Another odd addition to this incredible series. The lobstrosities and the new characters that Roland meets on his journey all come together for a fantastic journey. I’m not always sure what I’m reading, but I’m enjoying the hell out of it!

I’ve read the Dark Tower Series several times over the years. It is a series I hold very close to my heart, one that draws me in and whispers in my ear; begs to be read again.

So, when  Calamity Bev,  Rootin’ Tootin’ Pistol Packin’ Delee,  Jumpin’ Jeff and Straight Shootin' Susan asked me to join them along the Path of the Beam on a most noble quest to the Dark Tower I said yes without a moment’s hesitation.

The Drawing of the Three is a book that on its own is in my list of top 10 books ever written. This is one of those books that left my brains splattered on the wall behind me. I was completely blown away by this book. It is nearly impossible to put down. The writing is impeccable, it’s very fast paced and the storyline is captivating.

Roland wakes up on a beach-a beach from hell, but a beach nonetheless.



He must draw three people into his world to accompany him on his quest. Along this beach he finds 3 doors.

Behind the first door, marked “The Prisoner”, he meets my literary soulmate, Eddie Dean. Eddie has a monkey on his back and that monkey’s name is Heroine.


Door number two is marked, the Lady of Shadows and it is from that door that Roland draws Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker. She has lost her legs in a horrifying accident but that is only the tip of the iceberg as the old saying goes.


As Roland, Detta and Eddie travel up the beach in search of Door Number 3 they encounter a few obstacles. And as Eddie points out so politely to Detta, “Well,what was behind Door Number One wasn’t so hot, and what was behind Door Number Two was even worse, so now, instead of quitting like sane people, we’re going to go right on ahead and check out Door Number Three. The way things have been going, I think it’s likely to be something like Godzilla or Ghidra the Three-Headed Monster, but I’m an optimist. I’m still hoping for the stainless steel cookware."

So what does Door Number 3 bring?

The Pusher . Jack Mort. The Man in Black foretold who would be behind these doors and when he got to the third door he told Roland “Death. But not for you, Gunslinger.” Jack Mort. The pusher of objects. Will he be drawn into this world as Eddie and Odetta/Detta were?



Will Roland get his Keflex in time?

Will the lobstrosities ever satisfy their hunger?

All these questions will be answered.

The Drawing of the Three will not disappoint you. I personally guarantee your satisfaction.

Ps. If you click the names of posse you'll get to read their most excellent reviews!

Con esta entrega, Stephen King presenta una continuación que, si bien mantiene el suspenso característico de su obra, carece de la originalidad y el impacto emocional del primer libro. Aunque la trama avanza con ritmo, la introducción de nuevos personajes y escenarios puede resultar confusa y desconectada de la historia principal. Además, algunos elementos parecen forzados o predecibles, disminuyendo la intensidad que caracterizó al primer volumen. Aunque sigue siendo una lectura entretenida para los fanáticos del autor, no alcanza el nivel de excelencia que esperábamos después de la poderosa introducción de la serie. Por lo que no le puedo otorgas más de dos estrellas.

This was my second go at this novel, much better than what I remembered.

Playlist

Creedence Clearwater Revival
Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody - David Lee Roth
Bridge over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Johnny Cash
Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Blues - Huey “Piano” Smith and His Clowns
Billie Holliday
A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
The Man in Black - Johnny Cash
Hey Jude - The Beatles
People - Barbara Streisand
Pink Shoe Laces - Dodie Stevens
We Shall Not Be Moved - Mavis Staples
The Legend of John Henry's Hammer - Johnny Cash
Barbara Allen - Joan Baez
Jimmy Swaggart
Onward Christian Soldiers - Petra
Take The 'A' Train - Duke Ellington
Oxford Town - Bob Dylan

Drawing, in any sense of the word, is more difficult when you are down two fingers.  On a desolate beach, three doorways will appear, one by one.  Three doorways representing three cards - The Prisoner, The Lady of the Shadows, and The Pusher.  All with myriad meanings, some literal, some figurative.  All instrumental in Roland's quest for The Dark Tower.  Worlds other than this, indeed.

This is probably my fifth reading of The Drawing of the Three.  The lobstrosities are just as terrifying.  They come from the sea at high tide, giant claws held high, but ready to slice and dice.  They remain ravenous, and still have so many plaintive  questions.  "Did-a-chick?"  "Dod-a-chock?"  "Dum-a-chum?" 

The Tower awaits, what does destiny hold for our wayfarers?

El libro que más me gustó de la saga. La presentación de los personajes fue impecable y me faltaban ojos para seguir leyendo. Necesitas saber más y más hasta haberlo devorado. La historia de Roland es buenisíma y debes leerla por que te va a encantar.

Having read this book, I'm scrambling to try to compare the first two ones, and to understand why I rated this book a three, while at the same time I enjoyed reading it on a basic level. The twists in this book are no better than those in The Gunslinger.

However the world they are set in make the difference. The Gunslinger made the cut as the better of the two because its characters, I realize, are given more time to shape. Here the people in our world are not the equal of the man in the desert, or of the priestess, or of the woman who slept with Roland. Here though, was a big question. How was the third person going to end up?

I was surprised how he died. I thought Roland needed Mort. In the end though, it all comes to taste. The book is good enough for me to hope for better. Now that's a contradiction, but that's how it is.

YES! This is what I'm talking about.

If you read my review of The Gunslinger, you'd know that I liked the concept but was thrown off by the writing. I just couldn't get as invested in the story as I wanted to be. However, King remedies that with this second volume in The Dark Tower series. The pace is faster and there are a lot of fantastical things going on... something that is very important in a fantasy novel.

It does have its slow moments, like when King starts telling about characters that aren't important to the plot and are literally only in the story for a few pages (so do we really need to know their whole backstory and what their job is??). But other than that, I can't complain much. This is a story with rich believable characters that are flawed but are seeking redemption. I don't know where the story will take them in the future, but I'm very eager to read all about it. Onto book three!

1.5 stars rounded up

Goodness where to start? I had been told that this book was much better than Gunslinger (disagree) and that The Drawing of the Three was really where the series hit its stride. It's one of those things where conceptually, I think the idea for the series is interesting and I'm kind of curious how things turn out. However, I find the reading experience so unpleasant I think I'm okay checking out the wiki to find out.

This book reads to me as faux deep while playing into harmful stereotypes and doing lots of things for shock or titillation, rather than because they do anything for the story. Like this character who gets off on secretly hurting people. We get it, he's a creeper. We don't need all the details on his physical response to hurting people.

I lost count of the number of times n****r was used. Again, shock value.
And while we're there, can we talk about the depiction of the one Black character in the book? To start she's labeled schizophrenic, which is actually incorrect. She has multiple personality disorder which is not the same thing. One personality is sweet, wealthy, privileged, an advocate for civil rights. The other is poor, violent, hypersexualized, and speaks in a way that is acknowledged IN TEXT as an over the top stereotype of Black speech. Black women have historically been viewed as hypersexual and aggressive, which is not only a gross generalization but has perpetuated real harm and continues to do so today. This portrayal leans into that hard, with subtext that trauma split off this (natural I guess?) part of her personality.

And look, I think King thought he was being progressive and saying something deep about race, but instead it's just perpetuating stereotypes that prop up white supremacy. Intentionally? Maybe not, but that doesn't fix the problem. And there are some interesting conversations about the constant stereotyping of Black people and use of the "magical negro" trope in his work. It's worth talking about.

I'm not saying that people can't still like the series or get something from it. My rating has a lot to do with how unenjoyable I found this book to read and my disinterest in much of the plot. I'm more interested in what's happening in Roland's world, don't care so much about what happens through the doors. But if you had a positive experience and enjoyed this, that's great. However, I think it's important to acknowledge that we can like something and it can still be problematic and even harmful. Both things can be true, which is uncomfortable but still important to acknowledge and grapple with.

The Drawing of the Three is a good sequel to The Gunslinger and it improved on some aspects while deviating slightly from others that i thought were better executed in The Gunslinger.
Eddie and Odetta/Detta were the best part of the book as Roland´s Ka-Tet is starting to form itself and heading towards the nexus of existence, The Dark Tower.
I look forward to continue the series with The Waste Lands!

n  “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?”

n

I thoroughly enjoyed my re-read of this, like i said it's been years since I've re-read the series and it feels like im rediscovering it.

The Dark Tower series is so detailed, like every time i read it I'm always noticing something else; that i missed on my last read.

The aim here was to take my time with this re-read because I wanted to live in it longer and soak it up but I'm taking longer than expected because I've got my newborn son who needs my attention as well now.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back and with a fresh review!

•

The Drawing of the Three, the second book of The Dark Tower series.

This one gets a top rating from me, it's full of action, atmospheric, it introduces a new interesting characters and we see another side of Roland as we progress further to the elusive tower.

This is where Roland gets his Ka-tet (a group bound by fate/destiny)

First we have [The Prisoner] a junkie named Eddie Dean, who's running drugs when Roland meets him; might seem like a despicable character but he's one of my favourites of the series.

Second is [The Lady of the Shadows] a woman with multiple personality disorder and one of those is a maniac out to cause mayhem in whatever form possible, whether it be murder or theft.

Third is [The Pusher] who is a serial killer called Jack Mort.

These people are supposed to be 'drawn', they're part of Rolands destiny and they're part of his journey to The Dark Tower.

Will he draw all three of these people?

Or will some otherworldly evil bring an end to Roland's quest?

Or will something extraordinary come of it?

Anyway, go read this series; if you haven't already.

...the Tower is closer....

I loved everything about this book. I’m not really sure why I’m surprised by this, but I am. I expected to like The Drawing of the Three in the same way that I liked The Gunslinger, but I love it with the same ferocity I do The Stand. It is, in my opinion, the most powerful and successful entry into the portal fantasy subgenre since C.S. Lewis penned The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Yes, it’s really that good.

“Because the difference between seeing and not seeing can be the difference between living and dying.”

The Drawing of the Three begins exactly where The Gunslinger left off. Roland finds himself on an incredibly freakish beach, so odd in fact that I assumed it was some kind of fevered dream sequence. This setting is also the source of my favorite new made-up word: lobstrosity. It’s the perfect description for the hellish crustaceans that populate the beachscape. (Seriously, they’re terrifying.) After enduring a horror that I won’t go into since I view it as a spoiler, Roland begins the drawing of the three he will need to find the Dark Tower. He finds these three through supernatural doors he finds along the coastline. Each door leads to a particular time and place in our own world, and each door represents a different person: the Prisoner, the Lady of Shadows, and the Pusher. The way in which Roland interacts with these individuals is fascinating. And these new characters in the cast are incredibly compelling. Eddie in particular grew so much throughout the telling of this story. By the end of the novel, I cared deeply about every single character.

“What we like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely have much in common....”

One element of this book that I found surprising was how deftly King handled demons. Not supernatural, Hail Satan demons. I’m talking about demons that we all face and fight throughout our lives. In the pages of this book, King explored addiction, mental illness, and physical handicaps in ways that are honest yet so respectful, and that are most of all relatable. Whatever you’ve struggled with in your life, there’s something about this book that makes you feel seen. There’s also a level of tension that King manages to maintain so well over the course of the book. No part of this story felt like it was dragging to me. But even in the midst of some incredibly tense scenes, Roland’s complete befuddlement with our world and his baffled interaction with it had me actually laughing out loud on occasion, which was a welcome relief from all that tension. His reaction to his first sip of Pepsi is a prime example.

“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.”

Something I’m coming to love more and more is King’s tendency to reference himself. For example, there were quite a few blatant references to The Shining from one character, though this was regarding the Kubrick film instead of the novel. I don’t know that anyone else could refer to their past work so believably, as King has left such a huge imprint on the modern collective consciousness. One of my favorite aspects of reading any of King’s books has become the hunt for these little references to his own catalogue. I’m super excited to see how everything I’ve read, and the books of his that are in my future, are going to end up tying into the Dark Tower.

“We are going to fight. We are going to be hurt. And in the end, we will stand.”

The Drawing of the Three is quite honestly one of my most surprising reading experiences of 2020 so far. I’m ecstatic that I loved it so much. The more I read from King, the more I love him. I can’t believe that an author whose writing style I once could not stand has become one of my very favorites. I honestly cannot wait to see where Roland’s journey to the Tower takes him and his companions next.

You can find  this review and more at Novel Notions.