As King opens up the world and cast of his tale the book gets that much better.

n  "Control the things you can control, maggot. Let everything else take a flying fuck at you, and if you must go down, go down with your guns blazing."n

There are quite a few on your feet moments in this book. You can see them happening, vividly, in your mind. It's enough to make you beg for a HBO or Netflix series to treat this series right and do 5+ seasons of it.

"She could only hope. But is there anything else? she asked herself, and drew. And suddenly her brown hands were full of thunder."

The twist towards the end, the revelation, and the introspective examination of Roland combined with the above make this an intense ride. More than once I had chills of excitement reading and seeing the story play out in my head.

As always, long days and pleasant nights Roland and crew, until the next volume!

Gunslinger was a strange little book, a surreal tale of some kind of dystopia with a protagonist straight out of a classic noir. It was interesting and entertaining and didn't really inspire me to finish a series that might just keep getting longer whilst I work my way through it. Turns out Stephen King got the Dark Tower bug back and after finishing the series he wrote another instalment. Ordinarily I'd be against such behaviour but after ploughing through this second episode in record time who am I to argue against more of this incredible and incredibly written story?

I don't even know why I came back, sure it's a highly regarded series but then so is The Wheel of Time and you won't find me picking up even one volume of that for anything other than a doorstop. And King is a much loved author, but not by me. I guess I might have to start changing that opinion sooner rather than later, as what he proves yet again with The Drawing of the Three is that he is a damned fine storyteller able to juggle multiple genres, create fascinating morally grey (and downright black too) characters and write believable dialogue, all the while keeping you flipping pages and on the edge of your seat with tension.

I guess I'm in this for the long haul now. More fool me.

I'll probably end up saying this for each book in the series so I apologize in advance. But this series really does just get better and better with each book. Especially from the first to this one, the difference is quite stunning. Don't get me wrong, I loved the first book in the series! But the writing is much easier to read in the second instalment and it allowed me to fly through this one much faster than the first. Although that could also be due to the fact that there is a lot more action and excitement in this one. The details of the story were so foggy as I was reading this that I was on the edge of my seat just like the first time I read it. I had to keep turning the pages to find out how it would turn out and where it would all lead. And of course I can't end this review without mentioning my favourite part of this book, the characters. I fell in love with Eddie and Susannah all over again. I had forgotten just how much I loved them, Susannah especially. Their introduction to the story is really a spectacular one and it's only fitting that it takes up a whole book, they really are such an integral part of the story.

I've read this book several times and I have to admit that I was at first rather blown away (read in '88) and somewhat disgruntled at the same time.

I mean, what is this? Is it a fantasy with rather odd actual doors on a beach, or is it a time-travel SF with alternate realities (and more), or is it a commentary on different New York Cities across a span of 30 years to the eighties?

Sheesh. It sounds like a real mess, right?

But in reality, with the hindsight that comes with having read the whole series and seeing how the entire shape of things comes together into one of the most original, genre-defying epics of our age, I have to give it all the props. I can't *not* like it.

Eddie Dean and O-Detta and Roland are one HELL of a Ka-Tet. A real mess, here, but what do you expect with a heroin junkie and a split-personality black woman in a wheelchair becoming GUNSLINGERS? Not just gunslingers, but the force of good on a quest to fix the whole freaking UNIVERSE.

The chutzpah! Not just Roland's chutzpah, but Stephen King's chutzpah!

Fortunately for us, this gathering up and bonding of a new Ka-Tet is still just another beginning, following beautifully from the Gunslinger.

*shivers in delight, anticipation*

And you've GOTTA see the full-color illustrations in these books!

I may or may not have left my Dark Tower virgin friend in the dust on our buddying up for this book. I know that she has finished The Gunslinger, but hasn't started this book, and here I am done already. Sorry. (But not really.) :P

I seriously love this book so much. I listened to the audio, again by Frank Muller, and it's just so freaking good. There were times as I listened that I remember feeling shocked that so much happens so quickly - this book is under 500 pages, so just a baby in King terms - but it is NON-STOP from the first page to the last. It just flew by, and at one point, I remembered feeling shocked that there was enough book left for all the things that still needed to happen to happen.

It's funny... The Gunslinger was a weirdly disjointed, slow-moving trust experiment of a book. You don't get to know Roland, or the man in black, or anyone, until well into the book (one could argue well into the SERIES, but I digress), but as a reader, it's a compelling mix of curiosity and excellent storytelling that keeps us going. But Drawing... it's just such a night and day difference in terms of narrative, style, plot, pacing, everything. Completely different, to the point that if these didn't have the same characters, it wouldn't even feel like the same series. But that's what makes this series just so damn good. Each book is its own entity, it has its own story and feel and personality, and yet they all fit together to make this epic WHOLE.

There were things that I noticed in this readthrough that I'm not sure (and can't be bothered to check about) if I noticed previously - like Odetta's mother's name being Alice/Allie, the same as the bartender in Tull. But these things, intentional or not (and I really do mean that "or not") only serve to make this series that much better. For reasons I can't quite go into now without spoiling all of the things. Ka is a wheel.

I had some thoughts about the racism themes in this book when it comes to Odetta/Detta and their origin and history, but as I went through them, I don't think that they matter much to my enjoyment of this book. I have criticized King in his more recent books for trying to Say Something(tm) about experiences that he has never had and never will, and getting it VERY badly wrong (cough Sleeping Beauties cough). And to be completely honest, he makes a lot of the same mistakes here. I think his intentions have generally always been toward the good, and that he wrote what he observed of human nature with the information he had available at the time - but he was/is writing from a place of privilege about experiences that he did not and cannot understand. And, let's be fair - the world has gotten a HELL of a lot different and more socially conscious in the last 30 years or so since this was written. So I can give the benefit of the doubt and forgive his assumptions and missteps and word choices from back then, even if I cringe a little reading it now... but I cannot for a book written in 2018 that is so riddled with bullshit that you'd think it was Texas.

Anyway, my point is that even though I have taught myself to see things differently when it comes to social justice and racism (and am still doing so), I can still enjoy this book for what it is and how it was intended. And for that I'm glad, because I REALLY did not want this to be another fat-shaming "IT" repeat DNF. That would have broken my heart.

OK so... anyway, if you didn't lapse into a coma with my SJWing there, I'll reward you with wrapping this up quicklike. :) If you haven't read this series, you should. Most likely, those issues I noticed will pass completely unnoticed by the vast majority of people - as they had for me for so long. (But also, if you haven't read this series, what the hell are you doing reading this review? Get the hell out of here before you ruin it all!) Don't let my vague comments dissuade you from picking up this series, or even just this book. I bet it'll hook you through the bag immediately...

Porte dimensionali e tanta confusione fanno da contorno all'inserimento dei nuovi compagni di Roland.

Come sempre King dipinge personaggi a tutto tondo, con una valigia di problemi ma pronti a riscattarsi.

Migliore del primo per ritmo e sviluppo ma la sensazione che accadano cose senza una logica è predominante.
King si addentra in generi che non gli sono congeniali e si vede, mischiando tutto. Si dilunga nel descrivere i tre nuovi compagni ma si dimentica di dare un senso al romanzo.

Chi ha detto che scrivere un buon fantasy sia facile?

Time for a re-read. I have forgotten the face of my father! ....O.K., It was Oy and Jake, but dang, it does sound dramatic doesn't it?

The epic journey, the pilgrim continues his journey In searcheth of The Dark Tower. The Gunslinger Roland enters new dimensions, new doors three to be exact in search of The Three individuals which he his fated to be with.
The story is mix of many settings starting in The western seafront with The Gunslinger and dangerous Lobstrosities and then to 1980's a heroin addict and mobsters in P.O.V mode for The first of The Three 'The Prisoner'.
Roland The Gunslinger also pays a visit to the other 2 candidates The Lady Of The Shadows and The Pusher which sweep you back to 1960's and 1980's.
The story is really written well with humorous undertones and has a healthy dose of sociopathic and schizophrenic characters. There's a bit of Love in the air too!
"Even the damned love"
The Gunslinger talks a lot about Ka, Ka "signifies life-force, consciousness, duty and destiny. In the Vulgate, or low speech, it also means a place to which an individual must go".

You really get to like these characters King has developed and get to laugh along with the Gunslinger as he immerses himself in different worlds, makes me reminisce of the Crocodile Dundee movie where the guy had never been to a city in the U.S before.
"The yellow cars were public conveyances called tac-sees or cabs or hax. The tribes which drove them, the mortcypedia told him where two, Spicks and Mockies. To make one stop,you held your hand up like a pupil in a classroom." LoL
Mahfah! Mahfah! Good stuff!









I am over here also.

I wish someone would have told me that the second book in Steven Kings series "The Dark Tower" was so much better than the first. I wouldn't have waited so long to read it.
"The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three" Is an extremely well written, exciting, interesting and twisting tale in the Dark Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Horror genres. It never lets up and the development between characters and scenes is delightful. 5 stars!

Stephen King gets back to his old self and Stephen Kings all over the second book of the Dark Tower series. This one is written more in the King style we have all come to know and love. It’s much more what you would expect from picking up a King novel, but it still has that western fantasy vibe pulsing throughout its pages.

And, again, the book is pretty good. I’ve read half of the series before, I know the next two books are really good, especially Wizard and Glass. I keep saying that. I’ll probably just always remind people of how much I enjoyed that book. Anyway...

Some people love the series from the beginning, some people love this book, some people hate the series, some people hate Stephen King. Isn’t that what makes life so great? We get to all have different opinions and lifestyles and stuff. And sometimes those opinions and views change, right? Like, sometimes I really like King and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I want tacos every day, all the time, and sometimes I... well, no... that doesn’t work here. Tacos are God’s gift to humans. A little piece of heaven we get to enjoy here during our short time on earth.

And, I won’t say anything else here, but, man... would the whole Detta stuff fly in this day and age? Some of that mixed in with a lot of homophobic stuff just seemed very dated and very distracting. As Roland would say, the world has moved on.

Looking forward to continuing the series. I’ve been listening to it at work so it’s been a different experience than last time. Here’s hoping I can make it to the Tower... and that it is filled with delicious tacos.

4.5 ⭐

n  ”Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum? Dad-a-cham? Ded-a-check?”n
- Lobstrosity #1 (Wanted for Digit Theft)


The Drawing of The Three maintains the high standard set for ‘The Dark Tower’ series, by King in ‘The Gunslinger’. While it remains a unique and compelling story, this entry felt much more conventional in both prose and storytelling than the first. However, what it lacks in further hallucinatory mind-fuckery, dreamy abstraction, and thoughtful, at times verging on philosophical, reflection; it makes up for with fantastic characterisation, thematic diversity and significant consequentiality.
I’m not entirely sure if King had any idea where he was going with this. I would presume not given the period of time over which it was written, but I feel, so far, that this has given the series an exciting unpredictability that you couldn’t possibly achieve in a well-planned, logically thought-out saga. This path, of course, usually leads to problems further down the track like lack of foreshadowing, inconsistencies in tone and inaccuracies in recalled events, but only time will tell.
This particular entry felt like a bunch of mismatched ingredients that my fiancé might throw into her nutri-bullet, that really shouldn’t work but, I’ll be a monkey’s perverted, alcoholic Uncle, they do!! It’s a mashup of 80s gangster films, monster horror (Prawn+Lobster+Spider = Lobstrosity…WTF?!), Portal Fantasies, Time-Travel and Character Studies ranging from well-informed examination of drug addiction, to less well-informed examination of Dissociative Identity Disorder (Schizophrenia) and Antisocial Personality Disorder.


n  ”The Gunslinger drew left-handed, and his draw was as it had always been, sick or well, wide awake or still half asleep: faster than a streak of blue summer lightning.”n


The number one thing I feel compelled to talk about is the prose!. It’s serviceable, fine, decent, good even… But it was sooo much better in ‘The Gunslinger’. It irritates me just a wee bit because in A LOT of the reviews I read for the first book, people commented on how incomprehensible and pretentious the writing was and that the plot was too abstract with not enough tangibility to anchor oneself to, or clutch as one would the defined glutes of an old lover. It all seemed a little bit dumbed down here and it can’t be a mere coincidence that King’s retrospective foreword, preceding the beginning of ‘The Gunslinger’, mentioned and defended this exact pretentiousness as the attempts of a misguided young author to impress his peers and would-be fans alike. Since when did wordcraft, building aesthetically pleasing phrases and using your vocabulary to its fullest, become wanky?... When Lionel Messi could simply pass the ball to any number of teammates but instead pedals up the right-wing leaving an opponent in the dust, nutmegging another, pirouetting around a third, rainbow-flicking a fourth and sending it past the Keeper into the top right corner 5-6mm from the top and right posts, is this wanky? No! It’s fucking brilliant! When John Coltrane forgot about the rest of the band and went off on a 27-minute solo during the track ‘One Down, One Up’ on the album ‘Live at the Half Note’, was this wanky… Well, yeah, a little bit, but ultimately it was fucking awesome! Why? Because these guys were the best at what they did and we should never cave in to our inherent ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ and tear down those who try to excel at what they do and produce something that transcends the typical Vanilla mierda that we’re fed every other day. Moving on.


n  ”Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.”n


A high percentage of the enjoyment to be had in this instalment is owed to the introduction of a couple of excellent characters.

Eddie is a 21-year-old, living in the 80s. He’s a junkie consumed with guilt, a residual effect of the emotional fuckery dealt him by an emotionally abusive mother and brother, the latter of which he loves deeply, making it all the more disturbing. His first appearance is the aforementioned gangsterish portion of the book. Tense, action-packed, funny and moving, it’s all of the above and you grow to really love the guy. Roland and Eddie bounce off of each other very well, their opposing personalities making for a highly entertaining partnership. Eddie’s inner-monologue, particularly early on, is gold!

Odetta/Detta is a legless (No, she’s not perpetually wasted, nor was she a pointy-eared heartthrob in LOTR. She’s… Got no legs.), wheelchair-bound black woman with dissociative identity disorder living in America in the 60s. Talk about drawing the short straw, am I right?! Odetta is a lovely, well-spoken woman who happens to be part of the civil rights movement. Detta, on the other hand, is a cruel, hateful kleptomaniac with a propensity for violence, particularly against White Honky Mahfahs. Roland describes the inside of her mind as "the snakepit of hate and revulsion.”


***MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD***



Independently, these two new characters are very interesting and each endearing in their own ways. When placed together, they are two members of the worst case of Insta-love I have ever witnessed! Bar none. King really forgot the face of his Father here! I mean, what in the legitimate fuck was he thinking?! Eddie was “falling in love” with Odetta after a single day. You could argue that he had simply become infatuated with her overnight which is entirely possible in the case of a particularly beautiful woman. Add to this the fact that he had just gone through an incredibly traumatic experience and was possibly in need of a comforting relationship, you might have a half decent explanation on your hands. But NOTHING can explain why Odetta would have any reason whatsoever to reciprocate those feelings! To the extent that they would share ”An act of love… so sweet, so full” only days after meeting and with barely any meaningful interaction. Get outta here!

Guns were slung, Three were drawn and, ultimately, this was a book with a large number of positives and just a few negatives. The general consensus is that the standard remains high for the next book and then tapers off and falls over like an elderly fella with an ear infection and a fractured walking stick. Can’t wait!

Goddamn I love this book. First loving it as a teenager may play a role; if nothing else, it helped smooth over some of the highly 1980s aspects, like using “schizophrenia” as a blanket description of multiple personalities.

I have mixed feelings now about how King wrote Detta Walker, the “cartoon black woman, Butterfly McQueen gone Loony Tunes.” On King’s and his publisher’s side, there probably wasn’t much thought given to a then-wealthy white Maine man writing a gutter-lingo-slinging angry Black woman. I’d like to think he did a reasonable job of it given the era and circumstances, with effort put in to signify that Detta was an extreme caricature, a monster idea born of trauma and not meant to be a real person, but I would like to read a proper critical race analysis from someone qualified to perform such a thing, which I am not. The simple fact of differentiation between Odetta, the safe, kind, intelligent, cultured woman worthy of love, and Detta, the snarling street bitch, conveys that one type of Blackness is acceptable and the other is not.

On the one hand, this had to be the first thing I ever read featuring a disabled Black woman, one struggling openly against racism throughout her life, working in the early days of the U.S. civil rights movement. It was an education for teenage me. (It may also have been the first time I read about a heroin addict.)

Oh the other hand, dialogue like this took some deep breaths to get past now:

”YOU AIN’T NUTHIN BUT A BUNCHA HONKA SONSA BITCHES! GOAN KILL EVERY MAHFAHIN HONKY I SEE!”

And:

n”Why don’t you go on and eat each other’s COCKS?” the struggling thing in the chair screeched. ”Why don’t you just go on and do dat if you fraid of a black woman’s cunny? You just go on! Sho! Suck on yo each one’s candles! Do it while you got a chance, cause Detta Walker goan get outen dis chair and cut dem skinny ole white candles off and feed em to those walkin buzzsaws down there!”n

Oof. Remember, this is 1986 King. He’s grown. It doesn’t make it less uncomfortable but I have the luxury of enjoying my privilege and keeping my positive feelings about the book intact. I’d like to think that King wrote this with as much care as he was capable of at the time, and Detta isn’t just a throwaway villain for this piece; her personality remains a vital component of that character through the rest of the journey ahead.

Including all of that, this book has an intense energy. It’s a wild shift from the prior book, bringing the storyline and tone firmly into our 1980s earth (even when the doorways took Roland to earlier times than that). I will never get over the opening, with its shocking, irrecoverable damage.

Dod-a-chock? Dad-a-cham?