The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower - Stephen King Reviews

In a world that is a shadow of our own, Roland has managed to survive rebellions, wars, near total destruction of the world itself... he is the last gunslinger, the last of a rare breed of men who were raised to keep the world from changing, to keep order... a symbol of all that was good. In this dark twin to our own world, priests dressed in ...  Read the complete review

The Gunslinger is book one of the seven-book series known as the Dark Tower series, written by Stephen King. The book, and indeed the series, revolves around a cowboy/nomad type named Roland Deschain who is on a kind of pilgrimage to the Dark Tower, which is basically a huge building that holds the world (and possibly even the universe) ...  Read the complete review

The Man in Black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed. ==== Background info ==== The Gunslinger is the first novel in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger begins the epic tale which follows the Gunslinger, Roland of Gilead in his epic adventure to reach to the Dark Tower and right the wrongs of his ...  Read the complete review

First published in 1982, The Gunslinger is the first novel in the epic "Dark Tower" series by Stephen King. Inspired by stories of the Wild West combined with Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings", the book follows the adventures of Roland Deshain as he chases his nemesis, the enigmatic man in black, across the barren desert ...  Read the complete review

I remember when i first looked at a Stephen King book and this was it. I opened the first page in the middle of my local WH Smiths and started reading the first page just too see if i liked it. Lets just say it took a member of staff to ask if i was going to buy the book when i realised i had read nearly 22 pages! The story is set in a ...  Read the complete review

I first read this book a few months ago, on recommendation from my husband. he read the whole Dark Tower series of seven books and kept saying how brilliant he thought they were. I'm not a fan of Stephen King's horror books, so was reluctant to give it a go. But he kept insisting, and I thought they really must be good for him to rant this much ...  Read the complete review

Many authors have embarked on what they see as their ultimate works, usually in the form of a lengthy tale, a saga of epic and memorable proportions. One of the most renowned authors in the literary world, who usually writes in the field of horror, is Stephen King, and for many years he plotted his ultimate works, which we now know as The Dark ...  Read the complete review

The first book in what must be one of the longest series ever written, the Dark Tower. It is also one of the best series ever written. It's just such a damn shame that is starts off on this rather mediocre story. King himself has said he is not very happy with the story and has released an updated version which is better, but still not ...  Read the complete review

The man in black fled across the desert, the gunslinger followed. This first line sets the scene for this book, and possibly the whole dark tower series, where we first join "the last gunslinger" Roland Deschain of Gilaed on his relentless search for the mystical Dark Tower, in this first book we discover a little of Roland's ...  Read the complete review

The Gunslinger on first reading, is a stand alone collection of tales featuring the same character - eponymously referred to as the Gunslinger, on the trail of the man in black, who is fleeing across the desert from him. As he gets closer to him, the tale becomes so much more. This is the first chapter of Stephen King's famous Dark Tower cycle ...  Read the complete review

The dark tower. The gunslinger. The first part of the dark tower series is 'The gunslinger'. The story is set in a fantasy world about 'Roland of Gilead' the last of the gunslingers. The hero is on a quest to find the mysterious dark tower whilst also hunting 'The man in black', who you don't get introduced to until near the end. On his quest ...  Read the complete review

A truely excellent first book in the gunslinger octet by Stephen King. We follow Roland of Gilead as he follows the man in black. The Gunslingers character could almost be Clint Eastwood at his finest. A tough, grity cowboy on a hellbend mission and NOBODY is going to stop him. Hes the tall, dark and ugly cowboy that we all had nightmares about as ...  Read the complete review

Although quite an avid reader of Stephen King stories over the years I have to admit, like others, I was a late arrival to the Dark Tower epic. I'm not really sure why I kind of avoided this story either. I think it may have been a combination of things including thinking that King had started to lose his touch, I thought I would never find the ...  Read the complete review

Before I start the review proper, I'm going to let you in on the (not so) secret fact, that I am a huge fan of the works of Stephen King, and have read almost everything he has ever written (including some non-fiction). After reading that statement, you might be surprised that until this month I had never managed to read any of the books in the ...  Read the complete review

On first glance, The Gunslinger appears to be another of King short little novellas, probably worth wasting a few lunch-hours over but not an prize-winner. What the Gunslinger is in fact an introduction to the world and the man himself, the Gunslinger...Roland of Gilead. What i find most interesting this novel is the amount of typos it ...  Read the complete review

Stephen King tells the reader of this novel that it took him twelve years to complete it. That's pretty sad since there's only 200+ pages. I normally enjoy reading his novels, but this one left me bored. I finished reading it only because I had nothing better to do. The Gunslinger is chasing the man in black, but we don't know why ...  Read the complete review

I have never felt so compelled to read a book than when I was reading this series. It started when I bought a copy of the third book in the series. I was just about to start reading it when I discovered that it was part of a series. So me, being me I went back to the second hand bookshop to see if they had the other three books in the series. And ...  Read the complete review

I feel that any comments about me being Stephen King’s number one fan would be inappropriate right now, seeing as I’ve only just read this book. Oops! Better late than never, though, eh? With no further ado... The first line tells the story: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” ...  Read the complete review

Looking at The Gunslinger, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it is a nice little novella (albeit a rather overpriced one), a change from King's usual doorstops. Look closely, though because this is in fact just the first part of a four (so far) episode series which runs to well over 2000 pages at present. Having said that, this novella ...  Read the complete review

A few years ago, Stephen King's fantasy line of books, The Dark Tower series, was mostly unknown to all but the biggest fans of King's works. Now, King has expertly interwoven themes and characters from the Dark Tower series into the majority of his works, including Insomnia, Desperation, and Rose Madder. Get in on the ground ...  Read the complete review