The Drawing of Three is a stunning literary accomplishment; even the second time around. Truly reread GOLD!



Earlier:

I know at the beginning of the year I said I wasn't going to reread the same Stephen King books over and over again.



What can I say? I'm a Tower Junkie and I need my fix.



Original:

The Drawing of Three, the second installment of King's Epic Adult Fantasy, The Dark Tower series, blew me away.



From start to finish, I was drawn in with these characters and felt their worlds falling into place around me.

We meet Eddie and Susannah within these pages, who will journey with Roland on his epic quest to reach the Dark Tower with the hopes of being able to save the worlds.



The format of this book, the way the different parts and chapters were organized, the way we are introduced to and learn about the new characters is absolutely brilliant and classic King.



I am very glad that I began this book immediately after finishing The Gunslinger as it literally picks up directly where that book left off.

There are countless fine details in these books, I feel it is almost necessary to read them back-to-back in order to keep track of everything.



As for me, I have already begun the next book in the series, The Waste Lands, and it is proving thus far to be equal in the epic scope of its prose as the first two books.

My journey to the tower continues. Have you started yours?

Unlike the dry Book One which was following one man in an endless desert;

Here are Three doing so..The More the Merrier indeed.

n  The Drawing of Threen

Oh and it's endless beach this time..with monstrous crabs.. so much fun, trust me :)

لا أنكر أن الفيلم هو سببا رئيسيا لمتابعتي للسلسلة رغم انه كان مبسطا جدا ودون مستوي عمق روايات ستيفين كينج عاما
لكن الفيلم وضح قليلا من فكرة "برج الظلام" المبني عليها أحداث الرواية ، ويعدك بأن السلسلة بها ثغرات تؤدي لعوالم موازية، ازمنة مختلفة، وحوش متنكرة بيننا ، وشيطان كلاسيكي يسعى لدمار العالم
لتعرف المزيد عن الفيلم


بالرغم من أن الجزء الاول من الرواية كان مملا جدا... حيث نتابع رحلة حامل السلاح، رولاند، عبر الصحراء ليلحق بالشيطان...الرجل المتشح بالسواد (والتر) والذي لا نعرف لماذا... وليذهب لبرج الظلام الي لا يعلم أين...ولا لماذا

في اثناء الرحلة يقابل البعض، يقتل الكثيرين بالاخص بسبب الرجل المتشح بالسواد... يقابل فتي تائها في اللاعالم الذي يسير به ليكتشف أنه من عالمنا وأحدهم قام بالتسبب في مصرعه تحت سيارة -بالطبع لنلق اللوم علي الرجل المتشح بالسواد-... ثم يقابل في النهاية الرجل نفسه... اوراق تاروت وقراءة طالع وثلاثة يعده الرجل بمقابلتهم

الجزء الثاني يختلف تماما
يبدأ بعد غفوة حامل السلاح (رولاند)بعد أن قرأ له الرجل المتشح بالسواد الطالع..ليكتشف انه صار هيكلا عظميا..وأنه نام ستة عشر عاما!!!! (ستيفين كينج نفسه بين كتابته ازء الاول والثاني استغرق 16 عاما )، ثم يبدأ رولاند فورا استكمال مسيرته نحو برجه...برج الظلام

ولكنه مقدر له ان يقابل 3 اشخاص... من خلال ثلاث ابواب ستظهر له في هذا الشاطئ اللانهائي
وأن يحذر من السلطعونات الضخمة وأسئلتها العجيبة

Dad-a-chack? Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum? Dod-a-chock?

n
والتي ستتسبب في اصابته

لكن الثلاثة الذين سيقابلهم أكثر خطرا
مدمن هرويين ومهرب كوكايين
امرأة مصابة بانفصام في الشخصية
وشخصية سيكوباتية تقوم بدفع الناس لمقتلها أو جرحها بشكل خطير


ولكن ماذا بعد؟
----------------


ستتوقف الرواية بعد الكثير من الاحداث المثيرة بحق هذه المرة -لا انكر هذا هنا، يبدو أنه فعلا كلما زاد العدد زادت الصحبة، كلما صار الوقت اكثر مرحا - نهاية مفتوحة

مازال رولاند...ومع أثنان اخران هذه المرة في طريقهم ألي يرج الظلام

لم يجيب لنا السيد كينج عن كل الاسئلة هنا مرة اخري
ماهو البرج؟ وإلام يرمز؟
من هو الرجل المتشح بالسواد؟ وما هذا العالم الذي تدور به الاحداث وثغراته التي تؤدي إلي عالمنا في ازمنة مختلفة؟

وما معني أن "العالم قد مضي لسبيله"؟ الذي يرددها حامل السلاح علي عالمه المقفر؟ولماذا عالمنا لم يمض لذلك؟

لكنه يعترف في المقدمة وفي كل مرة يتحدث فيها عن سلسلته الاثيرة تلك أن السبع كتب ماهم إلا كتاب واحد..
لذا لنتحمل قليلا

-----------------
*الاشارات الدينية والاجتماعية*
-----------------
كالعادة السيد كينج يعشق الرمز للدين والرب بشكل لائق
هنا ستبدأ تشعر ان فكرة البرج لها علاقة بالحياة

من خلال رمز رجل عصابات يهوي بناء ابراج من كروت اللعب (الكوتشينة)ورغم انه يحاول ان يجعلها اعلي ما يستطيع فانها دوما تهوي
وهو لايبالي
فعلي قوله ؛ أن كل أم لعنت الرب لأن ابنها سقط صريعا في الطريق، وكل أب لعن الرجل الذي تسبب في فصله من عمله ليصير عاطلا، وكل طفل ولد وهو مريضا مرضا مؤلما وتسائل 'لماذا؟'، هذه هي الإجابة. .. حيواتنا بالضبط كتلك الاشياء التي أبنيها "ابراج الكوتشينة"، أحيانا تسقط لسبب.. وأحيانا تسقط بلا سبب علي الاطلاق

“You see this ’Cimi? For every mother who ever cursed God for her child dead in the road, for every father who ever cursed the man who sent him away from the factory with no job, for every child who was ever born to pain and asked why, this is the answer. Our lives are like these things I build. Sometimes they fall down for a reason, sometimes they fall down for no reason at all.”

ولكن عندما قام أحدهم بالنفخ في برج كوتشينة بناه متعمدا أسقاطه ، قام رحل العصابات هذا بقتله فورا
فعلي قوله : الانسان له حق أن يبني أشياء..، لكن لله وحده حق ان يهدمها

“It’s up to men to build things, paisan. It’s up to God to blow them down. You agree?”

ربما يكون رجل العصابات مخطئا..لكن هناك فكرة ما..رمزا ربما
بل والملهي الليلي الذي يدير منه عملياته يسمي بالبرج المائل

هناك ايضا انتقادات قدمت بشكل ظريف عن المجتمع بالاخص عن عمل الصيدلي والادوية
وهناك اشارات للعنصرية ضد السود..ومصرع كينيدي الذي يشير له انه "حامل سلاح"... يبدو ان محطتي القادمة لستيفين كينج ستكون
22/11/63

كما ان هناك اشارة للساحر..راندل فلاج..تنويعة علي الرجل المتشح بالسواد ..مسيخ دجال عالم ستيفين كينج الاطول
The Stand
والذي كان لي فترة اقامة به لمدة شهر هذا العام

--------------------
*النهاية*
----
شاهد الفيلم او لا تشاهده
لكن السلسة اكثر تعقيدا..وربما عندما تتضح لك الصورة اكثر ستكون اكثر امتاعا

Actual rating.. 3.5


محمد العربي
من 10 اغسطس 2017
الي 14 اغسطس 2017

2020 review: “What we like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely have much in common...” ― Stephen King, The Drawing of the Three

After the rather off-key, disjointed but ultimately the warm-up that was the 'The Gunslinger' readers had to wait for years for part two, and boy were they rewarded! King goes full dark fantasy mode with excerpts of very well crafted horror in this, the most insane, exhilarating, ground-breaking walk down a beach ever!

King holds nothing back in regards to Roland's single-mindedness and the devastation that he leaves in his wake; the supporting cast is like nothing you've seen before, all multi-dimensional and highly intriguing from the off. But, it is the story, that drives this and makes it a special book, even on third reading, the twists, the shocks, the reveals were a joy to rediscover. Onwards to the Tower. 10 out of 12. >Five Star Read<

English (The Drawing of the Three) / Italiano

The story resumes exactly where it ended up with The Gunslinger: on a beach. Roland wakes up after a sleep that maybe lasted years, with the only aim of recruiting the Three, without whom the journey to the Dark Tower cannot continue...

I was right to say in my review to the first chapter of the "Dark Tower" that there would be a turning point in subsequent volumes, and that "The Gunslinger" represented a sort of introduction in which nothing was clearly revealed. And in fact, with "The Drawing of the Three", the genius move arrives right on time like a clockwork. Nay, the "eureka" moments, which I don't want to spoiler here, are nunmerous. The scenario changes radically... really radically! Believe me, after just about thirty pages you will have such a boost that you will realize what kind of genius is the author of the book you have in your hands (if you have not yet realized it).

Every time I ask myself the usual question: Stephen... how on earth your writing comes into your head? We are going to see incredible things.

Vote: 8

La storia riprende esattamente da dove si era conclusa con L'ultimo cavaliere: su una spiaggia. Il pistolero si sveglia dopo un sonno che forse è durato anni con l'unico scopo di reclutare i tre, senza i quali il viaggio verso la Torre Nera non potrà continuare...

Avevo ragione a sostenere nella mia recensione al primo capitolo della serie "La Torre Nera" che nei volumi successivi ci sarebbe stata una svolta, che "L'Ultimo cavaliere" rappresentava una sorta di introduzione nella quale nulla veniva rivelato apertamente. E difatti con "La Chiamata dei Tre, puntuale come un orologio svizzero, arriva la genialata. Anzi, i lampi di genio, che non sto qui a spoilerare per non rovinare il gusto al lettore, sono molteplici. L'ambientazione cambia radicalmente... ma radicalmente proprio! Credetemi sulla parola se dico che dopo appena una trentina di pagine subirete una tale botta da far maturare in voi la consapevolezza di che razza di genio sia l'autore del libro che avete per le mani (se ancora non ne eravate consapevoli, s'intende).

E niente, ogni volta finisco per farmi la solita domanda: Stephen... come cavolo ti viene in mente quello che scrivi? Ne vedremo delle belle.

Voto: 8

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2), Stephen King

The Drawing of the Three is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, the second book in The Dark Tower series, published by Grant in 1987.

The book begins less than seven hours after the end of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger after The Man in Black has described The Gunslinger's fate using tarot cards.

Roland wakes up on a beach, and he is suddenly attacked by a strange, lobster-like creature, which he dubs a "lobstrosity." He kills the creature, but not before losing the index and middle fingers of his right hand and most of his right big toe. His untreated wounds soon become infected.

Feverish and losing strength, Roland continues north along the beach, where he eventually encounters three doors.

Each door opens onto New York City at different periods in time (1987, 1964 and 1977, respectively). As Roland passes through these doors, he brings back the companions who will join him on his quest to the Dark Tower.

The first door (labeled "The Prisoner") brings Eddie Dean, a young heroin addict in the process of smuggling cocaine into New York for the drug lord Enrico Balazar.

Roland brings Eddie back through the door so Eddie can hide the cocaine and get through a customs inspection, but the agents become suspicious and subject him to a lengthy interrogation and surveillance.

Balazar learns of these events and kidnaps Eddie's heavily addicted older brother Henry to force Eddie to deliver the drugs.

At Balazar's bar, Eddie claims he can produce the drugs from the bathroom. Eddie is strip-searched and the bathroom torn apart, and no drugs are found.

Eddie is eventually allowed to enter the bathroom completely naked and accompanied by one of Balazar's henchmen.

In the bathroom, Eddie forcibly drags the henchman into the Gunslinger's world.

During the brief scuffle, the henchman is injured by Roland and then eaten alive by the lobstrosities.

Eddie and Roland re-enter the bathroom and, overhearing that Henry has died from an accidental heroin overdose given by Balazar's men, engage in a lengthy but victorious shootout.

While still mourning the death of his brother, Eddie decides to throw his lot in with Roland.

Before the pair return through the door, they acquire some antibiotics Balazar kept in his bathroom for addicts who have acquired infections from IV needle use.

With Eddie tending to him, Roland slowly recovers from his infection. ...

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «انتخاب سوم»؛ «انتخاب سه در جادویی»؛ اثر: استیون کینگ؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و هفتم ماه سپتامبر سال2012میلادی

عنوان: انتخاب سوم - کتاب دوم از هفتگانه برج تاریک؛ نویسنده: استیون کینگ؛ برگردان: ندا شادنظر؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، افراز، سال1388، در496ص، شابک9789642432059؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م

عنوان: انتخاب سه در جادویی؛ اثر: استیون کینگ؛ برگردان: فرانک محمدی؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، عقیل، 1389، در447ص، شابک9786001630088؛ کتاب دوم از هفتگانه برج تاریک؛

انتخاب سوم، جلد دوم از سری هفتگانه ی داستان «برج تاریک» است؛ جلد نخست مجموعه با عنوانهای: «تفنگدار»، و «هفت تیر کش»؛ ترجمه شده؛ داستانی برگرفته از شعر روایی: «رابرت برانینگ»، «رولند نجیب‌ زاده قدم به برج تاریک نهاد» است؛ در جلد نخست این داستان، «رولند»، آخرین بازمانده‌ ی هفت‌تیرکش‌ها، در حال سفر و جستجوست، و سرانجام مرد سیاه‌پوش را می‌یابد؛ جادوگری که مدت‌هاست تعقیبش می‌کند، و خوانشگر هنوز نمی‌داند او کیست؛ مرد سیاه‌پوش به شکل مردی به نام «والتر» درآمده است؛ کسی که به دروغ ادعا می‌کرد، مدت‌ها قبل، پیش از آنکه دنیا تغییر کند، دوست پدر «رولند» بوده است؛ هدف «رولند»، رسیدن به این موجود انسان‌نما نیست، بلکه او می‌خواهد به «برج تاریک» برسد؛ رسیدن به مرد سیاه‌پوش، و آگاهی از آنچه او می‌داند، نخستین گام او، در راه رسیدن به مکان مرموز است؛ «رولند» کیست؟ دنیای او پیش از‌ آنکه تغییر کند، چگونه بوده است؟ برج تاریک چیست، و چرا او به دنبالش است؟ هنوز پاسخی برای این پرسشها نداریم؛ «رولند»، هفت‌تیرکش و نجیب‌ زاده است، و به خاطر دارد، دنیایش پیش از دگرگونی، «پر از عشق و نور» بوده است، و او می‌خواهد از دگرگونی دنیایش، جلوگیری شود؛ آخرین دیدار «رولند» و «والتر»، در گورستانی غبارآلود، و پر از استخوان‌های پوسیده، رخ می‌دهد؛ مرد سیا‌ه‌پوش با کارت‌های «تاروت»، آینده‌ ی «رولند» را پیش‌ بینی می‌کند؛ این کارت‌ها مردی به نام «زندانی»، زنی به نام «بانوی سایه‌ ها»، و تصویر تاریکی را نشان میدهند، که نشان‌دهنده‌ ی مرگ است (البته مرد سیاه‌پوش به «رولند» می‌گوید: «مرگ برای تو نیست.») و این پیشگویی‌ها، موضوع اصلی جلد دوم داستان، و گام دوم «رولند»، در راه رسیدن به برج تاریک است؛

جلد نخست چگونه تمام می‌شود؟ «رولند» نشسته بر ساحل دریای غربی، غروب آفتاب را تماشا می‌کند؛ مرد سیاه‌پوش مرده، و آینده‌ ی هفت‌تیرکش نامعلوم است؛ ماجرای کتاب: انتخاب سوم، از همان ساحل، کمتر از هفت‌ ساعت بعد آغاز می‌شود؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 26/01/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 11/09/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Mid-World General Emergency Room - 9:19 PM

“Step in here, please. What’s your name?”

“Roland Deschain.”

“And do you have any allergies, Mr. Deschain?”

“No.”

“And when…..wait a second. Roland Deschain? The last gunslinger? The guy who is on a quest to find the Dark Tower?”

“That’s me.”

“Wow. This is an honor. I mean, I see a lot of scum and mutants come through here. Especially since the world has moved on and all that, but to get Roland the gunslinger in here as a patient? That’s just crazy! I can’t wait to tell everyone that I actually met you.”

“Thanks, doctor.”

“You’re looking pretty rough, Roland. I guess this questing gig must be a bitch. So what I can help you with?”

“Well, I got my hand and my foot kind of torn up.”

“Holy man Jesus, Roland! That damn hand is mangled, dude! And your foot isn’t much better. What happened? Did the man in black do this to you? Or were you jumped by demons?”

“Actually, it was a creature that came out of the ocean and attacked me on a beach.”

“Was it like some kind of giant mutant magic alligator? Because you are fucked up, son.”

“No, it was kind of a weird lobster/prawn/scorpion creature.”

“That’s nasty! How big was it? Like the size of a horse? Bigger?”

“No, like a dog.”

“Just dog sized? How big a dog?”

“Uh…I’m not sure. Like a good sized collie, maybe?”

“Well, I’ll bet there was a bunch of them, right? Like a couple of dozen?”

“No. I mean, there’s lots of them on the beach at night, but it was just one that did this.”

“One lobster monster did all this? Why didn’t you just shoot it?”

“My guns and shells got all wet and wouldn’t fire.”

“Oh, that explains it. You must have been like in the ocean fighting off a giant squid thing or sea mutants or pirate demons, right? Then your guns got all wet and when you dragged yourself out of the water, this damn lobster-whatever came up on your blind side, right?”

“Uh, not exactly. I fell asleep on the beach and then the tide came in. That’s when my guns and bullets got soaked. Then when I was trying to wake up and get out of the water, the lobster-whatsis came over and started biting me.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re Roland, the last gunslinger. The baddest mother walking Mid-World. A guy who has slaughtered entire towns and hordes of evil mutants. The man we’re counting on to get to the Dark Tower (whatever the hell it is) and save us all. But you got your ass handed to you by one dog sized creepy crawlie because you fell asleep on a beach and let your guns get wet? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Uh…yes. And I think it poisoned me.”

“Huh. Did it take your milk money, too?”

*********************************************************

After the strange introduction in The Gunslinger, this is where the series really hooked me. Roland has enough answers to get on the path to the Tower as he's reached the ocean, but he's badly injured after being attacked by a psycho lobster. Following what he was told in the last book, Roland manages to travel up the beach and locates literal doors to another world, our world. (Or at least a version pretty close to our world.)

Behind one door is Eddie Dean from the ‘80s, a heroin junkie in big trouble with the cops and the mob. The second one has Odetta Holmes, a rich black woman in the early ‘60s who doesn’t let the loss of her legs prevent her from being involved in the civil rights movement. But Odetta has a pretty big bat in her belfry. The final door unlocks a person with a sinister dark side. The increasingly sick Roland will have to hop between worlds to save the ones he’s been told will be his new companions that he’ll need to reach the Dark Tower.

While the first volume had kind of a dreamy and surreal quality to it, this second book is all tense action with a more grounded vibe thanks to the trips to a world the reader recognizes. What really stands out in this one is that we get another idea of just how committed Roland is to reaching the Tower. Injured, sick and dying, Roland pushes forward on sheer willpower and the extent of his obsession frightens the people he meets.

Even a junkie like Eddie can see that Roland is hooked worse than he is on a different kind of drug:

“There are people who need people to need them. The reason you don’t understand is because you’re not one of those people. You’d use me and toss me away like a paper bag if that’s what it came down to. God fucked you, my friend. You’re just smart enough that it would hurt you to do that, and just hard enough so you’d go ahead and do it anyway. You wouldn’t be able to help yourself. If I was lying on that beach there and screaming for help, you’d walk over me if I was between you and your goddamn Tower.“

Yes, he would, Eddie.

When a very close friend lists a book as an ALL-TIME FAVORITE!!...the pressure to love it, and give it a review deserving of its fabulous-ness, is immense...when that very close friend is the gloooooorious Stepheny- the pressure is OFF THE CHARTS!!!! Anyone familiar with her- will know EXACTLY what I mean. ;)

...So here goes nothing *deep breath*...



THE DRAWING OF THE THREE- the second book in The Dark Tower series- takes place seven hours after we last left Roland Deschain in The Gunslinger. The Man in Black had laid his cards on the table (so to speak)...and trust him or not, Roland is going to follow his lead...

Roland wakes up on the beach, and immediately knows he has a BIG problem! Lobster-like creatures are attacking him...and before he can react to the strangeness of the situation- he has lost two of his fingers and a big toe. Now he has to worry about tending to his wounds before infection sets in. And now he has to worry about dying- before he can follow through with THE DRAWING OF THE THREE...



First Door (1987)- The Prisoner: Eddie Dean- Eddie is a young heroin addict who is traveling by air, attempting to smuggle cocaine into New York for the drug lord Enrico Balazar...but the flight attendants are becoming a little bit suspicious of him, and Roland is going to have to step in to get Eddie out of some veeeeeeery hot water.



Second Door (1964)- The Lady of Shadows: Odetta Holmes- Odetta is a wealthy, wheelchair-bound black woman, missing her legs below the knees- after being pushed in front of a subway train. Odetta is completely unaware that she has an alternate personality "Detta Walker" who is veeeeeeeeeeeery different from the normal, kind, sweet, Odetta- in fact Detta is downright dangerous.



Third Door (1977)- The Pusher: Jack Mort (Mort meaning "death" in French)- Jack is a sociopath...who's relevance becomes clear- as soon as Roland sees what Jack has been up to in his evil little demented life.



Each door- brings a new person into Roland's world..and each person brings a new set of problems Roland must overcome. Let the good times begin!!



For all you GOOD-Readers that were less than over-joyed with The Gunslinger...please please please- just try to get past that hurdle, because what is in store for you in- THE DRAWING OF THE THREE, is sooooooo worth the ride!!!

...And...Thank you! Thank you! Thank you...to Quick Draw Stepheny- and my other fellow buddy-reading pals-Calamity Bev, Jumpin' Jeff, and Straight Shootin' Susan -for making this journey soooooooo much more fun than it would have ever been alone.

What the hell did I just read?

The Drawing of the Three is as far as I can tell, a unique literary experience.

The second book in King’s The Dark Tower series, published 5 years after The Gunslinger, this really begins The Dark Tower series. From my limited experience at having ready two of these, and myself more than two years in between, The Gunslinger seems like a prologue, a table setting. Maybe, just maybe, The Gunslinger is to The Dark Tower series as The Hobbit is to The Lord of the Rings. I don’t know yet, I’ve just read through the first two and I’m still processing what I’ve experienced.

Processing what has just been read is an imperative as the book is set down. Stephen King has created a singular narrative, told with alternating perspectives, diverse language structures and rich in metaphor, allegory and symbolism. King’s wildly fantastic world building is in The Drawing of the Three more connected to our world than the largely disconnected and more purely imaginary setting of the first book.

King’s second work then gains definition along with the connection to our world, as a framing device or a boundary that more strictly delineates what is fantastic and what is mundane. And King chooses as his “mundane” a series of grotesques: a junkie, a mentally unstable victim, and a monstrous sociopath, and Roland is the fulcrum about which these levers and torques join the fantastic to the real.

King’s narrative and characterization powers are in full display in The Drawing of the Three. The reader encounters a mature writer seeking to expand his already broad horizons.

I’ll accept King’s invitation to discover The Dark Tower in the world that has moved on.

Characterizationality at it´s best prepares the stage for entering the masters´ universe.

It has more of stories surrounding the 2 main protagonists, whose paths continually come closer, than a plot driven horror novel, but how we get to meet them shows Kings´ ingenuity. Years have passed since I´ve read it and I can still vividly remember them, feel and fear with them.

Mental illness is both a difficult to describe and to deal with topic and King uses the full potential by switching between different personalities that seem so vivid and different that it creeps the hell out of the reader.

Addiction is another topic King is often referring to due to his experiences and the shivering cold turkey character is one of the closest manifestations of King himself who used to integrate much of his personal life in his novels. He wrote this piece at the height of his multidrug alcohol cocaine prescription drug phase that nearly destroyed his life, health, and marriage and the credible and realistic description of cold turkey and the craving for more was part of his real life. I´ve just quit smoking, but I immediately found myself again in one of the best anti-drug commercials ever.

One of the reasons one doesn´t often read detailed descriptions of this topics is how hard they must to describe, the balance between exaggeration and downplaying, unwanted satire and belittling, or just not generating credibility for the character switches, cravings, and especially the performing of the protagonist fitting to the personal circumstances.

Roland, of course, is still fingering around, but it´s more the novel of the junkie and the schizophrenic than the one of the revolver man, leaving him in the second row, leaving much room for the presentation of the trinity of the desperate.

The switching between reality and the alternate universe adds dynamic to the setting and prepares for entering the land of messed up, weird fantasy and terrors, and King is playing around with to give the partly eventless exposition more kicks, something he mostly stopped in his later works. These elements of elder literature that strongly influenced him, the use of allegories, mostly vanished due to using more general MacGuffins´ and Chekhovs´ and mostly just characters. That´s not bad, he evolved, but I
sometimes miss this classy old storytelling style that has a more unique touch than the still great, but more disposable newer works.

Lucky you, you are not just still looking forward to meeting some pretty weird fellows, but have the whole Dark Tower series, that is lifting at exactly this moment, before you. But I can reread too, ha! Not as if that would be close to the magic of the first time, especially as I am so selfless and altruistic of remembering much of it to motivate you to read it and lose even more of this feeling that way, a thank you would be really appropriate, but please leave me the illusion.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

(B-) 71% | Satisfactory
Notes: It plays tunes of discomfort by pulses and shrieks, sagging for lengths in its middle but picking up pace near the end.

“The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three” by Stephen King is the second novel in my journey to The Dark Tower. I loved “The Gunslinger” and knew jumping into this one would continue this epic story.

Before I begin my review, I went a specific route to get the best experience for this book series. If you’re interested in the best way to conquer The Dark Tower series, here’s the reading list I finalized after researching this with the help of several longtime Constant Readers, librarians, and many who have agreed this gives you the most memorable reading experience…

The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
‘Salem’s Lot
The Talisman
Black House
Everything's Eventual (The Little Sisters of Eluria)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
Charlie the Choo-Choo
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

Here are the trigger warnings I found while reading “The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three”...

- Drugs
- Homophobic slurs
- Racial Slurs

If any of these trigger you, please don’t read this book. Moving along, I loved how, just like in “The Gunslinger,” King explained his thought process for creating The Dark Tower series, what influenced him, and more. It's a great way to hear all this before jumping in, and once I did, I became hooked.

The start of this novel in New York City was so awesome! I’m a native New Yorker, and it felt like I was reading something straight out of the movie “Goodfellas.” I love mafia/mob movies, so this was written brilliantly to convey that. I loved everything about this part of the book and how each door had a different vibe, scene, and unique characters.

Each door has its own story, making it feel like three stories in one. King pushed the envelope with the storytelling here, especially with the continuation of Roland’s story. I love his character the most; everything he endured in “The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three” was insane.

There’s a ton of action and dark fantasy horror in this story, which made my horror heart happy, especially when it came to Jack Mort. Mort is easily one of the creepiest, most insane, and most memorable antagonists I’ve read since the man in black. Talk about a vile villain with scenes of gore and violence that were next level with everything involving him.

Don’t worry, I’d never spoil anything, but I was blown away between that and a plot twist towards the end that explains a lot in the first book of the series. That was fantastic, and again, it leaves me wanting more. This was another breeze reading since I could not put it down. I now see why everyone loves The Dark Tower series since this is a lot to unpack, but it’s been fast-paced reading. I’m excited to read more, especially with how this ended, since my head is swirling with unanswered questions.

I give “The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three” by Stephen King a 5/5 for being one hell of a jam-packed read. It has everything I love in a horror novel, from monsters, action, crazy villains, a great story, and more on my favorite series character, Roland, the gunslinger.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I finally saw what a Drawing of the Three looks like, and it’s time to grab an iced coffee for a trip to the Waste Lands.

Another King reread – this time for the third time.

I was excited to get back to The Drawing of the Three as it is my favorite book of the Dark Tower series. I feel like this book came right when King was hitting the sweet spot for both the quest for the tower but as well as his other novels; around this same time he was releasing/working on Skeleton Crew, It, and Misery. Also, this is a reread as part of my working back through the King books in chronological order, so it is interesting to take them in as they were released.

The Drawing of the Three is the perfect combination of fantasy, mysticism, psychological thriller, and horror. It may be the most integrated King ever went with all the genres he has ever explored. I know I am gushing over this like a King fanboy, but it really is that good!

You may be asking yourself – I am a King fan, so should I read this? Well . . . if you read The Gunslinger and want to try more – definitely. And it is a much better book than The Gunslinger so I think you will find yourself much more invested in this one. If you read The Gunslinger and didn’t like it, it might be worth a try since it is a better and more fleshed out book but proceed with caution. If you don’t really have interest in the Dark Tower series or just like King when he is writing in a very specific genre, this may not be the book for you.

I hope you try it and you like it!

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