Gunslinger

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Stephen King, Michael Whelan: Gunslinger (2003, Penguin Publishing Group)

English language

Published 2003 by Penguin Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-0-7865-3777-8
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4 stars (1 review)

The Dark Tower I

The opening chapter in the epic Dark Tower series. Roland, the last gunslinger, in a world where time has moved on, pursues his nemesis, The Man in Black, across a desert. Roland's ultimate goal is the Dark Tower, the nexus of all universes. This mysterious icon's power is failing, threatening everything in existence.

The five stories that constitute the novel were originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction:

"The Gunslinger" (October 1978) "The Way Station" (April 1980) "The Oracle and the Mountains" (February 1981) "The Slow Mutants" (July 1981) "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" (November 1981) (source)

81 editions

reviewed The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower I)

Review of 'The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I definitely enjoyed this book, but it is also definitely the start of a saga. Throughout the whole novel there's so, so many hints of a larger world, and bursts of rapid-fire world building. The world King is creating is strange and intriguing enough that I want to continue with this series just to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. There are also a fair few Stephen King-isms in here, to be sure, though I'm told not as many as the later entries. Really, it's a matter of how much you can tolerate the particular style. I'm writing this a long time after I read it so I apologize for the vagueness.

Subjects

  • Roland (fictitious character : king), fiction
  • Fiction, fantasy, epic
  • Dark tower (imaginary place), fiction