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Summary: Achieving the Tower
Review: I had difficulties following the story at times, but couldn't seem to put the book down for any length of time. As it progressed, I found myself picking it up and reading "just a few more pages". By the time I finished, I had already ordered the next book in the series, and today ordered the next two. ... If you have patience to wade through some of the areas that are occasionally slow and/or difficult to follow, this is an enjoyable story that will hook you on the series.
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Summary: Great beginning for a wonderful series
Review: I first stumbled upon the Gunslinger in middle school and have been hooked on the Dark Tower ever since. With it's gritty fantasy feel and an eerie undertone, it sets the reader on a spellbinding journey following Roland's quest for the Dark Tower. King's stark descriptions of this world and it's people are totally amazing. I highly recommend this book and the following volumes.
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Summary: This series has brought King back to may reading list
Review: I had stopped reading Stephen King becuase it seemed like everything he was writting was just a rehash of his earlier stuff. He was using cookie cutter characters and catering to the mass market. My wife was reading this series and kept talking about it. I picked it up and was glad I did. King was back. The characters in this book were different and you cared about them. The story was something that King hadn't done before and it was something you wanted to read. I couldn't wait to get on to the next ones. They are all great.
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Summary: A Strange Masterpiece (And My Favorite Novel)
Review: I don't hold Stephen King in very high regard as a writer. I haven't read one of his books in years. Yet "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger" is my favorite novel. And I've hated every subsequent book in the series.I've struggled with this for years, especially when I have to admit to others who share a more refined taste in fiction and literature that my favorite novel was written by the king of horror schlock. Yet I can't deny it. "The Gunslinger" touched a nerve. It's pulp origins are there, plain as day. Yet the writing itself is extraordinary. "The Gunslinger" is hypnotic - a story that conjures images only seen in those dreams that border on nightmares. You are in a beautiful and desolate place so raw and primal, classically mythical and yet almost alien. This is the escence, neatly preserved, of what makes great science fiction so powerful. King captures something that Frank Herbert couldn't quite find, even with the thousands of pages that comprise his "Dune" masterworks. I won't go into the plot, characters, etc. Enough reviewers have come before me with that information. All I will say is buy this book and ignore the rest of the "Dark Tower" series. King lost his touch right at the beginning of the second novel, and they have slowly devolved into a bloated, incoherent mess. A pity, but lightening rarely strikes the same spot twice. I don't normally write Amazon reviews, but I felt the need here to document my love of this book. Pick up this paperback. You'll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
Rating: 
Summary: The Dark Tower is okay, if you can stay with it.
Review: "The Dark Tower" was a very far-fetched book. It contained some very confusing parts that made it somewhat difficult to read. There was not much of a beginning to this book. It felt like the author just threw the reader right into the plot without defining the book at all. I found it very difficult to get into the plot because the style of writing was very confusing because of flashbacks that pop up without any warning. Instead of just beginning a new chapter for a flashback, King just started a new paragraph and it became very confusing. I believe that "The Dark Tower" could use some work especially with the development of the story. The book begins with the gunslinger chasing a man known as the "man in black." He follows him through the desert for several days. The gunslinger then comes to Tull, which is a town in the middle of this desert. What the gunslinger doesn't know is that the man in black has cast a spell on the townspeople so that they will attempt to murder him. The gunslinger meets a woman who runs the bar and sleeps with her in her room above the bar for the few days that he is in town. On his last day in town, his is buying supplies and is ready to leave when the townspeople attack. He however is a gunslinger and manages to shoot all forty-one people in town and escape with only minor injuries. The gunslinger stays in town one more night to recover from the fight and leaves town the following morning. He continues across the desert for a few more days before coming across another village. He becomes friends with one of the men in that town and stays the night in his hut. The next day he heads out again on the trail of the man in black. Many days later he comes across a farm occupied only by an eleven-year-old boy named Jake. They become good friends and after gathering food and water they both continue across the desert. A few days later they come to some mountains and after a day's climb they spot the man in black far above them. About a week later they catch him on the other side and the gunslinger shoots at him but is unable to harm them. Next Jake and the gunslinger enter tunnels under the mountain and find railroad tracks with a handcar. They continue through the tunnels for a few days before coming across some strange creatures that try to kill them. They however get away and continue on the trail of the man in black. This book wasn't extremely hard to understand after I got used to the flashbacks to the gunslinger's childhood. The plot became easier to understand, the further I read and it became pretty interesting. The author does a very good job of taking a far-fetched type of story and making it semi-believable. His descriptions were very good in that the reader could almost see what he was trying to show. The character development of this story was fairly poor because people kept kind of appearing. However, the book was still fairly interesting. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who is very down to earth or to someone who has trouble staying with the author because the book jumps around a lot and some of the content is very hard to believe. I would however recommend this book to people who can follow the author's descriptions and who can understand far-fetched plots. "The Dark Tower" is a pretty good book for someone who can understand the type of story but, overall I was kind of disappointed because I have read some much better works by Stephen King.
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Summary: A new twist to Stephen King.
Review: The Gunslinger is different from many of King's other works, but at the same time, it encompasses everything else he has written. It is best described as a western with a sci-fi twist. Roland is certainly one of the most complex characters King has written and he has many facets that are not discovered until later books in the series. Once you have read all 4 of the books in this series, you will find yourself re-reading other books just to pick up on the connection to the Dark Tower series. Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, The Talisman, The Black House, Salem's Lot, and The Eye of the Dragon as well as The Stand are all directly connected to the Dark Tower series in quite obvious ways, but everything else King has written is encompassed in the world we come to know in the series.
If you don't read anything else written by King, you should read this series. It doesn't contain the horror so obvious in most of his other works, but you won't be sorry to have spent time on these books.
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Summary: A biginnig of great siries
Review: When you will read this book you won't understand a lot of things (where, when). but dont afraid to waste time this book is so intresting and beutifly written that you will find yourself buying the following books in this siries.
in them you will discover a holl new world that will follow you in your dreams. King succeded to make a wonderful mix of fantasy humor action and science fiction that I never met in any book. (I gave this book only 4 points comparing to the others in this series, atherwise it worse 5)
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Summary: A Great Series Is Started With A Great Book
Review: In a world part fantasy and part old western that is at some points a mirror to our own, a gunslinger named Roland is on the pursuit of the man in black. Roland is the last gunslinger and survivor of humanity in a world that people say has "moved on".
Roland travels in the West, chasing the man in black, who you discover is a great sorcerer. The only clues leading to the man in black on the flat, dry hardpan of the desert are the leftover ideograms of his fires. Roland continually feels that he is getting closer to the man in black, but he also feels that the man in black is aware he is being followed and is leaving traps for him. Roland finds his way to a man named Brown who befriends him and allows him to refill his supplies. While talking, Brown learns of Roland's visit in the previous town Tull. He finds out that Roland saw a strange man, who before his visit, had died and had been brought back to life by the man in black. Brown also discovers that Roland met a girl named Anne, and got in a relationship that almost delayed his pursuit of the man in black. Brown is shocked to hear that Roland was led into one of the man in black's traps and was forced to kill an entire town of crazed people, including Anne. After walking across the desert for 16 days, Roland meets and befriends a boy named Jake who is living in an abandoned way station. They both must find the man in black as they continue to the other side of the mountains, where you will discover why Roland is following him. Roland will have to make many decisions regarding his friend Jake in order to continue his journey. I would recommend The Gunslinger to anyone who enjoys fantasy adventure books due to the interesting although complicated plot I found. The book is perfectly structured, and the characters are well built and nearly unforgettable. The words that Steven King uses are so powerful that they can paint a picture in your mind and make you feel like you are a part of the book. I believe that this book is so fascinating that not only will you jump to the rest of the books in The Dark Tower series, but you may also read The Gunslinger once again.
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Summary: Gunslinger is a page turner
Review: The Gunslinger is a book that exceded my predictions. Stephen King did an excellent job of connecting the characters so that they seemed real life people. The book is about a gunslinger named Roland who is in search of "the dark tower" which is a place where he is destined to go for some unknown reason. In the beginning chapters there is great action scene of Roland taking out an entire town of people. The antaginist in this story is "the man in black" who Roland sees as somebody acting against him, but in reality he acts as sort of a guide to Roland. There are also many characters in the story such as boy who Roland befriends and takes him along on his travels. You also learn more about Rolands past and other characters involved. I gave The Gunslinger 4 stars which is a rating that this book deserves.
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Summary: reading for a future king
Review: I just want to say that I am so glad that I read this novel while I was a teenager. I must've been around 14 or 15 when I first picked this up. First reaction: total absorbtion. I absolutely LOST myself into this book for about two weeks. Incredible- I lost myself in this book in much the same way that I got lost in music (Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, for example) later on. This is perfect reading for young adolescent males. It is a complete exploration of the mentality and spirtuality of a "lone wolf" male fighting against a world that has long since gone to hell. Most teenage males are by definition "lone wolves." At least I was in the early 90's, maybe all that has changed. I hesitate to proclaim Roland a role model. However there is no doubt in my mind that his image gave me an idea of how a man may act when in dire straights.
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