The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, Book 1)

Dark Tower (1)

by Stephen King, George Guidall

4 pages

English language

Published June 24, 2003 by Penguin Audio.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-280036-2
OCLC Number:: 52534981

View on OpenLibrary

(264 reviews)

[The Dark Tower][1] I

The opening chapter in the epic Dark Tower series. Roland, the last gunslinger, in a world where time has moved on, pursues his nemesis, The Man in Black, across a desert. Roland's ultimate goal is the Dark Tower, the nexus of all universes. This mysterious icon's power is failing, threatening everything in existence.

The five stories that constitute the novel were originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction:

"The Gunslinger" (October 1978) "The Way Station" (April 1980) "The Oracle and the Mountains" (February 1981) "The Slow Mutants" (July 1981) "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" (November 1981) ([source][2])

[1]: openlibrary.org/works/OL81600W/The_Dark_Tower_1-7 [2]: stephenking.com/library/novel/dark_tower_the_gunslinger_the.html

90 editions

Curtis reviewed The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower, #1)

Review of 'The Gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

July 5, 2016
With the exception of [b:The Hobbit|5907|The Hobbit|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1372847500s/5907.jpg|1540236] and [b:The Lord of the Rings|33|The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411114164s/33.jpg|3462456], and possibly the Narnia books and [b:The Bridge to Terabithia|2839|Bridge to Terabithia|Katherine Paterson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327880087s/2839.jpg|2237401], I've re-read this book more than any other. I'm re-reading this time, of course, in anticipation of the movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.

Although the book hints at things to come, one of the things I like so much about The Gunslinger is that it is a standalone story. It hints at a before and an after, giving a taste of each without going into the insane amount of detail that bogs down later books. The plot is simple – the man in black flees, and the gunslinger follows – and straightforward, but the narrative is complex nonetheless, with flashbacks and diversions that help flesh out character and motivations of both Roland and Walter.

One thing I did this time through that I haven't done before was to read a summary of changes King made for the "revised and expanded" version that came out in 2003. (I have only ever read the original version in the form of a Plume trade paperback from 1988.) I am generally okay with revised and expanded versions of books, if it makes sense to do them – for example, I enjoyed the longer version of [b:The Stand|149267|The Stand|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1213131305s/149267.jpg|1742269] – but I generally think that in such situations, they should be made as unobtrusively as possible in service to the original story. So, for example, I know that King changed the direction in which Roland chased the man in black in several places, adjusting it to a southeast direction (from south, or at one point southwest) to follow the path of the beam, which is something that becomes important in later books – and apparently was not something that had occurred to King when he wrote the original story. He also adjusted ages and time periods, making Jake a little bit older and Roland (and his pursuit of Walter) much older. There are also some cultural changes, like the townie painting "reap charms" rather than "zodiac signs" on the whore's legs or changing a reference to Summer to Full Earth.

However, some of the changes that he apparently made, according to the comparison I found, seem unnecessary and/or heavy handed from a foreshadowing perspective. Is it really necessary to mention that billy-bumblers bones are part of the golgotha? Or to give Susan's last name? Or to mention that the pump at the way station is made by North Central Positronics? None of these things are part of the original story, and they don't need to be. I'm not even sure it was necessary to make it clearer that Walter and Marten are the same person. They're useless bits of information, even taking into account the longer series as a whole. It's King waving his hands to his fans and saying, "Hey guys, see what I did there?!"

But to return to the book I actually read, I still quite like the original story, even if it turns out that some of it is incompatible with the later books. There's just something about the idea of strapping on a pair of revolvers with sandalwood grips and chasing after an evil magician that I find appealing. Still.

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Oct. 28, 2008
This book was my introduction to Stephen King, and I became an immediate fan. From the words "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed"--a sentence that contains volumes worth of foreshadowing--to whatever the closing line is, I was sucked in all the way.

One of the great qualities of this book is its clarity. Later Dark Tower volumes became gratuitously expansive, as King became less concerned with refining the story and focusing on Roland Deschain's primary purpose of finding the Dark Tower. But The Gunslinger is about as tight as a story can be without snapping in two. King gives us just enough back-story to give us a taste of how messed up both the gunslinger and his prey really are, without going into the obscene amount of detail that becomes his fault later in the series.

The Gunslinger is definitely one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read.

Yashima reviewed The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower, #1)

Review of 'The gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I really wanted to like this book. More. But I didn't. Initially I enjoyed the writing. But as the story went on, I failed to empathize with the gunslinger. He remained a distant, not very sympathetic character throughout the book. And he's basically the only character in this book. The man in black is nothing but a shapeless figure at the horizon, the others are just decoration, except maybe for the boy, but that illusion is taken from the reader all too soon.

And it's not that I don't enjoy gritty settings, but this one overdid it for me. This is one of those distant-future, after-the-apocalypse scenarios, where man-kind has lost nearly all technology. Some of the "magic" remains however. But even in the gunslinger's own time things seem on a steady downward slope. The setting feels nearly as depressing as Cormac's The Road or the Covenant chronicles.

My biggest gripe is with the convoluted structure of the plot. The reader encounters the gunslinger as he his trudging through the desert. At that point half the plot of this first book has already happened. One is thrown right into the middle of his hunt after the man in black. Never in that book is his motivation for hunting down the man made clear, he's just doing it. The tower isn't explained either. Nothing ever really gets explained. This may be fine for a short-story and that's what I feel this grew out of.

I can live with the author keeping secrets from me. But here every small fact takes forever to come out. Everything is backwards. Before a piece of the story is told there have to be at least three mentions of it that give little to no clue about what happened and are mainly placed there to confuse the reader. I spent all the time wondering what had been going on before, rarely interested in what was going on right then. I am fine with a few flashbacks. But not this. This may be what makes him great as a writer of horror but it completely fails for me.

I may read the second book yet, because first books in a long series sometimes have trouble to get the plot going. But since character and setting also fail for me, the chances are slim.

PS: apparently I am not the only one with doubts about this first book, people are saying the series gets better later.

Sid Mitra reviewed The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower, #1)

Review of 'The gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I didn't seem to enjoy this book at all. I kept waiting for some semblance of a storyline till the end, but i'm still waiting. Overall the saving grace of the book was its short length. And i think this book is more like a foreword into the world of the dark tower, all introduction, less substance. Infact the preface by King, even urges the readers to stick around for other parts in the series, because it gets better apparently! So i shall give the next few ones a try, but meanwhile i need to get rid of the aftertaste with some genre of light humour.

Sam reviewed The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower I)

Review of 'The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

There were times when I could take or leave The Gunslinger, but by the end, I was thoroughly enticed by King's fantasy-western epic.

The Gnome King reviewed The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower, #1)

Review of 'The Gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Such a tough book to read, not Mr King's best. But it is worth sticking with it, I did enjoy it in the end and once you get past this one the series is amazing. Roland is one of my favourite characters of all time and I can't wait for his cameo appearance in Harry Potter... all guns blazing!

So if you don't like this book, then don't give up on the series, have one more go and try book 2 and you'll see what all the fuss is about.

Michael @ Knowledge Lost reviewed Gunslinger by Stephen King

Review of 'Gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This book has been recommended to me over and over and over again, but I can’t really see why. There are things I do like about the book but there are also a lot I didn’t like. My main issue with this book is I think Stephen King was trying way too hard to write a metaphor and that didn’t really help this book tell a decent story. I’ve been lucky to read a decent western style book recently in [b:The Sisters Brothers|9850443|The Sisters Brothers|Patrick deWitt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1291999900s/9850443.jpg|14741473], so I think that this book feel really short when comparing the two. The writing style of this book was one of the things I really did enjoy, King’s prose were bleak and matched the book style perfectly, I was just never sucked in completely.

chriskirk reviewed The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower I)

Review of 'The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

King too often relies on vagueness to create mystery and suspense. But it is nevertheless a memorable tale, epic in its stark images of decay and solitude.

Shack70 reviewed The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower, #1)

Review of 'The gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I absolution love the Dark Tower series. I read it once several years ago and got the itch to do so again. I can't believe how many things from the other books in the series are laid out in The Gunslinger. The Dark Tower series is definitely worth reading more than once. I Can't wait to read [b:The Drawing of the Three|5094|The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165517583s/5094.jpg|2113248] next!

Jesper Hauge reviewed The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower, #1)

Review of 'The Gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Stephen Kings take on a epic adventure novel, in the form of a cross between The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Alice in Wonderland, modelled after The lord of the rings.