I wish I'd listened to my friends sooner and started this series a long time ago, because if the series lives up to the promise it shows in Gunslinger, I'm going to fall in love with it!I had a solid 4 star rating in mind as I was reading, but then I loved the conversation between Roland and Walter at the end about the passage of time and the size of the universe so much, plus (as silly as it sounds) I loved King's afterward. I love the way he admitted he basically wrote Gunslinger having no clue what Roland's past (or future) really was, but that he was sure as hell going to find out.So, I had to bump it up to 5 stars. I'm sure this will thrill my Stephen King stalkers friends to no end.Now, onto the rest of the series I go!