The Dark Tower Archives - Gary David Gillen

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

The Waste Lands by Stephen King, book #3 of The Dark Tower series.

Introduction

In The Waste Lands by Stephen King book #3 of the Dark Tower series, Roland and his group search for the way to the Dark Tower. They find a beam that travels through the ancient city of Lud pointing toward the Dark Tower. They must fight the degenerate citizens of Lud and find a sentient monorail train to take them farther. Will Roland and his gunslingers continue their path to the Dark Tower, or will they fail before they even get started?

Summary

The Gunslinger, book #1 of the Dark Tower Series, establishes the constants for the series. Roland is the gunslinger travels a desert looking for the Man in Black who did terrible things to him in the past that he does not remember. This world was damaged by a nuclear event and, in Roland’s words, hasn’t moved on yet. He meets Jake Chambers, a young boy.

The Drawing of the Three, book #2 of the Dark Tower Series continues Roland’s search for the Dark Tower. Roland finds himself on the shore of the Western Sea. He finds a portal to New York City in 1987 where he retrieves Eddie Dean, a heroin addict. The second portal brings Odetta Holmes from 1964 New York City. The third portal goes to New York City in 1977 where Jack Chambers was from. This sets up the third novel.

The Waste Lands, book #3 of the Dark Tower series has Roland teaching Eddie Dean and Susannah Dean (an alternate personality of Odetta Holmes) to become gunslingers. They go into the woods east of the beach and find a portal and a Guardian. Roland remembers that there are twelve guardians arranged in a circle. Each set of two guardians have a beam between each other. Where the six beams intersect, they can find the Dark Tower. They follow the beam to the ancient city of Lud which is an alternate version of New York City. Roland knows he needs Jake Chambers to complete their group and continue their journey to the Dark Tower.

Recommendation

The Waste Lands by Stephen King was an interesting book. There was some action and movement. In the first two novels the reader doesn’t know how Roland will find the Dark Tower. This novel gives us a plan. They must follow the beam to the center and find the Dark Tower, The Man in Black, and answers.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Waste Lands by Stephen King, book #3 of The Dark Tower series.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29430671-the-waste-lands

In Thinner by Stephen King, Billy accidentally kills an old gypsy woman. Her father curses him to lose weight until he dies. Can Billy reverse the curse, or will he wither and die?

Thinner by Stephen King

In The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer’s mother is dying. The only way for him to save her is to find the mythical Talisman which is in a parallel world called the Territories. He must pass many challenges to obtain his goal. Will Jack find the Talisman in time to save his mother from death?

Talisman by Stephen King

It is by Stephen King and has seven kids who face horror. As adults, they face It again. Will the Losers Club defeat the hidden evil in the Derry sewers, or will they perish?

It by Stephen King

Drawing of the Three by Stephen King, book #2 of The Dark Tower series, features Roland, Eddie Dean, and Odetta Holmes. Roland gets one step closer to reaching the Dark Tower.

Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

The Gunslinger by Stephen King, book #1 of The Dark Tower series, seemed to set up for a climax that never happened. What is there is a trippy and metaphysical non-ending.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

Drawing of the Three by Stephen King, Book #2 of The Dark Tower series

Introduction

Drawing of the Three by Stephen King is Book #2 of The Dark Tower series. The previous book, The Gunslinger, left Roland, the last gunslinger, waiting on a beach. Roland begins the second book on that same beach. He must discover what the drawing of the three means. Roland searches through three transporter portals. He finds the junkie Eddie Dean and the wheelchair-bound Odetta Holmes. They must work together to continue their journey to the Dark Tower or face death.

Summary

At end of the Gunslinger, the man in black does a tarot reading for Roland. The three cards he draws are The Prisoner, The Lady of Shadows, and Death. The three sections of The Drawing of the Three each feature a different character. Roland accesses a portal at the beginning of the section. Each of the three portals is connected to New York City in three different time periods. In between each section is a chapter named shuffle where the previous section is reset and leads to the next.

Section one, The Prisoner, features Eddie Dean the junkie. Eddie must bring drugs across the border or the mob will kill him if he doesn’t.

Section two, The Lady of Shadows, features Odetta Holmes. She is black and lived during the civil rights movement. She lost the use of her legs, uses a wheelchair, and has a secret that they soon find out.

Section three, The Pusher, features a character that I’ll leave to the reader to learn about when reading. That character is important in the journey to The Dark Tower for Roland, Eddie, and Odetta.

Recommendation

I enjoyed Drawing of the Three by Stephen King better than the previous book in the series, The Gunslinger. The Gunslinger novel was a series of short stories featuring Roland’s fight with the Man in Black and his search for the Dark Tower. I didn’t feel like the stories came together. I think the Drawing of the Three came together. There were three new POVs in the story corresponding to the three sections in the novel. Eddie Dean, Odetta Holmes, and the third character are all important to Roland’s journey. I liked the perspectives of the new POVs and look forward to continuing to read the series to its end.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Drawing of the Three by Stephen King.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7675050-the-drawing-of-the-three

The Gunslinger by Stephen King, book #1 of The Dark Tower series, seemed to set up for a climax that never happened. What is there is a trippy and metaphysical non-ending.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The Gunslinger by Stephen King, book #1 of The Dark Tower series.

Introduction

This book starts with one of the most iconic first lines from any novel. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” The protagonist is in pursuit of the antagonist which promises action. The words gun and desert suggest a western. The word black suggests something sinister. All these images appear from just twelve words.

Summary

The gunslinger walks the desert coming upon a homesteader Brown and his raven Zoltan. He stays for the night and remembers what happened to him in the town of Tull. The gunslinger meets Alice and later Jake in his pursuit of the man in black. He follows the man in black, searching for revenge which may end up destroying his own humanity.

In the first chapter, the gunslinger meets Alice. She has a sad and doomed arc that felt right. I am not sure what I should think about Roland, the gunslinger. He debates good and evil in his head but doesn’t seem sympathetic to me. I suppose that is the way that King wants me to feel about him.

I read the 2003 rewritten version of the novel. That is the cover inserted above the introduction. I compared it to the earlier 1982 version through this website https://web.archive.org/web/20071225081733/http://www.thedarktower.net/gunslinger/, but found the changes to be minimal.

Recommendation

For me, the book seemed to set up for a climax that never happened. I liked the stories about Alice and Jake. I found Roland’s backstory in the third chapter to be interesting. The fourth chapter was a dull travelogue, but then we get to the last chapter. I wanted a thematic close to the story, but that did not happen. What is there is a trippy and metaphysical non-ending. What a disappointment. I see from King’s afterward that he used this story to set up the novels that follow and I get that, but I was hoping for a good ending that would make me want to read the next book. I don’t feel that way.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Gunslinger by Stephen King.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43615.The_Gunslinger

My review of Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan a book like The Gunslinger. They are both fantasy novels focusing on the protagonist’s use of guns. Adamat, Tamas, and Taniel fight gods and men in this gunpowder fantasy.

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan