The Gunslinger (1982 original; edició 2003)

Read this a long time ago. On reread still doesn't interest me. ( )

1.5* I'm sorry but I had the hardest time following the plot of this. Just about nothing happened until the last 25% of the book and it felt of such little consequence that I don't see why this series needed this long of a first book. Two stars feels extremely generous! ( )

This was much better than i expected it to be. I've never really given Stephen King's books much of a chance. I'm glad i finally took the plunge with this one. I really like the dreamlike quality to it, the other-worldly feel is very refreshing and a style i've come across very rarely, if at all. I was reluctant to read this one, partly due to the fact that Stephen King tends go off on a tangent a lot which can lead to his books being three times the length they might have been. This wasn't a problem here with the story simply unfolding as and when it needed to and, thankfully, not disappearing off into the distance somewhere only to get back on track some hundreds of pages in the future. It is in fact quite a short book relative to other more modern fantasy novels that seem to be under the impression that it's not fantasy unless it's at least a 1000 pages. It is however one of a seven book epic, but in this instance i'm glad it is, and am very much looking forward to the next one, 'The Drawing of the Three' which apparently throws our protagonist into the mind of a modern-day drug dealer(or something of the like).

Highly recommended.
( )

I'd been looking forward to starting this series since reading Little Sisters of Eluria from Everything's Eventual. Unfortunately, I personally couldn't bring myself to enjoy this book. I love Stephen King, and I can usually fall right into the plot. However, for the majority of the time I read this one, I just wanted it to end.

The writing itself wasn't necessarily the issue; even in my least favorite King novels, the writing is still phenomenal. My main problem with the book was the plot. Though it was unique, I was bored almost immediately. Out of the entire book, the one part that kept me on edge. The characters were well-written, but ultimately they didn't interest me as much as most of King's characters do.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this book. I will finish the series (probably not for a while, but eventually) simply because I've already started it. I highly doubt I'll spend too much time on it in general. ( )

This wasn’t a bad book, just not very memorable. I probably won’t read the rest of the series. ( )