The gunslinger

Stephen King

Signet, 1982 - Fiction - 315 pages

Roland, the world's last gunslinger, tracks an enigmatic Man in Black toward a forbidding dark tower, fighting forces both mortal and other-worldly on his quest. Reissue.

What people are saying

Review: The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1)

User Review  - Daniel Howard - Goodreads

Wasn't too keen on this book but I got through it. I found the plot skipped and jumped a lot and it was riddled with opaque symbolism. I can see the appeal, though, and I'm willing to try later books in the series, see if they appeal to me more.

Review: The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1)

User Review  - Franklin Arbour - Goodreads

As the author admits: the quality of the writing does not do the content justice. There's a lot of good ideas and haunting scenarios, but in-between them is a desperate twenty-something selling spooky ...

About the author

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21, 1947. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, he became a teacher. His spare time was spent writing short stories and novels. King's first novel would never have been published if not for his wife. She removed the first few chapters from the garbage after King had thrown them away in frustration. Three months later, he received a $2,500 advance from Doubleday Publishing for the book that went on to sell a modest 13,000 hardcover copies. That book, Carrie, was about a girl with telekinetic powers who is tormented by bullies at school. She uses her power, in turn, to torment and eventually destroy her mean-spirited classmates. When United Artists released the film version in 1976, it was a critical and commercial success. The paperback version of the book, released after the movie, went on to sell more than two-and-a-half million copies. Many of King's other horror novels have been adapted into movies, including The Shining, Firestarter, Pet Semetary, Cujo, Misery, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers. Under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, King has written the books The Running Man, The Regulators, Thinner, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and Rage. King is one of the world's most successful writers, with more than 100 million copies of his works in print. Many of his books have been translated into foreign languages, and he writes new books at a rate of about one per year. In 2003, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The gunslinger; Book 1 of Dark tower, Stephen King; A Signet Book; Signet novel
• Author: Stephen King
• Edition: reissue, illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Signet, 1982
• ISBN: 0451160525, 9780451160522
• Length: 315 pages
• Subjects: Adventure stories; Fantastic fiction; Fantasy; Fantasy fiction; Fiction / Fantasy / Epic; Fiction / Fantasy / General; Fiction / General; Fiction / Horror; Good and evil; Good and evil - Fiction; Roland (Fictitious character : King)