The Gunslinger

by Stephen King

Paperback, 224 pages

English language

Published Sept. 14, 1988 by New American Library.

ISBN:: 978-0-452-26134-1
OCLC Number:: 781900910

(17 reviews)

Since the publication of THE GUNSLINGER in an exclusive limited edition, this extraordinary novel has gained near-legendary renown. Now finally, this Plume edition, complete with the Michael Whelan illustrations, brings the work to the author's millions of fans.

This heroic fantasy is set in a world of ominous landscape and macabre menace that is a dark mirror of our own. A spellbinding tale of good versus evil, it features one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations—The Gunslinger, a haunting figure who embodies the qualities of the lone hero through the ages, from ancient myth to frontier western legend. His pursuit of The Man in Black, his liaison with the sexually ravenous Alice, his friendship with the kid from Earth called Jake, are part of a drama that is both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, an alchemy of storytelling sorcery.

Complete in itself, THE GUNSLINGER is the first novel in an …

Complete in itself, THE GUNSLINGER is the first novel in an epic series, THE DARK TOWER, that promises to be Stephen King's crowning achievement. (back cover)

60 editions

Anthony Burgess reviewed The Dark Tower by Stephen King

I don't get why people like this

2 stars

People say this is a good book and series but I can't agree to that. It's just chaotic and doesn't make any sense, the writing seems overly dramatic and "flowery", meaning he describes things so weird, with weird details and weird metaphors. I couldn't even read it to the end and stopped at like 80 or 90%. I have no interest in reading the other novels in the series, it's just not my type of writing I guess. I never liked any Stephen King books until this one and I read a bunch now. It's not getting any better, maybe I should just give up on trying to like his writing.

tivasyk reviewed The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Review of 'The Gunslinger' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

well... as much as i usually enjoy the way king can tell a story... i am totally disappointed by the gunslinger: the world just did not come alive. it's like several well-formed characters just occupied part of some formless void. so unlike king =( most probably i'll just skip the series to save time for something more interesting.