Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderfully Written Piece of Lit.
Review: From beginning to end, this book kept me completely immersed in a fantastic adventure. At the point when we first meet the mysterious gunslinger, Roland, we are thrown into a world of shrouded past and undetermined future. Set in a land that strangely resembles our own, Roland journeys to catch the elusive Black Man. Facing several challenges along the way, we can't help but be compelled by the excitement...I only hope that King's series ends as well as it started.
Rating: 
Summary: Peaks the Curious, But Overly Vague
Review: Stephen King obviously started this out to be a series, as there are very few things to explain the kind of world Roland lives in or what has happened in the past. (And the fact that he claims that it's all one book is complete BS. He says himself that even after the fourth was done, he still didn't know how to end it. If it were all one book, he would have written it all at once and not made multiple releases over time.)"The Gunslinger" stands out among King's work. While most of this novels contain many different main characters, this book centers mainly on one: Roland of Ilead, the last gunslinger. He comes from a world similar to ours, and may even BE in a world similar to ours, but there is nothing to explain what has happened or what rules this place goes by. Nothing even seems to have a purpose in his quest until the end, and it still seems overly disjointed. It's so vague, the reader doesn't even see Roland's name in the text until a third of the way into the book. Up until then, he's referred to as "the gunslinger," appropriately. The book starts with Roland walking through a barren wasteland in pursuit of the man in black. He meets a farmer, who is somehow growing crop out in the desert, and decides to stop for the night. He then explains to the farmer how he'd spent a few days in a town that was no more. Eventually, he meets a boy named Jake from New York City and begins traveling with him. At different times, he goes into flashbacks of his childhood in Ilead, on his way to becoming a gunslinger. It's these flashbacks that hold what merit the book has. One involving he and his friends' eavesdropping of the cook is sound. Later, when they are at the gallows, the scene of an actual hanging and what Roland thinks as the bottom drops out really sounded with something I'd realized a ways back. And Roland's actual trial to become a gunslinger is riveting and heart-breaking at the same time. I'm intentionally writing this without having gone very far into the next book simply so that my opinion of it can be unbiased of what is to come. And "The Gunslinger" standing alone does not stand well. I did find it to be worth-reading, if only for the gunslinger's flashbacks, and the area with the Slow Mutants was right on par with what one would usually expect from King. While it will probably be some time before I pick this one up again, be sure that I plan to press on with the Dark Tower series. This one is worth reading, but it might be a while before Roland's past allows the interest to flow into his ka. -Escushion
Rating:
Summary: Why'd you do it Stephen?
Review: I am so annoyed that I bought this book. I am a HUGE fan of the Dark Tower series and I can't wait for the rest of the series to be published. I just don't see the need for anyone who has already read the original version to read this one. The meeting with the man in black was altered too much and he took out some of its better lines. Example: "Do I know you?" was changed to "Will I win?" There are a few other unnecessary alterations that I can't mention because they would be spoilers. I think that the original version is perfect by itself and if you can find a copy of it, please read it instead of this version. I gave this version of the book 3 stars because I still love the story to no end, but I had to count off for the annoyance factor. I'd give the original 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: So many questions, so few answers
Review: The hype surrounding the Dark Tower series finally got to me and I picked up The Gunslinger, unsure of what I would find. What I found was a stark, fresh, somewhat surreal and demanding (yet light!) experience that left me wanting more, much more. This first novel in the series finds the hero (for wont of a better word!), The Gunslinger, slugging across the desert in search of the mysterious Man in Black. The desert is bleak and so our the words - yet they have a definite beauty. Along the way The Gunslinger meets a couple of people (are they alive or dead?) and reveals some of his back history - a strange massacre in a town, his childhood friends and mentors and hints at a Dark Tower. Death permeates this book. We're not sure who's dead or alive. Something strange has happened with time - the main search right now is for this cause - and strange fragments of the "real" world appear through the fog - Hey Jude playing in a Western Saloon is one of the strange and wonderful images we encounter. Time itself is an illusion it seems and still the Man in Black is ahead of us. My one reservation about the book is that the final meeting with the Man in Black is a little anticlimactic. Perhaps that's because it's been building up but after the meeting we wonder why he was running at all. However, there is a lot of backstory missing in the book - obviously slated for the later books - so perhaps issues like this will be resolved. All in all a most strange but powerful book - well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Childe Richard...err....Roland... to the Dark Tower Came
Review: I saw a display for The Gunslinger and the other recently re-released Dark Tower novels in a bookstore recently, and decided to buy the first volume. I guess I'm a sucker for advertising, but I judged a book by its cover and thought it looked cool, and I had nothing else to read. I expected at least an adventure story, with plenty of six-shooter action that would keep my mind occupied for a while. I got that and a lot more out of The Gunslinger. I quickly saw that Stephen King was creating around me an entirely new world with a culture and mythology of the kind that I'm used to seeing in Tolkien and Herbert. King even draws some of his inspiration from a Robert Browning poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", which I thought was pretty cool. I found The Gunslinger to be a fun, yet deep, read, and flew right through it. If you're even remotely curious about what The Gunslinger is, you should definitely check it out. If you normally don't read Stephen King novels for some reason, rest assured--this is pretty much unlike any other story of his I've seen. Any fans of fantasy should check this out too, although if you're not into fantasy (like me) you won't find any unicorns or leprechauns to laugh at, so don't be afraid. This is a book for anyone--go ahead and buy it, or just borrow it from a friend. You'll thank him.
Rating:
Summary: Dune meets Preacher
Review: (...)P>Fans of Garth Ennis's Preacher series of graphic novels will immediately recognise the gunslinger as an archetype of the Old West. Like Preacher, this book takes some of the motifs out of westerns, fantasy, and religion, and twists them together, making them part of a mythic whole. As for Dune, one of my favorite books of all time, this book reminded me of that work because it creates a world so complete in its detail that you believe in it. Even when something isn't explained, you know it will come together, it will make sense, it will work, because the rules of this world have been worked so well. Roland's boyhood in a world which has "moved on" from its noble roots is similar to the crumbling of House Atreides in Herbert's novel; with varied, colorful characters who are well drawn. It's only beginning with this book. It may seem sparse, but that's part of the beauty of it.
Rating: 
Summary: A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT
Review: I enjoyed EYES OF THE DRAGON, ON WRITING & several of his horror/thrillers. But this novel didn't work for me: I believe the beginning of a story should pack some punch in the first 40 pages or it will lose people, who have better choices. Such was the choice with DARK TOWER; talk of grits and the cowboy
and gateways only held my interest for so long.
Rating:
Summary: The one that strated it all...
Review: He wrote this book in 1970(published in 1982) and it started the series that holds his whole literary universe together. A little tough to read especially if you have been introduced to King through his newer works, it is still by far one of his best. Once you read this book you will be compelled to get into the series. I highly reccomend the book and the series. But you don't have to take my word for it.
Rating: 
Summary: All the positive reviews are misleading
Review: Gunslinger is the worst book I have ever had the mispleasure of reading. DON'T believe all the gushing reviews that praise this trash. The characters are flat, the story is skeletal and the book reads like fan fiction. It was probably King's grade school writing assignment -- no kidding. The grammar is awful. The book abounds with errors and incosnistencies. I couldn't wait for it to be over.
Rating:
Summary: Jump on at the beginning, but the best is yet to come.
Review: I want to say this carefully, because, in the end, "The Gunslinger" is a good book. It's mysterious, moody, and full of memorable imagery. You'll most likely be very glad you read it (especially in this new revised edition, which, interestingly, is tighter and yet breathes more at the same time). But you should be aware that this first volume in Mr. King's epic (and soon to be completed!) dark fantasy series does not quite reach the "must-read" status easily achieved by subsequent volumes in the "Dark Tower" epic. I'm betting, in fact, that many of you out there who read this book will say something positive but ultimately lukewarm at its close, something like this: "Good book, I'll have to pick up the next one one of these days." And that would be a mistake, because you should pick up volume 2 ("The Drawing of the Three") immediately, not "soon" or "someday". The second volume is THAT good, showcasing King's imagination firing on all cylinders, with memorable, amazing scenes happening right out of the box. The plan may have been at least partially intentional... King may have said, "let's give the readers something more reserved and thoughtful at first, and then hit them hard in volume two by stirring in the really amazing and visceral stuff." Anyway, read "The Gunslinger". It's great (I actually give it about three-and-a-half stars). But do yourself a favor and stay on the ride and keep reading the other books, when things really take off. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.
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