Extremely tough, but I have to go with The Gunslinger. I love WaG and The Wastelands, but I have a hard time putting any of the titles ahead of the first. I love the sparseness, the pacing (in addition to the backtracking introduction to the piece), the glimpse into Roland's individual travels before he reestablishes ka-tet, and of course the meeting with Walter. I wasn't thrilled with "Little Sisters," but I would be eternally grateful to S.K. if he published some more stories which took place in between the fall of Gilead and Tull.