• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Stephen King: The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger

I would wonder why you thought you'd get in trouble?? You have seen the rest of the threads in this forum, right??!! :D

Hmmm, must have missed this thread as I never wrote in it - I loved the first book in the Dark Tower series, I thought it was a really good meandering story, if not a bit choppy in places. I've heard that this is the worst one in the series and that it puts a lot of people off, but I dont really know why, it kept me gripped all the way through.

Phil
 
Are you maybe thinking of this site..... you can literally spend all day on it.

http://www.thedarktower.net/

I have read 3 out of 7 of the Dark Tower Series, and stopped at Wizard and Glass. I will finish the series but needed to take a break from it.
 
This is my favorite series of books. The Gunslinger was hard to get through the first time (much better after reading the entire series and then starting over again). Drawing of the Three was probably my favorite; it was responsible for pulling me into the series (and not putting it down until finished). The Wastelands was almost as good, if not as good. Wizard and Glass was the speed bump of the series. It starts off paced like the others, and then you're forced to read (and then to like) the telling of a 400 page or so tale from the past (which would have worked as a novel on its own). And then it becomes fast paced again. Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower were equally admirable, and I enjoyed them as well as the rest of the series. I only wish King would have spent more with RF.

And of course the rest of the series is grand: Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, The Talisman / Black House, and all the others.
 
I read most of the series in 98, then when I read the black house in 2002 I was surprised at the connection. Lots of memories from the dark tower series made it easier to understand the black house. I though it was great.
 
id have to agree with sirmyk in that the drawing of the three was the best, its the only one of them all that i remembered everything, but i really digged the wizard and glass, i thought it was cool getting to meet some of his old friends, but withuot spoiling anything there were some things about the last one i just didnt agree with, but it was still finished, if you know what i mean, wolves of the calla was pretty cool too, but i think it took a little to long to get down too it. also callahan is the shit. hes awesome
 
Would you recommend the 1982 or the 2003 version of The Gunslinger - found it in my bookcases when looking for something along with, for some reason, two copies of Wizard and Glass. :confused:

I might read this saga - especially since it's complete.
 
Stewart said:
Would you recommend the 1982 or the 2003 version of The Gunslinger - found it in my bookcases when looking for something along with, for some reason, two copies of Wizard and Glass. :confused:
I might read this saga - especially since it's complete.
Click to expand...
If you are reading this series for the first time, I would recommend the updated version, as it ties in with the rest of the series a little better than the original. There are many differences, so you may eventually want to read both.
 
I recently finished reading the revised version that I picked up from the bookstore, and I really enjoyed the book. I found it a compelling and fast-paced read, one that I could hardly put down. I would always be like, ok I'm going to stop at the next chapter, but when the time rolled around I was like ok, ok I'll just read the first line, and then I was plunged into it all over again.

I did find the book a little confusing - I was continually re-reading and flipping back to see if something or someone had been mentioned before - but I think that finding more and more out about the unknown was kinda fun :)

I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in the series, which should be arriving here any day now :D

~MonkeyCatcher~
 
...

I love Stephen King's horror novels, but to be honest - he shouldn't do too much of fantasy-novels. I think his style in such books turns into something
quite tedious and in the long run it gets boring. But just my opinion.
Good fun reading.
 
I don't know, but I simply could not finish this book. I did try very hard but I really didn't like the style and couldn't get into it. I really hated the characters as well, which certainly didn't help. It's sort of put me off King in general now, I'm not sure if it's worth reading any of his other stuff, though some of them look pretty interesting.
 
Idril Silmaure said:
I don't know, but I simply could not finish this book. I did try very hard but I really didn't like the style and couldn't get into it. I really hated the characters as well, which certainly didn't help. It's sort of put me off King in general now, I'm not sure if it's worth reading any of his other stuff, though some of them look pretty interesting.
Click to expand...
I found that I also had a little trouble getting into this book, but it does really pick up about 1/4 to halfway through the book. I think I found it hard at the start because it just thrusts you into this world where you have no idea what anything is or who the people are that he keeps on talking about.

This book is not typical of King - he generally does horrors rather than dramas, and I think that he is much better at them. You really shouldn't judge him by this book alone - some of his others like The Stand and It are absolutely brilliant and are written in completely different styles, IMO

~MonkeyCatcher~
 
Encouragement Needed - Gunslinger

I'm about 200 pages into the 1st book of S. King's Dark Tower series. In my typical impulsive way, I bought the first 5 books all at once. I've been muddling through book 1 - The Gunslinger - for about 3 weeks and and I'm finding it awfully hard to get involved with the characters (or lack of them) and the story (or lack of it). I've read that the series really "finds its voice" in book 2 (King's own words). He has extensively rewritten book 1, so he must have had misgivings about it himself. I'm reading the recently published rewritten edition.
For those of you that have been down this road before me, what do you think? Is it going to pick up, or have I been suckered once again by King - an author who has often captured my imagination and undivided attention, but who has also frequently disappointed me? I keep thinking this would be a good book if Stephen King had written it - then I remember that he did. I'm craving something from this loonnnnnnnnnnnnng series, and it's just not delivering it. I have other things I need to do before I die, if it's not going to get any better.
Please, some encouragement to continue, or else your advice to ditch it and move on. But somebody please weigh in on this. I'm frightfully bored.
 
I must admit, I didn't get too far into The Gunslinger, and I have the thin first release. It makes me wonder why the hell I bought Wizard And Glass and, even more curious, why I have two copies of it. eBay beckons!

If you like King, as you say, then stick with it since it is tangential with many of his novels and short stories.
 
Keep reading it, you're going to love it when it continues into the second book, trust me.....That's all I'm going to say without giving any other details about the books.....
 
Keep going. BUT if you still hate it by 50 pages into The Drawing of the Three, then you should quit. As you said, life is short.
 
OK - I'll hunker down and push myself. Thanks for the encouragement - it's just what I needed.
 
The Dark Tower series is my favorite books ever. The Gunslinger sat in King's garage for ten years before it was published, King didn't like it, and at first didn't like Roland. Me I liked the book when I first read it, but didn't love it. I then read The Drawing of the Three, and didn't care too much for that, so I didn't pick up the series again until the fifth book came out, then picked it up again mostly because I was running out of King books to read. I reread The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three again, and liked them much better, but still didn't love them. I have heard the same thing said that the story finds it's voice in The Drawing of the Three and I guess that is true, because that is where Rolands quest finds its direction, but it is in the third book The Wastelands where the quest for The Dark Tower really begins also it is where the characters and events become infinitely more interesting. Don't give up I found the series hard to get into too, but it is worth it. And at the end of book 7 when the quest is at an end you will cry a bittersweet tear that it is over. I have recently finished the series for the third time and I know that some time in the future I will go back in for a fourth trip because I too hear the call of the turtle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top