The Gunslinger

I've always thought of Stephen King as a master craftsman of writing, and the opening line of the Gunslinger is a good example of that. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.” In that one line, we're introduced to our protagonist, antagonist, and setting, in a way that still allows action to be conveyed rather than being just exposition.

On the whole, though, I think the book suffers from feeling like an extended prologue, rather than the story proper, and from being split into three disjointed novellas. There are stories that can be told that way, but I don't think The Dark Tower is one of them.