Group 2: The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

[Jean]

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, 1982

Please grade The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger in the following three areas using the grades A, B, or C:

• Strength of Plot
• Character Development
• Quality of the Story's Ending

If you haven't read this book yet, please vote Never Read. Feel free to discuss your votes in this thread.

You may base your vote on the 2003 revised version as well as the 1982 original. Please base your vote only on this book's own merits, not how it fits into the series as a whole.

IMPORTANT: Please make sure to select only one grade in each grading area. For complete instructions, see this post.

[pixiedark76]

I gave it a "C" in strength of plot. The book did not have that much happening in it. I gave character development an "A" because Roland is a very fascinating character. I gave the ending an "A"

[mcdonaldj]

2nd best book he's written in my opinion. Wife would give it #1 but since she's not a forum member only my vote counts. My top rating will always be IT - the only book I had to stop reading as a teenager because it creeped me out.

[Shannon]

A big "meh" from me.

[Jean]

all As

and I didn't even really like the book

[Garrell]

Blah - as much as I loved the series, this one almost killed me from ever reading it.

[Jean]

the same happened to me. The novel just wasn't enjoyable. All the same, the plot - the main idea, the travel, the meetings, the flashback, the events - is superb, the main character classic (the others not bad, either), and the ending unforgettable. All the three As, however, do not make up for the stilty writing, trite philosophy and overall puerility of the novel.

[Heather19]

Hmmm, but if you didn't like it...

I think we need a better grading system. I can't give a book I didn't like an A so I've just been voting based on my overall feelings of the book.

[Patrick]

Triple A.

[Jean]

Hmmm, but if you didn't like it...

I think we need a better grading system. I can't give a book I didn't like an A so I've just been voting based on my overall feelings of the book.

that's how I voted the two previous times, but now I feel it is not the right thing to do. The plot and the rest of the current grading criteria may be awesome, and still one may not like the book, being dissatisfied, for example, with the writing. I think, for example, that Wizard and Glass has the best plot imaginable, and one of the best King has ever created - and still I am very unhappy with the book. And vice versa: my favorite writer, Dickens, has only created absurd, sloppy plots, at the same time convoluted and inconsistent - and I love every word he wrote, and there's nothing better for me than his novels, pathetic as they are, plot-wise.

[beam*seeker]

ABB

Great idea, could have fleshed out the minor characters better, ending left too many questions for me

[fernandito]

A,A,A

[skyofcrack]

the same happened to me. The novel just wasn't enjoyable. All the same, the plot - the main idea, the travel, the meetings, the flashback, the events - is superb, the main character classic (the others not bad, either), and the ending unforgettable. All the three As, however, do not make up for the stilty writing, trite philosophy and overall puerility of the novel.

This first Gunslinger book was, of course, made up of short stories previously published so it's really a collection and not a novel. I don't know if King revised the stories or linked them together or if they're the same (I haven't compared them). It reads as one long prologue now to the DT series.

All A's for me. One of my favorites.

[pathoftheturtle]

Well, more recently King revised the whole book, of course... and, ironically, while that revision made the writing less stilty and the overall effect less puerile, it made the philosophy even MORE trite, IMHO.

[Jean]

Well, more recently King revised the whole book, of course... and, ironically, while that revision made the writing less stilty and the overall effect less puerile, it made the philosophy even MORE trite, IMHO.

I kinda suspected it would have to be like that, so I still hasn't gotten around to reading the revised.

[pathoftheturtle]

Yet I wonder if you grasp the real irony. (or to be more correct semantically, "the counter-intuitive element.") Not to insult your perceptiveness: just as far as your dislike for this book. An older person would generally deliver more rounded philosophy, not less. At least, in theory. To me, this comparison, and a few others, raises my estimate of that level of the original DT1. Sure, it's still far short of what I would like ideally, and still also rather short of some works from his prime, but to me at present, though you may of course differ, the series seems to have ended up more conventionalized than it began.

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

CBB

[Jean]

Last chance to vote! the poll is closing!

[Jean]

Dear friends, can someone remember clicking one time too many

(or maybe two times too few)

The sums of votes in the categories do not match. Please try to remember.

[mae]

The poll has closed. This round The Gunslinger has earned an OAG (overall average grade) of 2.401960784 or 80.07% in addition to its FAS (final average score), making it 6.840985174 or 85.51%.

Grade breakdown:
Strength of Plot: A - 2.382352941 (79.41%)
Character Development: A - 2.382352941 (79.41%)
Quality of the Story's Ending: A - 2.441176471 (81.37%)