3.5 stars and I was frustrated enough with this volume in the continuing saga NOT to round up to 4. Steven King has a reputation for waffling, but this is the first time in the Dark Tower series, where I really felt the reader suffered because of it. I loved Oy the Bumbler.
Had I not been listening to this rather than simply reading it, I am not at all sure I would have finished it.
I consider myself very lucky not to have to wait the many years between the writing of this novel and the next in the series; nevertheless, I won't be reading book 4 quite as quickly as I might have; this is still a wonderful series but my enthusiasm has been dimmed by the slow pacing and drawing out of events. I have also gleaned from reviews that book 4 is itself pretty slow.

And now it’s time for me to move on.

After roughly 1,400 pages in this series, I still don’t really care. Sometimes you just have to accept that something isn’t for you.

I liked this one a little better than  The Gunslinger. The ideas are enticing and become clearer as the series goes on. So there was some promise, but it never quite materialized for me. This one also wasn’t as much fun as  The Drawing of the Three. And even that book I didn’t find great.

This is basically people walking around, talking, while a whole lot of nothing happens. Until the last 20% or so that is. But by that point I had already checked out of this world and was just waiting for my train home.

2.5 stars. (It earned another half a star for Oy, who made me laugh quite often.)

This has been a buddy read with Nataliya. Sorry, buddy, but I just couldn’t do it, even though your offers were tempting.

The first two books painted an incredibly bleak picture of Roland's world. Said to have "moved on", just teeming with monsters, demons and the occasional unexpected horrifying incident.

As a passive observer, I could definitely see merit in learning more about it, but the highlight of each episode was by far the possibility of leaving it behind for the relative 'familiarity' of New York. Granted, I've only seen pictures of the city, but compared to the horror of fighting and eating lobstrosities on a daily basis, it at least felt safer.



The third book however, brought on a subtle change in atmosphere, but it was enough to get me more interested in the post-apocalyptic world. I can't say I'm normally very keen on being mauled to death by giant bears, nor look forward to getting glimpses of crazy sick people, or the odd vivid monster feast or two. As long as I was reading however, the world of our heroes certainly seemed riveting enough.

The billy-bumbler just stole the show for me: totally adorable, occasionally heart-breaking (I even shed a tear of two during the bridge crossing scene), it managed to put me in an all-around good mood.



For all the excitement that I felt, compared to the previous two books, I couldn't honestly say that this one has held me completely spell-bound. I certainly liked to read it, and I definitely felt extremely excited about picking it up, however I didn't exactly dream about it while waiting for the chance to pick it up again.

Some passages were rather difficult to follow: such as the elders' stories about old Lud. Probably due to my unfamiliarity with the language of this world, not to mention the weirdly fragmented manner people told things.

Score: 4/5 stars

Stephen put it best in his review: the "Shardik-Lud Expedition".

Not sure if it's mostly due to the improved writing style, or even just the cliff-hanger ending, but I'm definitely looking forward to the next book.

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Review of book 1: The Gunslinger
Review of book 2:The Drawing of the Three