The Gunslinger
Ratings1,034
Average rating3.6
The first book of the legendary serie.... Ok, it's really not the best, but please, hang in there, the serie gets sooooooo much better after this book
For whatever reason, this book felt like hundreds of pages of great writing where seemingly nothing happened until the middle and the end, and I don't know what happened. I remember feeling like I wasted several hours of my time, because these books are so hyped and this one, at least, didn't deliver.
The Gunslinger is the first book of my FAVORITE book series - The Dark Tower by Stephen King. Close readers of my book reviews (if, in fact, any of those people exist!
I came to The Gunslinger as a non-fan of King, and on the whole, still am. But something about this series grabbed my interest. I don't remember precisely, but mainly it wasn't horror and was by King. Happy I was at the pleasant surprise and soon immersed my attention into the series. (Which I still intend to finish.) What fascinated me, and still does, are a few distinctive features of the books as a whole.
The mood-tone of the work, I call it the cine of writing, is particularly memorable. To me there's a kind of rolling continuity of mood-tone, like enjoyable instrumental music which just keeps going and one enjoys continuously. I found this constancy to be intriguing, as it seemed to me the books did not vary much by way of emotional quotient, but possessed a constancy of hold on me.
The particular reality fascinated me, but not for its uniqueness. I've read thousands of sci-fi and fantasy books, so many I can remember only a fraction of the titles, thus the particular type of reality itself was not the intrigue, but its peculiar blend of unreal and real. I persistently had the feeling that this unreal reality, was in some way real. But not because King did a good job of immersing me, which he did, or was particularly descriptive, which he's not, but because the story, the overall, has the effect of conveying the sense that's it's written from personal experience. Like the eccentricities of some of the characters, they particularly had that realness which comes from weirdness which is really too weird for a story, but is nonetheless true. The floor-cleaning woman comes to mind
This unreal realness I enjoyed tremendously. A constant mystery. The particular elements which are unique to the story, like the riddles, the door etc, are thus magnified as interesting when connected to from this perspective and view. The whole series took on an entirely different focus and relationship. A somewhat unique perspective I had not encountered before and have only encountered in one other book, one I am currently reading. (Unfathomable by Rose Moon.)
That constant feeling leads to the ongoing question, “But how could this be real?” Or, “How could King have witnessed this if not?” The speculations which result are a joy for me. However, as excellent as this aspect of the book and series is, it's not what stays with me. What I retain is that mood, the Feel of Roland, a rare character name I can remember, and how I too knew him. Knew Roland before I read King's recollections of his adventures.
“Go then, there are other worlds than these”
This is probably my 4th read through of The Gunslinger and it's enjoyable every time. I decided this time around to listen to it on Audible and enjoyed it even more. The narrator was great and entertaining. Can't wait to continue my journey to the dark tower (again)
It was as many say..an "interesting" read. Out of the few king's books I've read, maybe my least favourite so far. Still it was an interesting enough to read through and did not overstay it's welcome. Even still I'm not sure I'm convinced enough to continue further with the series.
Every King book I read I think it's the strangest book I've ever read and sometimes I like or despise it. This one is bizarre and by golly I liked it. I really enjoy fantasy, horror, and westerns so naturally this is perfect for me. Although I wish it had more horror.
There are events that I thought were a little too weird like aborting a demon baby by shoving his pistol up a woman. I may not have read that correctly but that's how I understood it and I thought it was a bit unnecessary.
Roland also makes a decision later on that I was very disappointed with but maybe I'll find out why he did it later on. There is a lot of events that I would like to know more about that will more than likely be brought up in later installments.
AN intriguing story. Left plenty of questions and mysteries to entice me to read the second. I listen to the audio book as I read. Make the entire book more enjoyable!
This is at least my third time reading The Gunslinger. The first was way back in Junior High, with my first attempt at the cycle (I cried off at either Wolves of Calla or Song of Susannah). The second was with the audiobooks a few years ago.
The first of the audiobooks at the time was read by George Guidall, who I came to associate more with Les Miserables than The Dark Tower. I like George's narration, and I loved Frank Muller's narration of a few of the Tower books he narrated. I found myself reading Gunslinger this time in a merge of their voices, fitting perfectly.
This is my first read of Gunslinger after having completed the cycle once. I find it rewarding. There's so much here that echoes throughout the rest of the cycle and it is sweet to feel it all again. I forgot how much Susan Delgado is in this, and every time I saw her name I wanted to go back into Hambry.
I'm excited to be reading through these again. I meant to dive right into Drawing of the Three after finishing this, but my library turned up with Duma Key (one of my all time fav King books), so I'll have to hold off until I can get that one through again.
Insanely well written, the last section being one of the best things I've ever read. Very hard to follow at times. This doesn't have the same humanity other king novels have which is disappointing but I'm expecting that to change in the second entry on
2.5-ish ⭐️
This is one of the weirdest books I have ever picked up and one of the least enjoyable to read. It reads like a fever dream more than a story and at the end I am left to wonder, what was the point of this entire word salad?
You have a fusion, or should I say, a confusion of post-apocalyptic, western and Arthurian fantasy and pretty much no coherent storyline. Scenes follow one another in whatever order, pacing is a myth and you couldn't find character motivation to save your life.
The book had tons of potential and terrible execution, and reading it left me feeling bored and/or lost and/or disgusted, depending on the chapter.
I was indifferent to pretty much all the characters pretty much all the time, to the point of hating them for wasting my time.
I would've given this lower rating, except, as I said, I did like the setting and the story did have some more lucid moments (hopefully it will go somewhere better in book 2).
P.S.: I am looking forward to the day I will read a Steven King book that doesn't feature child molestation.
All I'll say is thank goodness for YouTube. I'm going to have to watch a video on the explanation of this book. I still give it five stars because I feel like it was me and not Stephen King's writing. I just was not in the mood and the more I listened and got lost, the worst it was for me. Again, nothing on Stephen King.. it's just not the right time for me to read.
Just ok for me, despite the popularity. One of the first and few action scenes was really well written and the second fell a little flat; though the last set of pages and the ending were solid. Seemed like a long way to understand what the larger series was about. May or may not go onto #2, but certainly not right away.
75/100
While the last 50 pages of the book were really great. I struggled with the language and lack of understanding of this world for the first 2/3rds of the book. Which I feel is intentional but it made it difficult at times to understand what was going on or what was story or imagination. I feel rereading this after the series probably makes it a more enjoyable read but that doesn't make the first time any better experience. I'm very excited to see what is next though!
I am having a hard time rating this one. While I appreciate where King is trying to take us, there are times I think I need some sort of “stimulant” to figure what the hell is going on. I know some have said, including King himself, that this first book in the series was not his best work. I already bought the whole series, so I will definitely be continuing to book 2...hopefully I will not be as lost as I was in the first.
Confusing, with a hazy plot that I just might not be smart enough to understand. I was really excited for this book, and had I continued reading the series, I may have been able to come back, understand what this book was about, and enjoy it. But, starting from nothing, not worth the read.
Age range: 16+
Confusing setting and plot may be too hard to follow for younger readers (or even older readers like myself).
“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”
I definitely enjoyed this better on second read. I still can't really get over the dryness, the overwhelming Westen vibes, the amount Roland is called “the gunslinger”, or the little amount of things that happen. But the last 20%, oh nelly.
I have a vague memory of reading this book in Finnish around the early 1990s but my brain may be failing me as the contents of the book didn't quite match my memories. It might have actually been the second book in the series. Anyway, as many others mentioned in their reviews, this book is mostly quite boring and there isn't too much happening. I had trouble staying focused unless there was some proper action going on. I haven't read any Stephen King since 1990s and never before in English so for me this was a fascinating way to actually finally learn to appreciate his writing style, the type of language and the words he likes to use. Special thanks to George Guidall for the awesome reading!
Guys. This book was soooooo boring. I swear it didn't pick up until about 90% through. This review will probably be short.
I am a hardcore Stephen King fan. I've read at least 30 of his books. And this series is supposed to be the masterpiece that links them all. Well it has a very rough start. I almost DNF'd this book. I did not care about the characters one bit. They were 2 dimensional and flat. Every single woman was sexualized in some way, even Roland's mother. Roland, The Man in Black, and Jake were all so boring and I didn't care about their lives at all.
As for the plot, I felt it was lacking. I understand leaving mystery for later in the series, but the reader was given almost no information about what was going on, which made the stakes seem nonexistent. I still don't understand what Roland needs from The Man in Black, so I didn't care if he found him or not.
The flashbacks caused the pacing to feel interminable. I just wanted some action to start, but then we would have to sit through another of Roland's flashbacks, which were boring and predictable.
The only reason this is getting 2 stars is because the ending had me interested enough (and my dedication to King's books) to continue this series. But please someone tells me it gets better...
TW: sexual harassment, rape, gun violence
This is my first time reading Stephen King. It was fine. I thought it had a stronger start and middle compared to the end. I probably won't continue on with the series in the near future, but I'm definitely intrigued enough to read more King of some kind down the road.