The Gunslinger

I cracked open my copy of the Dark Tower and found a piece of my high school AP English assignment inside. That's how long it has been since I've reread the Dark Tower. I think I have a lot of associations with this series and that period of my life, as it was one of my favorite pieces of King's work. Particularly this first novel, really this collection of five short stories, resonates so differently with me now than then. King laid so many foundations, many of them he admits unconsciously, for so many of his later works. It's a classic of dark fantasy, and while it is really more prologue than novel, it is an important prologue.