Rating: 
Summary: Somtimes you dont Know
Review: Well I read this book and it is a little bit confusuing. I had to reread and analize. Roland the Gunslinger is very interesrting, but it is hard to follow becuase so little is told to you. SK is great in bring to life all that is around and all that is happening to Roland. SK's fantacy reality is unmachthable in this book. His keeps you wonder what is going to happen and yet you have a little insight to what is going to happen but yet you are not sure if it is so. It has been compared to JRR Tolkiens Lord of the Rings.I dont think that there is not much to compare. SK makes his world as diferrent and not earth, witch we see when jake is moved to Rolands world after dieing on earth, and Tolkien's world is earth, or the begging of earth as we know it. As for the jorney both authors keep you on a steady but intense ride of what is going to happen next. Still SK leaves to many holes in Rolands past and he gives to much insight on people we dont even want to care about. As for King he does a great job on telling you just enough to keep you interrested on what going on and what going to happen. It is worth the read just so that you find out if the "Gunslinger" is going to acomplish his goal( to get the man in black) and to continue the jorney for the Dark Tower. The fantcy is great, yet King mixes it with reality and weaves it together beautifully. I dont think it is the best book of the series but it is by far an interresting read. Yes I reccomend it for you to read!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent...
Review: A master of storytelling, King's 'The Gunslinger' is a great introduction to the voluminous 'Dark Tower' series. He uses just enough reality to keep us going, but enough fantasy to keep us interested.The later books can bog down a bit just by shear volume, but this one is crisp. A great read for anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of Tolkien
Review: "The man in black fled acsross the desert, and the Gunslinger followed." With these words, Stephen King began what is turning out to be one of the best epic fantasies since Frodo started on the road to Mordor and another Dark Tower. Much like Middle-Earth, Roland's universe (which we later learn is called Mid-World) is not shown to us all at once, but rather revealed to us slowly; we discover it as the characters do. Similarly, very little at first is revealed about Roland's quest for the Tower, just as the Ring-Bearer knows almost nothing about the task he must perform -- save that both journeys will be fraught with peril, hovering at the brink of disaster and madness, and that each may cost more than the hero is expecting (or willing) to pay. Roland in particular has lost almost everything he holds dear in his quest before The Gunslinger even begins; the first we see of him is as a lone figure, all but used up, still doggedly trailing his adversary west to the sea. In the course of this somewhat-episodic story, we slowly learn more about the mysterious Roland, and his strange world, which parallels our own so eerily (note the effective use of the song "Hey Jude", which startles the reader even as it provides an anchor of familiarity in this semi-alien environment). We meet Jake, the boy from our own world who was pushed into Roland's (almost literally) when he died in a New York traffic accident, and whose character has unexpectedly come to inform and influence the story as much as, if not more than, that of Roland himself. We encounter the darkly magical aspects of Roland's world, both in his encounter with The Speaking Demon below the Way Station, and in his strange, eerie tryst with the Oracle in the Mountains, surely one of the most atmospheric, best-written passages in any of King's novels. We pass under the mountains with Roland and Jake, encounter the hideous Slow Mutants (which provide us with a clue as to just how the world began moving on), and just as light begins to (literally) appear at the end of the tunnel, the bleakest moment occurs, and we learn to what depths Roland is capable of sinking to attain the ultimate goal of his quest. Along the way, we slowly begin to learn about Roland's childhood -- his training as a gunslinger, the day he witnesses a hanging partly brought about by his actions, the serene majesty of a Harvest Dance in the Great Hall, and the first inklings of trouble between his mother and father. Later, we learn how Roland's confirmation of his mother Gabrielle's adultery will force him to take his final test, and become an apprentice gunslinger, at the youngest recorded age for such an event. These flashbacks inform and echo the rest of the story -- i.e., young Roland's realization of his mother's treachery and Jake's growing certainty that his friend will betray him; the sacrifice of the hawk David, and another sacrifice that will grow to haunt Roland ever more deeply as time goes on. This novel, which according to King took the longest of all his books to write, is very well-constructed, a good story in itself which also implies that there is much more to be discovered in the successive volumes (and this has indeed proved to be true). Most of all, I love the implications of the final chapter, the long palaver between Roland and the man in black, which suggests that not only is Roland's universe dying, it may be nothing more than a mote of dust within another, vaster universe. This concept is hardly original to King (even he admits he got it from someone else), but rarely have I seen it so well-executed as it is here. In fact, the entire story is infused with the idea that Roland's world, moving on as it is, is just one of many continua that are endangered in this story. Jake's final words to Roland, in fact ("Go, then. There are other worlds than these.") would indicate that this is in fact so. Roland's strange, threatening, yet somehow beautiful world -- much like Middle-Earth -- is one of the best settings for a fantasy/quest story that I have ever seen, and the more that is revealed, the more enchanted I am. Roland and his journey may not be exactly on a par with Tolkien's tale of Frodo and the One Ring -- but it's pretty damned close. King's most ambitious work may well turn out to be one of the best fantasy epics ever created -- and if you haven't started it yet, you really should.
Rating: 
Summary: A literary mess
Review: According to King's afterword, this book started from a single sentence he wrote while still in school. He added on the rest of the 'story' (and I use the word loosely) during and between other books. It was written in pieces and tossed together when there was enough material to make a book. And it definitely shows. Leaving some things unknown and creating some psychological suspense is one thing; leaving the reader with only the barest bones of an outline is another. Why not make up the whole story yourself? You're practically there already after slogging through this mess. See Roland travel. See Roland commit mass murder. See Roland find a small boy. See Roland find railroad tracks in the middle of the desert. See them get attacked to create some pointless drama. Finally, we come to an ending. Existential philosophy is discussed. Grand things are spoken of in the vaguest possible terms. Roland experiences some powerful enchantment and ages ten years in a night. Shrug. Ho hum. He walks on as if this is something that happens every other week. Nothing is explained, no details are given, nothing connects with anything else. Admittedly this book is just a setup for the others, but it's still the most uneven mess I've seen from King (and that's really saying something, considering it has The Stand to contend with). It could have easily been trimmed down to 75-100 pages and used as an introduction to the next story. As a book in and of itself, it's an incoherent, meandering work that wouldn't have come close to being published had it been done by a first-time novelist. There are a couple connections with the following books; that's because after publishing this one, King had to scramble to make some sense out of the details he put in before. Apparently, thinking out the whole story ahead of time was just too much trouble. As for reading some of his other books (The Stand, Insomnia, Eyes of the Dragon etc.) because they're supposedly tied in with the Dark Tower: well, not they're not, exactly. Insomnia has one mention of a dream. For the others, it's because one guy (Flagg) shows up all over the place. My guess is that King made up those stories going along, came to a point where he needed a villain, and slotted in the same one rather than come up with something more original. Yawn. Let's just see if he can redeem himself in the end with this series. I remain curious.
Rating:
Summary: Roland
Review: It took me a bit of scepticisim and some hard work to get through this book, but by the end I was convinced that there was some hope, and that Stephen King wasn't a bad writer after all. I read On Writing first by him, and was hooked, by line and sinker on that one. His poetry freed my mind and taught me a little something that I didn't know before. Something different. I really liked Roland to be the bad guy in good situations. I didn't know how to respond to that! I was touched and I was intrigued all at the same time. I liked a lot how King depicted the people he met along the way in Tull, and then the way they died...very vivd I might say. 4 Thumbs up Mr. King!
Rating:
Summary: The beginning of an incredible saga
Review: This book, and the series(so far at least) is pretty different from much of SK's other works. Ive recomended it to many friends and relatives, and most of the time get that question "Whats it about". Thats a really tough one with this book, and series, basically its about Roland and his quest for the Dark Tower, but explaining much more than that in an understandable way is hard. Someone compared it to Lord of the Rings, and I dont think thats an unfair comparison, they're both fantastic tales of fantastic journeys, and they're both absolutely incredible to read. Read it, you'll be doing yourself an incredible favour, trust me(or if you dont, trust all the other people who also love it).
Rating:
Summary: Advice
Review: You have to take this advice, or you will miss out on some of the best writing by Steven King. If you think the Gunslinger is boring, try out the next book, it is well worth it. You wont be sorry. Once you start reading it will consume your life until the book is finished.
Rating:
Summary: The Dark Tower Series
Review: Part of the Dark Tower series of books, this is truly exceptional writing by Mister King. I can never put these books down. They are strange but for some reason, totally believable! This is a story that could go on for ever and ever. I really enjoy reading these books and it seems as if each new episode of the story just gets better and better. If you decide to read these series, I recommend you start from the first book and work your way down the whole series.
Rating:
Summary: King's best work
Review: The introduction into the odd world of the story's main character Roland is quite possibly King's finest work. Moving away from his norm of fright/horror, this book takes place in a world in which the world's last gunslinger travels across a rapidly dying world in search of The Dark Tower, a mysterious unexplained destination. However, in this world we see signs that it was at one time the same world as our own (or at least very similar). What makes this book the most interesting is not what it tells you, but what it doesn't tell you. It allows the reader to make their own theories as to what has happened to the world, what is happening, what will happen. The Gunslinger (and the books that follow it in the Dark Tower Series) is one of the best works from this modern writer and is definately worthy of your collection.
Rating:
Summary: THE SAGA BEGINS
Review: One of the greatest works of fantasy, Mr. King jumps easily from horror to this genre. And isn't the usually big-almost-without-an-end book that he usually writes, is not too big, yet is long enough. And it left you wanting to read the sequel. This is one of the best of Stephen King, a saga that will last longer than him, hopefully he will get to write the other 3 sequels to end this 7 part saga.
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