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Audio CD Description Thirty-three years, a horrific and life-altering accident, and thousands of desperately rabid fans in the making, Stephen King's quest to complete his magnum opus rivals the quest of Roland and his band of gunslingers who inhabit the Dark Tower series. Loyal DT fans and new readers alike will appreciate this revised edition of The Gunslinger, which breathes new life into Roland of Gilead, and offers readers a "clearer start and slightly easier entry into Roland's world." King writes both a new introduction and foreword to this revised edition, and the ever-patient, ever-loyal "constant reader" is rewarded with secrets to the series's inception. That a "magic" ream of green paper and a Robert Browning poem, came together to reveal to King his "ka" is no real surprise (this is King after all), but who would have thought that the squinty-eyed trio of Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach would set the author on his true path to the Tower? While King credits Tolkien for inspiring the "quest and magic" that pervades the series, it was Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly that helped create the epic proportions and "almost absurdly majestic western backdrop" of Roland's world. To King, The Gunslinger demanded revision because once the series was complete it became obvious that "the beginning was out of sync with the ending." While the revision adds only 35 pages, Dark Tower purists will notice the changes to Allie's fate and Roland's interaction with Cort, Jake, and the Man in Black--all stellar scenes that will reignite the hunger for the rest of the series. Newcomers will appreciate the details and insight into Roland's life. The revised Roland of Gilead (nee Deschain) is embodied with more humanity--he loves, he pities, he regrets. What DT fans might miss is the same ambiguity and mystery of the original that gave the original its pulpy underground feel (back when King himself awaited word from Roland's world). --Daphne Durham

Customer Reviews dull, with flashes of inspiration I realize writing a negative review of this book isn't going to change anyone's mind, but just the same please at least read it before you hit that negative button. I haven't read any of the other books in the Dark Tower. So this is a review of this book and this book alone. I know a lot of you are saying that's not fair to the book, but I've always believed strongly that every book should stand, more or less, on its own. And this one does not. For the life of me, I can't figure out what's so appealing about these type of series. These stories tend not to be exceptionally complex, just exceptionally long, broken into minutia in order to stretch it out into six or seven novels. I guess I'm just not sophisticated enough. Or maybe I just get bored easily. Anyway, this book bored me. There were some interesting scenes and characters. But overall, it just seemed like King was wandering in his writing along with his hero. As for the Gunslinger, I found him one-dimensional and unlikable. I know he gets more background in the future books, but I shouldn't have to buy them in order to like him at least a little bit. There's no story here. Just the set up of a story. It could've been a hundred pages and not lost anything important. Did we really need all that wandering? Did we really have to go through that damn dark cave for so long? Roland did. But we're the readers. We get to cheat and skip to the more interesting stuff. The problem with books like this is that they drown us in details. I don't mind colorful phrases and poetic expression. But sometimes a desert is just a desert, a cave is just a cave. It's just too much. The worst sin though is that this book left me with absolutely no compulsion to read the next because it would only continue on to the third and the fourth and so on. I have a life. More importantly, I don't have enough time to dedicate all my reading time to one writer and one story. It's just asking too much. Anyway, a friend told me the ending of the saga, and I couldn't believe it. If I saw that in a B movie, I'd be annoyed. But for a writer of King's caliber to resort to such a trite, overused, and just plain uninspired conclusion is inexcusable. Even the writer himself agrees by his apology in the afterward. None of the above matters of course. If you love King, you'll love him. If you're on the fence, you could go either way. But I've said my piece. Go ahead and click that negative button now. Hummm.. I must admit I was a little skeptical at first. After finishing the book, I think it is wonderful and very intricate. Its pretty much a Sci-Fi Western....but its sooo good! Great Storytelling... ...Poor story. Stephen King is one of the better story tellers of our time. His plots, however, are often times lacking. He can take you to the end of a book without a clear story line, entertaining you all the way, but then drops you off wondering where you are and what just happened. I would recommend getting through this book (and it does have its moments) so that you can get into the middle of the series, where most of the meat of The Dark Tower is. If you have a lot of time to devote and don't mind reading 300+ pages (especially later on) with absolutely no advancement in plot but enjoyable story telling, then go for it. Otherwise you may want to stick with something more solid or less lengthy.