I am not sure about this book. I found it a bit weird at times, interesting, then boring bits. I am listening to this on audio, really the first fiction audio book I have listened to. So not only the style but the pace of reading is something completely new to me. 
 I can't say I have engaged with it yet, I will give Dark Tower 2 a go, only because I know it was written at a different time and I am expecting it to be a lot better than Gunslinger. 
 The story was.....ok, a Gunslinger trekking across the desert, chasing his nemesis, who was a long way ahead, but seemed to be leaving moral traps for the Gunslinger to fall into. (or was that just paranoia on the Gunslingers part). Throughout the story we were taken back to the Gunslingers apprenticeship and his life as a boy, before the world 'moved on'. To be honest I found this part of the story a lot more engaging. 
 The book is pretty slow paced and gets quite descriptive in parts, this is where i had my most frustrations as I am used to speed reading and would speed up during these parts normally, but with audio that was a little more difficult. 
 I did speed up the audio file, at normal speed I would fall asleep, but the change in pitch can be a little bit disconcerting. Anyway back to the book. 
 The story was nothing new or have any real wow moments, to be honest it could have been a old day western if it weren't for the references like "singing Hey Jude". The only part of the book that really took it out of normal time, was when the Gunslinger met Jake, who had died seemingly in New York on his way to school and was now in this world. The rest of the story, is a cowboy trailing a man in black. Oh and some Zombie type creatures, forgot about them. Story fillers. 
 The characters were ok, I think you got a pretty good understanding of how the Gunslinger operated, it wasn't a hard character to write or develop as he really only has a small personality. I think King wrote the boy Jake quite well, I felt that the portrayal of the boys emotions and fears were well done and believable. Quite sad in parts. But apart from that, the others all have bit parts. Cort was well written for the small part he has in it, in a generic bully master of apprentices kind of way. 
 So overall, I am underwhelmed, if I had read this I would not have bought book 2. But since I have already sped up book 2 and loaded on the iPod I will give it a go. But for a stand alone read, it wouldn't be in my top 50 books you should read.