Customer Reviews

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, Book 2)

5 star:		(162)
4 star:		(70)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Wow, fantastic. if you've read "The Gunslinger" and then gave up, then i encourage you to read this, the second volume. It is SO much better than the first! With "The Gunslinger" you could tell it was written while King was still in college because it was pretty rough around the edges and (forgive me for saying this about a SK story), a little boring. But "The Drawing Of The Three", in which Roland must pass through three doorways to 1980's America, is riveting, fast-paced,emotional, and yes, humorous. Some parts where Roland is trying to get used to our world are very funny (the "tooter-fish popkin" incident springs to mind). The 450 pages just fly past, but it gives some indication of the epic saga that King is creating, since even at the end of Volume II, we are still near the start of the journey. I only hope that once Roland reaches his Dark Tower (if he ever does?), the tale doesn't fizz out. All in all, this book offers much more bang for your buck than The Gunslinger, because it's twice as long, written twice as good, and there's twice as much action :)

This book is a fitting sequel to the first of the spell-binding series- The Gunslinger. It's a definite page-turner and in the end will leave you begging for more. Although personally I thought The Gunslinger left more to be desired, The Drawing of the Three more than makes up for its minor flaws and leads you ever closer to the climax of Roland's epic quest.

One of the Dark Tower Series' greatest strengths is Stephen King's remarkable description. It makes you not only see but feel the sorroundings. King definetely showcased this talent in this book, and put you through one heck of a ride. From the moment you begin the book you are taken to a a different world, Roland's world, a desolate beach full of terrible "lobstrosities" that King takes great pains to describe. King also describes New York City in depth through Roland's eyes, a truly monumental challenge considering Roland is oblivious to the technological marvels of our world.

But the greatest feat the book has accomplished is, without question, the whimsical ensemble of characters King creates. The cast is full of interesting stories, an odd group of crusaders bound by the same "ka". Eddie Dean is perhaps the most memorable, a heroin addict fighting his addiction and the New York Underworld, reluctantly "drawn" by Roland to quest for the great tower. But Odetta Homes can't be overshadowed- as well as her secret evil double- Detta Walker. She's a skitzophrenic, fighting her dark half which threatens to rule her, the makes of a brilliant story. The third character who is drawn also fits suprisingly into the storyline and sets the stage for a thrilling climax.

And in the middle of it all, lies Roland, the lone gunslinger. Haunted by his past and obsessively bound by his duty to search for the Dark Tower, he is the central character, the pinnacle of the books. He is perhaps King's greatest creation, his struggle is inspiring, he is the nail that holds the fantastic story together. You can't help but wait for the final climax, the next installment- it'll leave you begging for more.

King has worked wonders with this book. It was an awesome read!

The Drawing of the Three is the second book in the Dark Tower saga, which is of course, the greatest series of books ever written. This volume introduces Eddie Dean, Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker, and Jack Mort.
Eddie Dean is a heroin junkie from the 1980's.
Odetta Holmes is a civil rights activist from the 1960's, and Detta Walker is her dark half.
Jack Mort is a serial killer from the 1970's.
The second stanza continues the tale of Roland, the last of the Gunslingers who continues his trek towards the Dark Tower. He happens upon three doors standing freely along the beach. The doors open onto three different times in "our" world, out of which, Roland draws his three...(sort of)
The tale itself is very well written, and the dialogue is far superior to the original text from the Dark Tower I. This is where the course of Roland's story really begins to take its shape. From the first paragraph, picking up six hours after Roland's palaver with the Man in Black, the book moves forward at an almost un-relenting pace. Anyone who likes to read period, will enjoy this book.

I have a soft spot in my heart for world-crossing stories. Perhaps it's the remnant of the same childhood fantasy that everyone has - you know the one, "My family is not my family, my hometown is not my hometown - I'm really a lost prince of a strange magical kingdom and one day my true identity will be revealed and I'll be able to go do something more fun than this...."

Escapist fiction of this sort usually does really well, mostly because so many of us are unsatisfied with the way our lives are going right now. Harry Potter blew everyone away for the same reason that, say, Star Wars did - they spoke to that desire that we all have for a destiny, a reason for being in this benighted universe other than to consume, procreate, and die. It's a very powerful dream, that dream that we can lead a life better than the one we're living now, and it's one that very few of us get to realize. So we turn to fiction to realize that dream for us.

Of course, nothing comes without a price. In hopping from world to world, you may have to resist the temptations of a Snow Queen or fight off the forces of Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada. You may discover that your father is the greatest force for evil in the universe, or that you've been born into a genetic cohort that scares the hell out of everyone. Crossing from one world to another - whether literally or figuratively - always comes with a price.

For Eddie Dean, Detta Walker, and Odetta Holmes, that price could very well be their lives.

When last we left the Gunslinger, Roland was sitting by a vast and gray sea at the end of the world. He had already sacrificed young Jake Chambers for his quest, and had been shown a vision of the universe that would have blasted the mind of a lesser man. Without any other direction, Roland continues on his journey - but not without some difficulty.

Wounded and ill, Roland has to go through three strange doors and draw out new companions to replace the ones he lost so long ago. If he is successful, he will draw out a new ka-tet - a group bound by the forces of destiny - that will stand with him on the way to the Dark Tower. If he fails, he will face total obliteration, to say nothing of being devoured alive by huge mutant lobsters.

Through door number one, Roland meets The Prisoner - young Eddie Dean, a junkie who has to bring a couple of pounds of cocaine through customs at JFK airport in New York. If he can do that, then the men holding his beloved big brother will let them both go, well-paid and well-loaded with the drugs that they so desperately want. Eddie can't do it without Roland's help, however - help that turns out to make the whole endeavor much more complicated and lethal than it might have been before.

Through door number two, Roland must bring the Lady of Shadows, a woman who is two minds in one body. One of these minds is Odetta Holmes, an upper-class African-American woman (though in her era of the early sixties she would probably prefer to be called a Negro) who has thrown her efforts and her fortune behind the growing civil rights movement. She is cultured and civilized, a little bit snobbish and prudish, but far, far better than her alter ego, Detta Walker.

Detta is the dark half, the evil twin who relishes in her misdeeds and embodies the worst qualities that can be found in a person. She likes to hurt people, to break things - partly out of the sheer enjoyment of hurting and breaking, but also out of a cruel sense of revenge for the ills the world has done to her. For the brick that was dropped on her head when she was a child, for the train that robbed her of her legs when she was an adult. Of all the people Roland has met so far, Detta Walker is the one who poses the most danger to him and his quest. Only by bringing the two women together can he have any chance of making it to the Tower.

Through door number three, Roland must meet death - but not for him - in the form of The Pusher. The aptly-named Jack Mort has a hobby - anonymous murder. Planning and executing the suffering of others is what brings joy to his heart and a stain to his jeans, and he has intersected with Roland's quest even before Roland reached the beach. He was the one who pushed Odetta Holmes under a subway train. He was the one who pushed Jack Chambers in front of a speeding Cadillac. Now, Roland has control of this man's body and will use it to get what he needs from our world so that he can carry on in his. A little poetic justice along the way is just icing on the cake.

If Roland succeeds, he and his new group will push on to find the Dark Tower and do... whatever it is that Roland needs to do there. If he fails, they will all die, and the hopes of Roland's world will die with them.

Like I said, I enjoy tales of crossing worlds, and so this book felt good to me. I liked seeing not only how Roland dealt with the unfamiliar reality of New York in three different decades, but how the stories of Eddie, Odetta/Detta and Jack intersected with each other. At one point in his section, Jack thinks, "Who was to say he had not sculpted the cosmos today, or might not at some future time? God, no wonder he creamed his jeans!" Crude though it may be, Jack is more right than he knows - a few simple pushes altered the destinies of not only the people he pushed, but those of entire worlds. So if you think small actions can't have big consequences, well, look to Jack Mort.

Actually, his section of the book was my favorite. While Roland vs. Eddie was an action-packed shoot-em-up, and Roland vs. Detta was a hostage drama, Roland vs. Jack was almost a dark comedy. Taking over Jack's body and keeping the man's mind at metaphorical gunpoint, Roland carves a swath of confusion through New York City. The mental disconnect people have between Jack Mort's appearance as a well-off CPA and his behavior as a seasoned gunslinger is enough for some moments of gold.

By the end of the book, we're not much closer to the Dark Tower than we were at the beginning, but we are very nearly ready to get started on the journey. Not quite there yet, but Roland now has people he can count on when things turn bad. And they will turn bad, you can set your watch and warrant on it.

---------------------------------------
"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 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."
- Eddie Dean, The Drawing of the Three</a>
---------------------------------------

Steven King is such a large part of our popular culture that it amazes me that The Drawing of the Three is his first novel that I have actually read. Everyone has probably seen at least one Steven King movie or miniseries and yours truly is no exception. I was drawn into The Dark Tower series after listening to an audiotape version of The Gunlinger. Now I am hooked.

The series so far is an eclectic mix of science fiction, fantasy, western and general quest themes. There is also King's relentless fascination with the macabre and the horrible. Following the events in The Gunslinger, Roland is attacked and gravely wounded by huge lobster like creatures. Roland must not only survive but also draw travelling companions from our world, specifically New York, of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. To do so he has to enter the minds of a drug addict, a black woman with dual personalities and a serial killer.

The Gunslinger was set almost exclusively in Roland's world as it "moves on." In The Drawing of the Three the action alternates between the New Yorks and the world where Roland is near death. Roland sees our world as one of great wealth with inattentive people. He prefers his world but enter ours to draw what he needs for his quest.

The Drawing of the Three is tension filled and action packed. It's enjoyment for traditional King fans as well as non-King readers such as me.

This novel is the second book in the epic Dark Tower series that began with ""The Gunslinger." "The Gunslinger" is something of an introduction to the series, surreal in its telling because it has more questions than answers and makes a reader wonder whether the story was some bizarre "Twilight Zone" kind of novel. Of course, 20+ years after "The Gunslinger" was written we know there are seven books in the series, and "The Gunslinger" was but an intriguing introduction.

In "Drawing of the Three" we meet Roland of Gilead once again. This time Roland is on a beach, not remembering exactly how he got there. Roland soon meets "lobstrosities" that provide some rearrangement of Roland's body parts, also providing him with an infection in the process. Roland also encounters a door that leads to...? Through the door we recognize images and events in a world that appears very similar to ours, and very dissimilar to Roland's. Roland soon discovers that he is seeing through the eyes of a person. In this case, a drug addict by the name of Eddie Dean.

Later Roland enters another door to meet a mentally disturbed woman by the name of Odetta Walker, also called Detta Walker. Later yet Roland meets a man by the name of Jack Mort. Through twists of time and space we will eventually find that Jack Mort knows Odetta Walker, in a most unusual way.

As was foretold in "The Gunslinger," Roland would have three companions to join him on his quest for the Dark Tower. Indeed we meet three people in this book who the reader thinks could be Roland's three companions. We learn a lot about those three people; all the while Roland battles his own demons and journeys back and forth between what appears to be our world and his.

"Drawing of the Three" is an excellent second book in this series. It is still something in the way of introduction, because the point of this book is for Roland to gain companions for his quest for the Dark Tower. It is also an opportunity for us to learn more about Roland and the kind of person he is.

This book will appeal to King fans and fans of fantasy. Even fans of science fiction may find aspects of this novel to be intriguing. As good as this book is, the third book in the series, "The Waste Lands," is better yet. Read on!

"The Drawing of the Three" focuses on Roland gathering his "ka-tet" (his party or fellowship if you will). He meets Eddie Dean, a junkie from the 80s, and Odetta Holmes, a civil rights activist from the 60s. Eddie Dean is a cool character, I loved him right away (when Allie and Jake died in the first one, I thought "Good, now Roland can get on with his quest", but when Eddie almost died in this one, I thought "Noooooo! Not Eddie Dean!"). Odetta Holmes isn't as cool, but she is interesting (she's a double-amputee with a split personality, one of whom is extremely dangerous--what's not to like about that?). Roland is as cool as ever; he's so Stoic and tough-as-nails. I couldn't help but crack a smile as he gave some Very Bad People what they deserved. This volume puts aside the ridiculous prose of the first book, and it seems a lot shorter than it is. Quite frankly, it's hard to put down. Highly recommended. I bought the third volume today, and I can't wait to see what happens.

This second volume of the Dark Tower series is masterfully plotted and a real tour de force for Stephen King. I was amazed at how he deftly took so many disparate settings and characters and brought them all together. I won't comment on anything specific, because I don't want to spoil anything for the reader. It's best to come to this series with no knowledge of what is going to occur. Only one gripe: schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are two different things. Schizophrenics do NOT have more than one personality, but rather have one that is fragmented. King deserves 50 lashes with a wet noodle for this big-time mistake. However, all is forgiven due to a tale that grabs you by the throat and never lets go.

The Dark Tower saga not only continues but really takes off with this follow-up to the Gunslinger. Roland's quest truly begins as he assembles or 'draws' three companions to aide him on his journey. The stroy-telling and writing are superb, King at his absolute best. There are a few answers to questions that come up in the Gunslinger but more questions are presented which will have to be answered later. A great thing about this book and series are the 'arguments' listed after the introduction. They are short summeries of the previous books in case it's been a while since you've read them. If you've never read any of Roland of Gilead's adventures, this is a must read. But, start with the Gunslinger and proceed in order, you'll be glad you did.

As only the second installment of King's American classic epic "The Dark Tower", it is difficult to fairly review "The Drawing of the Three". As a continuation - albeit an important link - "Drawing", depending upon both its predecessor and successor, has neither a definitive beginning nor ending. It is nonetheless a brilliant work of fiction, offering vivid insight into the twisted imagination of Steven King. Who but King, in this deformed and misshapen synthesis of Tolkien, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, and Clint Eastern spaghetti westerns, would choose a neurotic male drug addict and a black female amputee as fledgling gunslingers destined to travel alongside the enigmatic Roland of Gilead? Where but from King's distorted psyche could the terminally dangerous yet tragically comical "lobstrocities" be born? Any review of a few hundred words is woefully inadequate to describe the genius of King's "Dark Tower", knowing full well that questions left unanswered are simply teasers to be satisfied somewhere on King's tortuous and unhurried journey to the Tower. Just as our novice gunslingers Odetta/Detta and Eddie Dean find themselves increasingly and inescapably drawn to the quest, so also is the reader sucked into King's diabolical journey. Read it at your own risk.