The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
Stephen King
Jan 2016 · Simon and Schuster
4.6star
1.32K reviews
Ebook
400
Pages
About this ebook
“An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King’s greatest literary achievement” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series.
A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.
Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” The Gunslinger is “a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center” (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is “brilliant and fresh…and will leave you panting for more” (Booklist).
A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.
Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” The Gunslinger is “a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center” (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is “brilliant and fresh…and will leave you panting for more” (Booklist).
Ratings and reviews
4.6
1.32K reviews
Nicholas Thomas
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May 10, 2015
This is my third time through the book so don't read this review if you haven't read the entire series. SPOILER WARNING!!! I like this book more each time I read it. The part at the end where Roland and Flagg "palaver" adds to the jaw-dropping ending of the last book. I will admit to having found this book almost too cryptic and dense the first time I read it, but now that I've circled back multiple times I can appreciate the characters more and more. Great book. Great series! Things I like: The characters, the mythos, the world Things I don't like: Sometimes I feel like the word choice is strange. Like someone was sitting w/ a thesaurus purposefully finding unusual descriptors and words. As mentioned before for a first time reader the references will naturally be very cryptic and go over their head.
A Google user
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May 10, 2012
The sample is only the foreword... I was contemplating buying the book but I NEVER GOT TO READ A COUPLE PAGES OF THE ACTUAL NOVEL to know if it was in my vein of reading material or not. Google should make sure the reader gets to read the actual first chapter as a sample so they can ACTUALLY SAMPLE THE BOOK
Wade
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February 17, 2016
Idk... the book seems to ramble on. I really tried to find the "awesome" in it that so many have told me but I just don't see it. Not gonna completely write the series off so i will move on to the next book and hope for better.
About the author
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
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