Group 5: The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

[mae]

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.

[Daghain]

BBC. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending and I don't really think we got a good feel for Roland's personality until DoTT.

[Sam]

BBA. I agree with Daggs except the ending. I have reread it and think the ending was much better than I thought it was.

[C~Dog]

AAA.

I really loved this. Despite the fact that there was not much insight into Roland, it still showed some important aspects of his nature, and provided a basis on which to build and contrast with in the subsequent novels.

[fernandito]

AAA.

[pathoftheturtle]

AAA.

Wow. That's very generous.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

AAA It drew me in even though I wasn't sure what was going on, in the same sense that a David Lynch movie grips me with it's unreality. But it is at the same time so utterly fascinating that you don't care whether you completely understand it or not.

[pathoftheturtle]

AAA It drew me in even though I wasn't sure what was going on, in the same sense that a David Lynch movie grips me with it's unreality. But it is at the same time so utterly fascinating that you don't care whether you completely understand it or not.

Oh, I totally agree with everything you've said, but is that plot? Character development? No, the word you're looking for is "style."

[DoctorDodge]

BBA. There wasn't really much of a plot here, and we're given a bare understanding of the main characters, with everything having a surreal quality, but it was done well enough to draw me in with its mystery. Also, I loved the whole of the final chapter, and the very ending of the book was done very nicely, leading into the next book but still working perfectly as an ending in its own right.

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

CBB. There was very little plot to this novel. And what we had was pretty convoluted and disconnected. Character development was almost nonexistent. And there was no ending.

There that just about sums it up.

[candy]

bbb
i hate saying it as i love the book as a whole, as path says it has style and, at the time, was unlike anything i had read. But asking specifically about plot, character and ending... not quite AAA

[NicNac]

BBB.

Great book, but the ending didn't make me REALLY want to continue with the series. Yeah, the book itself did keep me pretty interested, but the plot wasn't particularly strong, imo.

[stone, rose, unfound door]

AAA

[mae]

The poll has closed. This round The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger has earned an OAG (overall average grade) of 2.555555556 or 85.19% in addition to its FAS (final average score), making it 7.111893584 or 88.90%. In 2009, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger received an OAG of 2.544871794 for a FAS of 6.731312472, so it gained 0.380581112 (+5.65%) this time.

Grade breakdown:
Strength of Plot: 2.476190476 (82.54%)
Character Development: 2.619047619 (87.30%)
Quality of the Story's Ending: 2.571428571 (85.71%)