ...more

“The rain in Spain falls on the plain.
There is joy and also pain
but the rain in Spain falls on the plain.
Time’s a sheet, life’s a stain,
All the things we know will change
and all those things remain the same,
but be ye mad or only sane,
the rain in Spain falls on the plain.
We walk in love but fly in chains
And the planes in Spain fall in the rain.”
I can not imagine Audrey Hepburn singing this version.
The Gunslinger is Stephen King at his most whimsical and lyrical, not two words you would as ...more
There is joy and also pain
but the rain in Spain falls on the plain.
Time’s a sheet, life’s a stain,
All the things we know will change
and all those things remain the same,
but be ye mad or only sane,
the rain in Spain falls on the plain.
We walk in love but fly in chains
And the planes in Spain fall in the rain.”
I can not imagine Audrey Hepburn singing this version.
The Gunslinger is Stephen King at his most whimsical and lyrical, not two words you would as ...more

At a loss for words when it comes to this book. There is something that feels so new and fresh in terms of genre. Western. Fantasy. Coming-of-age. And possibly sci-fi. All things I love. And having now read this, and knowing it was first published in 1982, I'm pretty sure one of my other favorite writers, the great Cormac McCarthy, drew inspiration from The Gunslinger in both Blood Meridian and The Road. One of the most original stories I've ever read. Cannot wait to continue this series!
...more

Twelve years in the making the story that would envelop King's career was finally released in 1992. When I first read it, I thought it was OK, but had zero interest in the Dark Tower or the following books. It was only on reading it a second time, with the following books waiting in the wings that I could appreciate this opening scene setter and saga foundation. On this, my third reading (second reading of this revised version), this book is more like a marker to outline the rest of the then yet
...more

Apr 12, 2007
karen
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
my-brains-junk-food
i made a kinda-sorta readalike list for the dark tower series here:
https://www.rifflebooks.com/list/236304
childe harold, get your gun! ...more
https://www.rifflebooks.com/list/236304
childe harold, get your gun! ...more
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Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, M
...more
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“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”
—
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“I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart.”
—
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More quotes…
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart.”
I ...more
Apr 08, 2021 03:48AM
Apr 08, 2021 06:40AM