A review by koberreads
The Gunslinger by Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The Dark tower the Gunslinger By Stephen King

Sadly not one of his more fast paced novels or gripping novels and sadly not the most compelling to pull

you into the great series but nonetheless beautifully written and always odd and mysterious as Stephen King novels is. I intended to read all the novels in this series (since volume 2: The drawing of the tree. Got me hooked on the series truly.) 

I just hope that new readers have the patience to read thru this one so that their journey could be set in its course.

Spoiler warning needed:
DONT GO DOWN unless YOU ARE PREPARED

But you do have to read it because Stephen King is the guy who probably started the concept of the multiverse that is so trending today. So reading this is homage or to honor him for making the idea of the multiverse a trend or an aweinspiring talked about concept

The most interesting part for me (Sparked my interest again), even more interesting than the fight/action scenes it itself is when the man in black gets oddly but apt scientific and philisophical for a magician/sorcerer (well they say magic is simply science we dont understand or technology we havent made or discovered or created yet. If I told a person soldier in world war 1. That we have handheld computers that can simulate a pretend gun fight thru what is called a video game that soldier would either call me either crazy or a magician). And Stephen King write about this so well and the connections in such an early time at 1982! Damn. Where computer shit or internet is not so famous yet. Because of the multiverse speech of the Man in black (The purpose of this speech is discourage Roland in his quest for the tower to show how insignificant he is in the grand scheme of things.) is a good consolation for an ending I expected to be more climatic gun fight with the Man in black (I guess the movie or film “The Dark Tower” adaptation of Stephen Kings novel truly did give me false hopes. Because the ending there is truly superb and it explained how the heck Roland the last best sharpshooter from another world could miss or not hit. In the movie man in black because of his magic can catch the bullets. He is that fast. Here the magic of the man in black is more poetic. I have to give that movie new credit because it gave this novel a new perspective in how the book could and end inspired me to read this book and rest of the series. Because of the book now I understand how could Roland reload and shoot faster than the quasi monster men with machine guns because he is literally other worldly shooter. He is not the cowboys of our old western times. He is literally of equal regard and respect as we would treat a person if we discovered he is a knight. I wish they explained this more in the movie so I can enjoy more of the action scenes. This is beautiful damn.)

Gemini gave me a good andwe as well:

Stephen King already wrote about the concept of Multiverse when he first published “the gunslinger” even before it became trending today?

Yes, Stephen King's concept of a multiverse predates the current trend. The Dark Tower series, which began with "The Gunslinger" in 1982, features a multiverse where Roland Deschain, the protagonist, travels across different worlds on his quest to the Dark Tower. This concept of interconnected worlds and characters has become a hallmark of King's work, influencing many other writers and contributing to the growing popularity of the multiverse idea in contemporary fiction.