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''The Gunslinger'' is a book by Horror novelist Stephen King , and is the first book in the '' Dark Tower '' series, which King considers to be his Magnum Opus . The book and subsequent series was inspired by the poem " Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came " by Robert Browning . Early portions of the book were written when King was only 19. ''The Gunslinger'' was first published in 1982 as a limited edition, with its first mass-market publication as a trade paperback in 1988 followed by several re-issues in various formats and in boxed sets with other volumes of the series. In 2003 the book was reissued in modified form, with scenes added and other changes made to resolve inconsistencies with the later books in the series. STORY AND FORM The book begins, "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." It tells the story of The Gunslinger, Roland Of Gilead , and his inexplicable quest to chase the Man in Black, which will ultimately lead him to the Dark Tower. Roland is a Gunslinger, his world's answer to the Knight-errant , and he follows the trail of his fatal obsession. The main story takes place in a world that is recognizable as the American West but exists in an alternate timeframe or Parallel Universe to ours; Roland exists in a place where "the world has moved on." This world has a few things in common with our own, however, including memories of the song " Hey Jude " and the child's rhyme that begins "Beans, beans, the musical fruit." Vestiges of forgotten or skewed versions of real-world technology also appear, such as a reference to a gas pump in a tunnel under a mountain that is worshipped as a god named "Amoco", and an abandoned way station with a water pump which is powered by an "atomic slug". It is at this way station that Roland first meets Jake Chambers, a child who died in the world that we know. Jake was pushed in front of a car, apparently by the Man in Black, and woke up at the way station. Roland takes Jake with him on his journey across the desert and through the mountain. Jake becomes a symbolic son to Roland, but Roland sacrifices Jake when he is faced with a choice between saving Jake's life and catching the Man In Black. While dying, Jake says, "Go, then. There are other worlds than these." This saying becomes integral as the series moves on. ''The Gunslinger'' takes the form of a series of interleaved flashbacks, as Roland's quest is interrupted with dreamlike vignettes from his youth. By far the most stylized and enigmatic of King's longer works, the book is perhaps best seen as an introductory tableau or prologue to the entire series, the subsequent books of which are much more concrete and linear in their story-telling. VERSIONS Differences between the 1988 and 2003 releases are exhaustively discussed at the following link: TheDarkTower.net ISBN NUMBERS
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