Let me sum up this book in one sentence, "There was a man searching for the dark tower." There, I have just spared you the effort of reading this book. This was the first Stephen King book I have read and I believe it will be my last. I am an avid reader of quality fantasy/sci-fi books and the Dark Tower series was recommended by a co-worker. I had a really hard time fininshing this book and when I finally did, I felt like I had completely wasted my time. The world that King tried to create was vague at best. The book went nowhere and I felt like I knew nothing about the characters when I was finished. Many chapters did not make sense and I could not vizualize much of what I was reading. The other books in the series might be better, but I will not be wasting more time to find out.