The Gunslinger

Read this as part of an ongoing process where I am working through my late brother's favorite books. This was one I picked up last month and I was not disappointed. There is a bit of a personal attachment to this book, but the book does quite well without that aspect. The genre blend is kind of jarring at times (mostly in the beginning), but once you accept that this is a universe where damned near anything goes, there are no problems.

For me, the Dark Tower series is an easy first pick as it so thoroughly encompasses everything I love about speculative fiction: big ideas, compelling, at times mysterious but ultimately fully realized characters, and a healthy, rich, and potent dose of world-building.

Over the years, I’ve reluctantly come to accept that this book and series are not necessarily for everyone, but they are absolutely for me, and I always find myself feeling a sort of kinship with other readers who love them as much as I do.

I loved how The Gunslinger pulls you into a new world. A world layered with mystery and intrigue.

Who is The Gunslinger? Who is The Man in Black? What is The Dark Tower? These questions form in my mind as I read through the pages. Seeing how much the landscape of Mid-World brings. This book in particular had inspired me in many ways of my own creativity.

Stephen King’s Dark Tower series might be uneven at the end, but the beginning is masterful.

Roland, a dusty old cowboy on the edge of reality, is the prototypical antihero. He doesn’t care much for other people, he’s got a dark past, and I wanted to follow every dusty step of his journey. The broken pieces of Roland are what make The Dark Tower series unique—that and some astral plane travelling shenanigans. With each dark deed or questionable decision, I wanted to know more about Roland and what led him to that point.

It’s difficult to stay grounded in a… show more.

This giant series was my summer project. I taught myself how to run this summer by going for long runs and listening to this series. It was perfect for running because it was so other-worldly that it completely took me out of the moment and into the story.

I’ve never read any Stephen King before, and I’m a total convert now. I want to read everything he has done.

The Gunslinger is the first of seven in King’s acclaimed Dark Tower fantasy series, and it was also the first book of King’s that I had ever read at the time.

It is the story of the gunslinger and his mythic quest to catch the man in black. Of course, the series gets way more complex, but the Gunslinger is a short novel with wide ideas, morally complex characters and is a great beginning for a stellar series.

I picked it up as a freshman in college at the urging of a friend at a time when I was alone… show more.

The first thing to come to mind when you hear “Stephen King” is probably “horror,” and that’s well deserved. For those who like their fantasy gritty and sweeping, however, The Dark Tower is not to be missed. The Gunslinger, the first volume, introduces Roland Deschain, a knight-like figure from Mid-World who seeks the Dark Tower, the imperiled axis upon which all worlds turn. While Roland hunts the mysterious Man in Black across the desert, he meets Jake Chambers, a boy from another world who may have just died. Part Western, part epic fantasy (and with an eventual appearance by… show more.

I had been reading Stephen King along with all my other junior high classmates for some time. It felt like a rite of passage for boys my age. A rite that my mother frowned upon, but, I was reading, and that was to be extolled. So, imagine my surprise when I had blown through the usual suspects of King’s novels and somewhere in high school landed on The Gunslinger. It’s like Lord of the Rings through a spaghetti western filter. It was, and might still be, one of the greatest series of books I have ever read. As a… show more.

This book and the entire Dark Tower series spurred my interest in fiction. Stephen King is a master storyteller, yet this novel is exceptional in its simplicity. The first line is as gripping as any I've ever read, and it also summarizes the core of the plot: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." The Gunslinger stands alone, both the character as well as the book. The way the story grows from a simple get from A to B plot line into an exponentially grander web of mind-bending As and Bs and Xs and Os… show more.

A series I read over more than a decade, King’s self-described fantasy series is so much more. It combines Western, Lovecraftian horror, Medieval fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, portal fiction, alternate history, Groundhog Day, and even King’s own autobiography! A small clutch of diverse POV characters keeps the impossible scope of the series grounded—sometimes from beyond the grave!—and the genres collide in an organic way that drives the action and feels really unique. I’d recommend disregarding the movie and starting with The Gunslinger, a short entry we’d probably describe as a weird western, these days. But don’t let the… show more.