Rating: 
Summary: Give it a chance!
Review: I've read most of the other reviews on this book and it seems to be at one extreme or another in terms of ratings. To those of you who gave the book a poor rating, I only ask that you give the book a chance. It's hard to appreciate this book without reading the rest of the series. I recently went back and read The Gunslinger again after reading the rest of the series and found it to be a much better read.
Rating: 
Summary: how the mighty have fallen....
Review: Stephen King is one of the greatsest writers, alive or dead. However, when I came to read the start of what I thought was going to be a fantastice, un-put-downable series, I was sorely disappointed. I read it all in one hour, in the hope of finding a half decent paragraph which made any sense, but I didn't. Never mind, King, one failure out of many successes isn't so bad, but still.....
Rating:
Summary: The Epitome of Fantasy...
Review: The First in a series of wonderful books, The Gunslinger takes the reader on a completely unexpected and yet familiar path. I read the whole freakin' thing in a day! It engulfed my interests and attention completely and wouldn't let go. It is most definetely my favorite book of all time (besides Insomnia). In closing, I implore you: Please read this book. You have no clue...
Rating:
Summary: THE END-ALL OF FANTASY
Review: The First in the Dark Tower series, the Gunslinger Sets the stage for what will continue in the other books. The gunslinger, a cold, adventuring cowboy (the last of his kind), is on an eternal hunt to find the mysterious Dark Tower. To reach this destination, he must question a shadowy immortal of extreme power known only as the man in black. To this end, the gunslinger stops in interesting towns as he treks through a seemingly endless desert, the forest, and the ominous peaks that lead to the other side, where no mortal has set foot. He is completely absorbed by his quest, and has been trained to destroy anything in his way. For example, in Tull, a town in the middle of the desert, he brutally kills the entire town's population when a fanatical Christian convinces the rest of the generally friendly populace that the gunslinger is an agent of Satan. Another example is when he has the choice between taking his only chance to catch the man in black or saving his friend, a young boy from the past; he leaves his friend to fall to his death while the gunslinger catches up with the man in black.The plot is excellent and the ideas are fascinating. The many twists add a sense of uncertainty. The book eventually revolves around the concept of infinity, and the unerstanding of infinity by a finite mind. This concept leads into the Dark Tower, a representation of the entire multiverse in one, down to the smallest of possible dimensions. There are a few discrepancies in this book. One of them has to be the fact that the book rarely stays in chronological order. Suddenly shifting from a barren desert to a gallows in a remote part of the world twenty years in the past. Such shifts are common, but the book is usually not hard to follow. Another is the fact that is takes the reader fully halfway through the book before just to find his name. Even then he is referred to as "the gunslinger." This is an awesome book!!! YOU MUST READ IT IF YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF ANYTHING OF A FANTASY FAN!!!
Rating: 
Summary: What was he thinking?
Review: Stephen King is one of the best writers living (or dead for that matter), and the Dark Tower series is one of the finest in fantasy. But you'd never know it from reading this book. From King I expected more of the wonderful writing and skillful plot development that make his other books so great. This book instead presents a character we know nothing about, following another character we know nothing about, for a reason that's not entirely clear, for a purpose no one understands, through a world we know nothing about, doing things that are never explained. We learn the world has changed somehow, but we don't know how or why. We learn very few things about Roland's past, and these don't explain Roland's quest or purpose, or how he and the man in black got here. The first 100 pages could be completely dropped and not affect the book at all. The conversation with Walter is the only well-written part in the book. This could have easily been tacked onto the beginning of "Drawing of the Three" as a prologue instead of an extremely unclear ending to a sloppy book. Next to nothing is explained at the end and the whole story up to that point wanders from scene to scene with no continuity and no purpose. The Dark Tower series is wonderful, but skip this book. All the relevant information from the 230 pages of this book is given in three pages at the beginning of book two.
Rating:
Summary: And the Gunslinger followed...
Review: This book sets the stage for one of the greatest series and one of the greatest pieces of work Stephen King has ever done. King creates a fantasy world all his own where there is only one gunslinger left, Roland of Gilead. In this first part we learn of his quest for the Dark Tower and his search for the man in black. The book is wonderfully done and if you've read it you've no doubt read the rest of the series. If you haven't though you really should. Part II is even better and by then you'll be starving for the next book, The Waste Lands. For anyone who thinks King is just a horror writer simply read this book. Enough twists and turns to keep you planted on the sofa and reading for hours.
Rating:
Summary: What IS this mess?
Review: Generally, when I read a book, I know who I am reading about, and am going from place to place in a logical and chronological sequence, with sufficient reason given whenever an unexpected timeshift occurs. Instead, I am given a character whom I know NOTHING about (his name isn't even given until midway through!), chasing someone for god-only-knows-what reason, going somewhere with no area description at all, and randomly switching time periods to somewhere and somewhen which, again, we know nothing about. How ANYONE is expected to be able to follow this is beyond comprehension.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as it could be
Review: I admire Stephen King tremendously for his writing skill, but I thought "The Gunslinger" was something of a disappointment. It's a lot shorter than his other books (it only took me 4 days), but that may be a good thing in this case, since the story seems to wander with no purpose. There are veiled references to some things in Roland's past, but hardly anything is revealed. There are several mentions of the Tower, but nothing is explained until almost the end, and even then it's vague and doesn't fill out the story nearly as well as I expected. I just picked up the second installment of the story, and I've heard it's a lot better. I hope so.
Rating: 
Summary: A slow start, but a worth while book
Review: This book started really slow, but by the end it was amazing. I excuse the slowness however, since it is all necissary for setting up the rest of the book and series. The insights in this book are truly ingenius: for example, tward the end of the book one of the characters points out that only enemies can tell the truth to each other, friends and lovers lie out of courtesy. It is a well done and facinating story. READ IT!
Rating:
Summary: a great begging to an epic series
Review: To tell the truth I am not a huge king fan. I have tried to read a few of his books and just couldn't do it. Then one day a saw this book and thought that I might give it a try since it looked more like a fantasy novel than his usual horror novel. I had to read only about 10 pages in and I was hooked. I really like how he kept a lot of the stuff having to do with the tower a mystery. The only reason I didn't give this five stars is because it seemed like I had read the first chapter in a mutch larger story. Anyway if you like or don't like King this is a good book and I will now begin to read the sequal. Great job mister King you truly have a lot of talent when it comes to writing storys.
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