n  THE GUNSLINGERn
Roland Deschain – Of the line of Eld – all the way back to Arthur Eld
“Merlin and Arthur and the knights of the Round Table,” Jake said dreamily.
The gunslinger felt a nasty jolt go through him. “Yes,” he said. “Arthur Eld, you say true, I say thank ya.

Roland continues his quest for The Dark Tower where he intends to do
...whatever it is I’m supposed to do there, accomplished whatever fundamental act of restoration or redemption for which I was meant,...

n  THE TOWERn
We learned from the end of the last book

“... Suppose that all worlds, all universes, met in a single nexus, a single pylon, a Tower. And within it, a stairway, perhaps rising to the Godhead itself. Would you dare climb to the top, gunslinger?.

Would Roland dare? Would he spit in the face of destiny? Would he defy Ka? Would he try to stop worlds from “moving on?”

And can you hear The Man in Black’s shrieking laughter. That hoary cripple who so obligingly points Roland down a fool’s path on a doomed quest.


n  THE THREE DOORSn

Three doors into a parallel Universe, called New York. All the same “where” but different “whens.” We would call them the “real world” but the gunslinger would laugh.

Three. This is the number of your fate.
Three?
Yes, three is mystic. Three stands at the heart of the mantra.
Which three?

And behind Door No 1 we have...

n  n    THE PRISONERn  n
’The first is young, dark-haired. He stands on the brink of robbery and murder. A demon has infested him. The name of the demon is HEROIN’

Meet Eddie Dean from New York City 1987.
Roland meets Eddie on a sky carriage. Where army women in uniform serve popkins, do you ken popkins? Say sorry - tooter fish sandwiches ...mmmm Roland likes tooter fish sandwiches. Eddie is nervously contemplating the ritual of the “Clearing of the Customs.” He is afraid of the inquisitors there or that an Oracle who looks at suspicious people might be called. You see, Eddie is nervous because Eddie is concealing some packets of white powder. He intends to "profane the ritual." Luckily for him, the gunslinger needs him. Needs him for his quest.

There’s going to be shooting.”
“There is?”
“Yes.” The gunslinger looked serenely at Eddie. “Quite a lot of it, I think.”

And indeed there is and it is freakin AWESOME!!!


And behind Door number 2 we have...

n  n    THE LADY OF SHADOWSn  n
She comes on wheels. I see no more.

Meet Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker from New York City 1964 – She’s a schizophrenic. Who? Odetta or Detta? Yes.

Odetta/Detta is also a wheelchair bound amputee. Roland needs her, no needs both of her for his quest. But Roland has a problem, and it has nothing to do with the missing legs.
So Odetta, would you care to go on a quest to save all the worlds with yon gunslinger?
‘If I could do something like that—if I could be that brave—I think I could be happy for the rest of my life. But that sort of courage is not in me.’

What about you Detta – elegant and eloquent lady that you are? Would you give yourself to the gunslinger’s quest for the Tower?

“WHO WAS THAT MAHFAH? I GONE HUNT HIM DOWN AND KILL HIS ASS!”
“I ain’t goan nowhere wit choo, mahfah,
GOAN KILL EVERY MAHFAHIN HONKY I SEE! GOAN GELD EM FUST! GOAN CUT OFF THEIR BALLS AND SPIT EM IN THEY FACES! GOAN—”

Uhh – I’ll take that as a no.


Moving quickly on to Door number three!

n  n    THE PUSHERn  n
Yet it means death, Roland thought, and knew it was so.

Meet Jack Mort (le Morte) from New York City 1977

He didn’t care who; when it came to murder, Jack Mort was an equal-opportunity employer.

Jack likes to push things and people. Like bricks off multi-story buildings – and kids into traffic – and black people into oncoming trains.

But when killer meets killer its Mort vs Roland, Death vs The Gunslinger.
Death is a part of Ka too. But that won’t stop Roland spitting in it’s face.


n  THE ADDICTIONn

If Eddie is hooked on Heroin, and Detta is hooked on stealing, and Mort’s drug is killing – then Roland’s addiction is The Tower. As Eddie tells him

“You’re a Tower junkie, Roland.”

He sees it’s shadow in whatever world he travels. In a literal sign “The Leaning Tower” where Balazar likes to erect a monolith of playing cards. Or whether in Mort’s high rise office building. Yeah, Roland has it bad. And can his new friends trust him?
Enrico Balazar would have told him, but the gunslinger didn’t need the likes of Balazar to tell him this one fact of life: Never trust a junkie.

If Roland sacrificed the boy he loved for the tower, is anyone safe with him?

“He taught me if you kill what you love, you’re damned.”
“I am damned already,” Roland said calmly.

And when Roland’s world collides with those behind the doors, and all these addictions come together, well ...

As Henry Dean, the great sage and eminent junkie would have put it, Flip-flop, hippety-hop, offa your rocker and over the top, life’s a fiction and the world’s a lie, so put on some Creedence and let’s get high.


5 stars

“We all die in time,” the gunslinger said. “It’s not just the world that moves on.” He looked squarely at Eddie, his faded blue eyes almost the color of slate in this light. “But we will be magnificent.” He paused. “There’s more than a world to win, Eddie. I would not risk you and her—I would not have allowed the boy to die—if that was all there was.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Everything there is,” the gunslinger said calmly. “We are going to go, Eddie. We are going to fight. We are going to be hurt. And in the end we will stand.”

The Drawing of the Three picks up about 7 hours after the end of  The Gunslinger. Roland Deschain of Gilead, the last Gunslinger, wakes up on the beach of his not-Earth and sees a door. Marked “The Prisoner,” that door allows him to first see our world (well, the 1987 version) through the eyes of heroin-addicted, cocaine-smuggling Eddie Dean and later physically enter our world. Roland comes to understand that he needs to bring Eddie—as well some combination of those he can reach through two similar doors labeled “The Lady of Shadows” and “The Pusher”—to his not-Earth to join him on his quest to reach the Dark Tower.

While  The Gunslinger felt like the five loosely connected novellas that it was when originally published, The Drawing of the Three tells a single, clear story—the meeting and slow bonding of these characters. However, much of this book takes place in New York City sometime between 1964 and 1987, so there’s not as much world building in this novel (except the “lobstrosities,” I won’t forget those anytime soon). And the Man in Black appears only as a taunting voice in Roland’s head, sort of an anti-conscience. So, in the end, while the larger story is starting to take shape, this getting-the-band-together book continues to feel like a prelude of things to come. Still, Eddie and Odetta are great characters, and the story moves at a good pace in classic King fashion. I’m certainly looking forward to the next step of their collective journey. Recommended.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Fantasy

I don’t know how to review this book. It was awesome. Totally unpredictable. Crazy, very strange. Excellent world-building and amazing characters! When an author takes the risk of killing off every single character from book one except for the main protagonist that is a true gamble. Who but Stephen King would be able to pull it off? As the title suggests The Drawing of the Three is the introduction of three characters Eddie, Odeta (Deta & Susana), and Jack Mort. These are introduced to the reader in a very bizarre yet extremely clever technique. The Gunslinger’s adventure towards The Dark Tower continues but to reach there he needs these three characters.

Like book one, this is filled with metaphors as well. The beauty of it is that every reader will have his own interpretation of what is going on. There is no right or wrong. Just different opinions and interpretations. The continuous switch between the different worlds is amazing. Is that a dream? Or mental health disease? Is the gunslinger an actual character or just a voice in the head of those persons? So many questions. I loved how the doors for the characters opened in different time frames.

This sequel is only similar to the first book in being peculiar and bizarre. Other than that it is very different from the way the first book was written. I love them both. I think both make a very unique reading experience. This is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

“If you have given up your heart for the Tower, Roland, you have already lost. A heartless creature is a loveless creature, and a loveless creature is a beast. To be a beast is perhaps bearable, although the man who has become one will surely pay hell’s own price in the end, but if you should gain your object? What if you should, heartless, storm the Dark Tower and win it? What could you do except degenerate from beast to monster? To gain one’s object as a beast would only be bitterly comic, like giving a magnifying glass to an elephaunt. But to gain one’s object as a monster…To pay hell is one thing. But do you want to own it?”

5⭐️s

If a gunslinger metaphysically transplanted himself into my brain, he would probably only stay for like five minutes… because, you know, I’m boring.

This was my second read and I fell even more deeply in love with it this time around. As it stands, it is my favorite in the series. It’s a genre-bending, swashbuckling, action-soaked, fantasy horror crime thriller. It somehow hits all the notes that insatiably resonate within my brain’s joy receptacle.

This is a case study in character introduction and rapid development. Even on a second read, I learned more about our ka-tet and grew to love them even more.

n   The good…n
Weren’t you listening? It’s all the things.

n   The less good…n
The only thing that irritates me even a little bit is the speed with which Eddie falls in love with Odetta. And that’s me nitpicking because I understand the plot criticality of that choice, and it fits snuggly in the fantasy genre in which it operates.

n   To read, or not to readn
Go read it… now. Why are you still wasting your time on my review?

THIS BOOK IS SO FUCKING WEIRD AND AWESOME AND GODDAMN, I JUST WANT MORE.

The thing with  The Drawing of The Three is that it is a helluva weird story but somehow King managed to make sense of THAT weirdness and turn it into something completely EPIC.

Also, the characterization game is very strong in here.

I'm already half in love with Eddie Dean and Odetta and even more so with ROLAND OF GILEAD. Seriously. How did King managed to get me so hooked to them like this?

I'm babbling away so obviously I can't form coherent words right now.

No full review required! NEED THE NEXT BOOK RIGHT NOW.

"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."

The Last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain, faces three mysterious doors which will lead him to different times within our world. From these, he must draw the three who will accompany him on his journey.

So it turns out that my memory of the Dark Tower series is pretty patchy - I have forgotten so many details!! However, I could never forget THAT opening scene. One of the best I’ve ever come across - I was so shocked on my first read and it’s just as impactful on the second go around!

The “drawing” of each of the characters is such a blast. Eddie is pretty likeable from the very beginning, he always brings some much-needed comedic relief to what can be a very heavy series at times. The introduction of Detta/Odetta is freakin’ explosive - she’s a firecracker! Although Detta’s dialogue does make feel quite uncomfortable at times - how I wish Roland had gagged her sooner!

One of my favourite parts of the entire series, and this book in particular, is Roland coming to grips with different things in “our world”. The observations he makes are absolutely hilarious. Like when he wonders why anyone would be addicted to cocaine or other drugs when they could have the more cost-effective and plentiful sugar instead. I’m with you, Sai.

However, one of my very minor complaints is how quickly Eddie falls for Odetta. I’m just not a fan of these romances that seem to bloom out of nowhere - even on my first read I was bit surprised when it materialised. But that’s not to say that I don’t love them as a couple because I do *hearts* they certainly grow on me! So this is really just me being incredibly nit-picky!

From here on out it’s an addictive and exhilarating journey, I’m already itching to pick up The Waste Lands! 5 stars!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OK, the resolution to #3 (and thus #2) was really cool!

This is the second installment of the Dark Tower series and we once again follow a very strange hero. After not being talked to death by Walter at the end of the last book, Roland is trying to find out what the three cards drawn from the Tarot meant. Though why he believes in a Tarot laid out by Walter of all people, I don't really know.
In any case, Roland finds a door, opens it - and finds himself in the body of another person in another world. It's our New York City it the 80s. Actually, I think all three doors opened up to the same reality, just at different points in time (no spoiler, don't worry). The body he co-inhabits is that of a junkie currently delivering one hell of a lot of drugs on an airplane. Imagine a guy like Roland looking out of a plane's window. *lol* Yep, his look at our world was priceless.
After quite the adventure with Italo-American mobsters and taking Eddie (the junkie) to the other world (where the door appeared), he goes back again through a second door and the second prophesized person is - a woman. A black woman from NYC in the 60s. Oh, and she's in a wheelchair and there is another, greater, problem with her.
Eventually, Roland goes through a third door and finds the last person - a murderer and pervert.
So yeah, the choices are ... weird at best. Especially considering that he's trying to creature more/new Gunslingers! But what are you to do when you try to get together a Ka-Tet and destiny throws these into your path?! Right, you work with what you got and boy, did Roland work here - and despite a physical disability too!

Aside from the coming together of the prophesy, I highly enjoyed Roland's romp through different versions of NYC in our reality. Gun shops, pharmacies, planes and airports, police stations, the towering buildings, food ... nearly everything is disorienting to him and his view on anything (even cabs) is hilarious for the reader.
We also got to see a parallel world different from the one in book #1 and the creatures there were very interesting (I always like exploring new worlds and their faunas and floras).

Not too much happens here, really, except for the problems that come with Roland entering the bodies of these three people and the people's lives having events that impact Roland and his quest to assemble his new Ka-Tet. Might sound trivial, but I think it was important as it made us see more of who these people were so as to better understand who they'll become.

Furthermore, while all narrators of King's books have been very good so far, Frank Muller was VERY good with the different accents. His interpretation of the characters was spot-on for me so that made for an additional level of enjoyment.

I also very much enjoyed how King kept me on my toes, kept me guessing right up until the end if all three would survive, if/how they might change, what the Tarot actually said and what it could mean (prophesies have always been fickle beasts at best). Storytelling at its best.


P.S.: Oh! And there was a mention of Dennis and Thomas from my previous book (The Eyes of the Dragon) so as much as it pains me to say, Paul was (sort of) correct and yes, it did make me smile to recognize the names mentioned in the flashback.

Buddyread with the wondrous Kat coming mid-September :)



Hunker down, me maties, an give us a listen
'cause I have a swashbuckling tale to spin
It's starts out with a gunslinger named Roland
Mutant lobsters and fingers goin' missin'

A Prisoner, a Lady and a Pusher there be
That is the story of The Drawing of the Three
Can it be, is it a tale you have not read?
Sit, sit, maties, listen to what is said...

Fore there be adventure, with a touch of mutiny
Sea creatures, Opiate Dealers and Mind Maladies.
There's a lassie, or two, you may love to hate
And a journey walked across many a date

I could go on all night, lads, 'tis true
But in that long story be spoilers for you

I'll end it right quick with a last little nip
I'd gladly toss a rum back with King on my ship!

Just terrific! So many perfect characters to pick from in this and the back and forth from detta to Odetta just made the experience in between worlds that much more colorful. The adventures Roland has on Earth are just, well, unreal. It was sometimes hilarious, other times straight out of a superhero movie. Reading this series has been long overdue and I'm so happy to finally have the opportunity to give it the time it deserves.
On to book 3!

La aventura de Roland se complica con la llegada de los tres. Se abren las puertas de los mundos con Eddie, Odetta y alguien mas. Esta novela es de momento mi favorita de la saga. Sentí intensamente las experiencias y los sentimientos del pistolero. Deseando continuar la saga y ver como o quien llega a la Torre Oscura.

The Gunslinger is a great book in its own right, but I feel like it can only be fully enjoyed after having read at least a few more books in the series as they give you a much better grasp of what the story and world are actually about and what Roland’s endgame motives are. I didn’t like The Gunslinger that much the first time I read it but loved it after a reread. Drawing of the Three, though? This is the one that initially made me fall in love with the series.

It starts right after the ending of book one where Roland has his confrontation with the Man in Black about the bleak destiny that awaits him if he chooses to keep pursuing the Dark Tower. Traveling alongside a beach filled with monstrous, flesh devouring lobsters, he’s greeted by three cryptic doorways. Doorways that lead into our world at different points in time. Each doorway contains a person tied to him by fate, a new set of allies he must befriend (against their wills) and bring them back to his world. Before he can do that, he must help in solving their personal hang ups in their own world while dealing with some nasty problems of his own. One bloody piece at a time, Roland struggles against all odds to haphazardly gather his new crew of dysfunctional gunslingers together with the constant threat of agonizing death constantly looming over his shoulder.

This book is twisted, bleak, hilarious, vulgar and trippy as hell. Beneath all that, it has a lot of heart. Roland has a hell of a way of expressing love for his comrades, but it’s a deep and heart wrenching love all the same.

This book introduces my favorite character in the series and one of my favorite characters ever created by Stephen King in general: Eddie Dean. Odetta is another complex character that adds a lot of depth to the main cast.

The best part of this book was easily the introduction of Eddie and Odetta, a foul mouthed heroin junkie and a wheelchair- bound woman suffering from severe schizophrenia. Not only were they incredible characters in their own right, but they also brought out some much-needed personality out of Roland. The three of them being on page simultaneously was a joy to behold. Sometimes it was tragic, sometimes it was hilarious, sometimes it was terrifying and sometimes it was beautifully human.

Roland goes from being your typical edgy action antihero gunslinger to a shockingly vulnerable, emotional and tortured soul who is trying to do his damned hardest to do the right thing while making some grim choices and terrifying fumbles to achieve those goals. Having Eddie and Odetta around to hammer down and call him out on his questionable choices, doubts and flaws adds a lot of tension and consequence to an already visceral saga.

The way the book is written is also fascinating. When Roland enters into other worlds, he does so through peering from the eyes of inhabitants of that world while his body remains in his own world, almost like some kind of voyeuristic demonic possession where he shares a mind and consciousness with whoever he is in charge of controlling. The whole thing felt like an insane drug-fueled fever dream with constant chaos, conflict and interdimensional high-stakes drama. The quiet moments of character bonding, venting and banter were the icing on the cake and made the more intense moments hit that much harder.

The chemistry between the three unstable misfits kept the tension and the emotion high at all times. I’m really enjoying this reread because I never read beyond Wizard and Glass back when I tried reading this series back in the day. I’m looking forward to actually reading all the way to the end this time.

"What the hell was that?!!?" basically sums up my response to The Drawing of the Three. And I mean that in the best possible way.

As I opined in my review of The Gunslinger, I have avoided The Dark Tower for so long because it's a series and usually series books serve up a formulaic reheating of what happened in previous books. I usually enjoy the first book, like the second book, and begin to get that deja vu feeling that I've read all of this before somewhere around book three. Not so with this bad mamma-jamma. The Drawing of the Three couldn't be more different from The Gunslinger--and yet it works. The Gunslinger offered a bleak, apocalyptic world and a terse writing style to match as we followed the Man in Black along with Roland, the last Gunslinger. At the end of the novel, Roland is told that three people will be key in aiding his quest to the Dark Tower, leading into The Drawing of the Three.

In the second novel, the narrative begins with a shocking development in the first few pages that instantly causes us to reassess the character of Roland in terms of his abilities and his physical/emotional limits. Under considerable strain and a very real life-threatening situation, Roland begins to draw the three prophesied. As he does so, Roland breaks the barrier between his world and ours while discovering unlikely connections among the three people he encounters.

Unlike The Gunslinger, the writing here is more descriptive and King does a superb job of capturing Roland's awe with the plenty offered in our world in contrast with the world that has "moved on," as well as creating tension with the character of Detta Walker (I was as on edge during her scenes as Roland was; reading chapters with her was emotionally exhausting). In the first novel, Roland talked about how the Dark Tower was some kind of nexus holding worlds and times together and The Drawing begins to explore and clarify this idea more so than the previous book did.

It's very difficult to say much about the book without spoiling it, but King is to be commended for writing a book that varies in so many ways from the first novel and yet still seems a natural part of the world he created. If this continues, I may be one very happy series reader indeed.

Now I just hope that I don't order the Lobstrosities the next time I'm at Red Lobster. Seriously, I'll never look at lobster in the same way again.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder