Οι ρημαγμένοι τόποι

The Dark Tower #3

by Stephen King, Μιχάλης Μακρόπουλος (Translator)

Στο τρίτο μέρος της μεγάλης περιπέτειας του τελευταίου πιστολέρο, ο Ρόλαντ, ο Έντι και η Σουζάνα βρίσκουν το Μονοπάτι της Ακτίνας, μιας από τις έξι που τέμνονται στο κέντρο του κόσμου. Το ακολουθούν, ελπίζοντας πως θα τους οδηγήσει επιτέλους στο Μαύρο Πύργο.
Στη συντροφιά τους "καλείται" τώρα κι ο αληθινός τρίτος: ο Τζέικ ξαναμπαίνει στο Μέσο Κόσμο φέρνοντας μαζί του δυο βιβλία που θα αποδειχτούν καθοριστικά στην αναζήτησή τους. Μέσα από άγριες ερημιές ο δρόμος τους τους φέρνει στη Λουντ, μια κατεστραμμένη πόλη ερειπίων, όπου οι επιζήσαντες δυο παλιών φατριών μάχονται λυσσαλέα μεταξύ τους. Αλλά σ' αυτή την πόλη-σφαγείο καραδοκεί και μια άλλη απειλή, η μεγαλύτερη απ' όσες συνάντησαν ως τώρα: μια οντότητα ανώτερης διάνοιας με μεγάλη αδυναμία στους γρίφους. Και η μόνη τους ελπίδα να ξεφύγουν ζωντανοί από την αρπαγή του είναι να καταφέρουν να τον νικήσουν στο ίδιο του το παιχνίδι...
Και ο Πύργος είναι τώρα πιο κοντά...
Σ' έναν παράξενο, απειλητικό κόσμο, αρχαίοι μύθοι, ηρωική φαντασία και θρύλοι της αμερικανικής Δύσης συνενώνονται σ' ένα μεγαλειώδες έπος, ανεξάντλητο σε θαυμαστές εικόνες και αξέχαστους χαρακτήρες. "Ο Μαύρος Πύργος", που πρόκειται να ολοκληρωθεί σε επτά τόμους, είναι το πιο σύνθετο και μεγαλεπήβολο έργο του Stephen King μέχρι σήμερα -και ίσως το κορυφαίο της καριέρας του...

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Adventure, Westerns

613 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 1991

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: Skirting back-story and mythology, it focuses too much on cliché genre retreads to be thought of as a serious fantasy.

[Kemper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains the biggest lie a writer ever told me. It‘s in the Author‘s Note at the end:

The fourth volume in the tale of the Dark Tower should appear - always assuming the continuation of Constant Writer’s life and Constant Reader’s interest - in the not-too-distant-future.

It took six years for the next book to come out.

Six. Goddamn. Years.

Six years may not seem too bad to fans of authors who only release a book every decade or so, but there’s a couple of factors that made this false statement particularly bitter. The Waste Lands ends on a nail biting cliffhanger. I literally yelled aloud in frustration the first time I read this back in 1991 and realized that I’d have to wait for the next book to learn the fate of Roland and his friends.

Still, after some reflection it didn’t seem that bad. The next volume would appear ‘in the not-too-distant-future’, right? Besides this was Stephen King, the writer who churned out 1000 page books like McDonald’s makes Big Macs. No big deal. I’d be reading it by ‘92. 1993 at the latest.

Five goddamn years later, and I’d gone from Stephen King and Dark Tower fan to the kind of crazed fury usually reserved for jilted lovers. It didn’t help that King was cranking out big fat books including some utter shit like Insomnia and Rose Madder. Yet no fourth Dark Tower book, and every now and then I’d reread the first three volumes and dream of the day when I’d finally learn what happened next.

The odd thing is that it still kind of pisses me off even now that the series is finished. I get that same sense of frustration when I read this remembering the six goddamn years between books while seeing all kinds of other King novels come out. It’s too bad because this was my favorite of the first three books until frustration turned it into an irritating loose end.

And I’ll confess something that makes me a small, petty person. Deep down in my shriveled black soul, I’m resentful and jealous of anyone who reads the series now or who started reading it when the last three books were coming out like clockwork at the end. They didn’t suffer like the ones who read this and waited six years. Then read the fourth one and waited SIX MORE GODDAMN YEARS FOR THE FIFTH ONE. YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT! BETWEEN 1991 AND 2003 STEPHEN FUCKING KING, ONE-OF-THE-MOST-PROFILIC-WRITERS-I’VE-EVER-READ, MANAGED TO WRITE JUST ONE GODDAMN DARK TOWER BOOK AND IF THAT MINIVAN HADN’T VERY NEARLY KILLED HIS PROCRASTINATING ASS, I’D PROBABLY STILL BE WAITING!!

*ahem* Excuse me. I’ve still got a few unresolved issues with old Steve about this series.

And what about the story in this book? Roland is training Eddie and Susannah to be gunslingers, but he’s going crazy from a paradox he created in the last book by time hopping to our world and changing an event that altered his own timeline. They also find a creepy old decayed city filled with a murderous mob and have to deal with a monorail that is criminally insane.

It’s terrific, but I think the waiting drove me a little mad. And now King has been making noises about possibly doing another book that would fill some of the SIX GODDAMN YEAR GAP between #4 and #5. You’ll pardon me if I don’t hold my breath.

[megs_bookrack · Rating 5 out of 5]

OH YEAH!! 5-stars, yet again! Who is surprised?!



Earlier:

It's time for another Stephen King reread. This time I am joining my fantastic friend, Shannon.

The Waste Lands is sure to make for lively discussions. Onward to the Tower!!



Original:

Let's cut right to the chase, shall we? The Waste Lands blew my mind.



The riddles, Blaine the Mono, I mean, who comes up with this stuff?



The King, that's who.

Stephen. FRICKING. King.



What more can I say besides the fact that I loved this with my whole heart and soul?!

As you know, if you are reading this, this is the third book in King's epic Dark Tower series. This book knocked The Drawing of Three out of the top spot for me.



It was that good! As the series continues to build, it's hard not to be overwhelmed by the complexity of it all. Even with this in mind, however, it's such an enjoyable story. It just seems to work.

The most compelling element of this for me was the resurgence of my favorite character!



There is really nothing else I can say about this that would be any more creative, or insightful, than what countless others have no doubt written in their reviews.

For me, one thing I always think when reading a book from this series is how absolutely EPIC it is.



The detail, the atmosphere, the artfully-drawn characters, it is truly astounding that all of this, ALL OF THIS, came out of the brain of one man!

I look forward to seeing this series out to its conclusion.

[Nataliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In this world, there were ghosts everywhere.”

I think I’ve finally cracked the secret - why The Waste Lands for me has always been the high point of not just The Dark Tower series but a standout among King’s vast output. You see, while Uncle Stevie’s endings can often be a bit underwhelming (to the point where he made fun of that in his cameo in “IT” movie), he truly excels at the art of setup. And that’s really what this book is — a tantalizing setup for the rest of the story, a place where the storylines are finally emerging and plot threads are set in motion.

“It was all of a piece, he realized now; all part of some awful, decaying whole, a tattered web with the Dark Tower at its center like an incomprehensible stone spider. All of Mid-World had become one vast haunted mansion in these strange latter days; all of Mid-World had become The Drawers; all of Mid-World had become a waste land, haunting and haunted.”

The Gunslinger was a moody surreal prologue, a work of a very young man playing around with the idea of postapocalyptic fantasy Western. The Drawing of the Three was King having a bit of fun and bringing the players together — but with the shape of the story still unclear. The Waste Lands is where the actual quest is starting to take shape, the ideas are being laid out, the scope of the world and the stakes is widened, and the entire setup begins in earnest. The connections between “our” world and Roland’s world, the parallels between them, the invisible threads of fate ka linking everything, the physical manifestations and implications of that drearily catchy line “The world has moved on”. The ka-tet is fully formed; our cold antihero Roland Deschain turns out to have more depths than just a ruthless gun-toting Tower junkie; and the road to the Tower finally comes into view.

The setup is great, and the resolution - love it or hate it - is a few books away. This is King’s prime real estate.

“Now he saw the shattered facades and broken roofs; now he saw the shaggy birds’ nests on cornices and in glassless, gaping windows; now he allowed himself to actually smell the city, and that odor was not of fabulous spices and savory foods of the sort his mother had sometimes brought home from Zabar’s but rather the stink of a mattress that has caught fire, smouldered awhile, and then been put out with sewer-water. He suddenly understood Lud, understood it completely.”

King really conveys that fractured wrongness present in both worlds - “ours” and Roland’s. Seeing the husks of the dead civilization - “These are the halls of the dead where the spiders spin and the great circuits fall quiet, one by one” — is eerily and creepily fascinating. He’s generous with his foreshadowing — unsubtle, but somehow more foreboding and disquieting specifically because of that unsubtlety.

“When is a door not a door? When it’s a jar.”

That ability of his to turn silly and mundane into menacing is in full swing yet again — because nobody but King can ever make me shudder at the mention of Charlie the Choo-Choo train. And the whole idea that everything serves the Beam and everything serves the Tower was probably the launching point for all those Dark Tower references and Easter eggs that fill his later works.

“The world has moved on, we say. When it did, it went like a great receding wave, leaving only wreckage behind ... wreckage that sometimes looks like a map.”

King’s storytelling skills need no further elaboration — they are legendary, he’s a born storyteller and that’s the truth. His characters remain strong as ever, our little found family, the ka-tet, with Roland’s companions really becoming friends, comrades, partners in the obsessive quest driven by fate — and they are now willing participants and not pawn pieces of ka. Nobody sums it up better than my favorite Eddie Dean, he of bad jokes and humor as defense mechanism, who comes into being a gunslinger as though he was born to it.

“Because you don’t have to drag me anymore. I’m coming of my own accord. We’re coming of our own accord. If you died in your sleep tonight, we’d bury you and then go on. We probably wouldn’t last long, but we’d die in the path of the Beam. Now do you understand?”

King by his own admission (as far as I recall) was winging this series, without a clear plan (or really, any plan) of where this story would go. He was just going where the story would take him, and clearly having fun along the way. This book - and really, the entire series - for me is the epitome of the idea of “it’s the journey, not the destination”. Watching this world unfold, from Shardik the Guardian to the old people village, to the road to Lud, to the city of Lud — I love it all, the ruins and hints of old civilization unsettlingly like our own, the ghosts of the later feudal world, the parallels and connections — and the creepy unreality of Jake Chambers’ New York where he should have died but did not.

“You won’t let me drop this time?”
“No,” Roland said. “Not this time, not ever again.” But in the deepest darkness of his heart, he thought of the Tower and wondered.”

And I - King-junkie, his Constant Reader - am lapping it up like there’s no tomorrow. The quest in The Lord of the Rings - no, thankee-sai, I’d rather follow the quest to the Tower instead.

My only gripe, really, is the damn cliffhanger — the one that is so neatly concluded in the next volume but should have really been a part of this one. And so I choose to pretend that the beginning of Wizard and Glass is simply the last chapter of The Waste Lands, because all things serve the beam and blah-blah-blah.

“And then I came with my friends—my deadly new friends, who are becoming so much like my deadly old friends. We came, weaving our magic circle around its and around everything we touch, strand by poisonous strand, and now here you lie, at our feet. The world has moved on again, and this time, old friend, it’s you who have been left behind.”

And before you leave:
- Remember the face of your father.
- When is a door not a door? When it’s a jar.
- Don’t ask me silly questions, I don’t play silly games.
- Blaine is the Pain, and that’s the truth.
- All is silent in the halls of the dead.

Long days and pleasant nights.

“Riddles have great power, and everyone knows one or two.”
“Even me,” Eddie said. “For instance, why did the dead baby cross the road?”
“That’s dumb, Eddie,” Susannah said, but she was smiling.
“Because it was stapled to the chicken!”

5 stars.

————
My review of “The Gunslinger”
My review of “The Drawing of the Three”

[Mario the lone bookwolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rolands´ DIY tutorials, worsening causality problems, time paradoxes, and the first real, longer encounters with paranormal activities and monsters let one dive deeper into the marvelous madness.

Just as in the second part, The drawing of the three, King is using some elements of the real, alternative world, although the main parts play in fantasy terror land, where the lovely hero´s journey of mentally ill, severely injured and mutilated, and fresh cold turkeyed protagonists can continue.

This one is similar to the first part of the series, a good oldfashioned tour de force, while the second and fourth part are more personal, character focused works with fewer settings and action. I don´t know if King intended to switch the narrative styles between the parts or if it was a coincidence, but slowing down for a novel between, to focus on character development to accelerate in the next book, seems reasonable, although it sparked debates of fans about the uncertainty what the next part may bring. Depending on what style one prefers, the agreeableness can vary, a bit of fandom frenzy included.

The huge cyborg beast Shardik lets me think about something I possibly could once have already mentioned in another review, either talking about King or Pratchett, how it would have been if they would have discovered the endless horrible and funny elements, tropes, and potentials of Sci-Fi for their works. That wouldn´t just have been an extra icing on the cake, it could have given it all so much more potential for perversion, cruelty, and inhumanity that it could have blown readers' minds even more. A wonderful imagination that my beloved genre Sci-Fi could have had Pratchetts´ humor or Kings´ terror next to the worldbuilding and often unique ideas some Sci-Fi authors succeeded in establishing.

Manipulating reality can lead to funny results and King uses it to mind penetrate a younger version of one of the characters and possibly integrating himself, meanwhile sober, as the cocaine addicted father.

Did I mention the explicit succubus incubus style sex scene with extreme plot relevant consequences, because it´s not artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization that fulfills the wish for a child in Kings´ universe, it´s dark magic demon breeding monster hentai mutation by rape , because if all other arguments didn´t convince you to read it, this certainly will. Who is my cute, world eating, monster baby, gugu?

The Tick Tock Man is in the house too, awaiting you in a kind of steampunky dystopian setting and wait until you can cuddle your first billy- bumbler, how cute, exactly what one needs in wastelands filled with mutants and mad AIs to calm down a bit and get some tenderness.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

DISCLAIMER: Many aspects of THE GUNSLINGER ACTION ADVENTURE EXPEDITION are comprised of potentially dangerous activities involving giant cyborgs, possessed buildings, demon rapists and extras from the cast of Deliverance, do you ken it. There is a risk of serious injury, being Roont or even Charyou Tree. Therefore GUNSLINGER KA-TETS WITH DINH ONLY. While training and remembering the face of your father can reduce the inherent risks, Ka is a wheel and they cannot be completely eliminated do you ken. No guarantees as to a participant’s safety can be given and MID-WORLD TOURS, LTD, a subsidiary of NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS, INC. and its parent company, THE SOMBRA CORPORATION make no claim that any aspect of the adventure excursion will be accident or injury free. Take part strictly AT YOUR OWN RISK. Thankee Sai Thankee Big Big .

FIRST EXCURSION:

Location: Bear Beam Station
Places of Interest: Shardik’s Cyborg and Wormy Snot Extravaganza
Description: Your Ka-tet will find plenty to shoot at when you enter the beautiful old woods of North Central Positronics’ Outdoor Nature Park. Remember the face of your father as you test your marksmanship on SHARDIK, mad Guardian of the Beam. Find a way to bring him down and you’ll win the chance to continue to our second excursion…but don’t ask us for help because that would SPOIL the fun. Life is a bitch and Ka is a Wheel.


SECOND EXCURSION:

Location: The Long Path
Places of Interest: Billy Bumbler Preserve
Description: Experience one of the true marvels of the animal kingdom when you encounter the Mid-World famous billy bumblers in their natural habitat. For an additional fee, you can sign up for our “Bag a Bumbler” Safari and if you’ve got the skills, the disposition and whole lotta KHEF, you just might take home a billy bumbler of your very own….Oy, Oy, Oy, it doesn’t get any better than that does it Sai.


THIRD EXCURSION :

Location: Gateway Central
Places of Interest: Dutch Hill Haunted House
Description: Check your guns and your Ka and be prepared for the thrill of a life-time as you experience the house on Dutch Hill. Be prepared to encounter a GEN-U-I-NE, malicious, spectral monstrosity of pure and absolute evil. Be on your guard before entering this living nightmare of wood and brick. If you’ve got the stones and KA is with you, you may just make it through alive.



FOURTH EXCURSION :

Location: Ring of Stones
Places of Interest: Demon Lovers Emporium
Description: For those whose amorous appetites run to the more exotic and even the extreme, we have just the thing for ye Sais. Fulfill your darkest, most demented, most depraved desires with diabolical denizens of the deep darkness…Male, Female, Both and Neither….the only limitations are your imagination and your KHEF.***

***For this Excursion, proper “protection” shall be provided and MUST be used to prevent the creation of infernal offspring.



FIFTH EXCURSION :

Location: River Crossing
Places of Interest: Gunslinger Remembrance Ceremony
Description: Kick back, relax and bask in the glow of adoration and pleasant conversation with the kind folks of River Crossing. Eat and drink your fill Gunslingers because things are going to get Fuck All Crazy and wild real, real soon.


SIXTH EXCURSION :

Location: Lud
Places of Interest: Ruins of Lud; Gasher’s Bridge and the Home of the Tick-Tock Man
Description: Listen to the sweet sounds of ZZ Top’s “Velcro Fly” as you experience the excitement and heart-stomping terror of the hospitality of the Luddites. You’ll need all of your skills to work your way past Gasher’s Bridge to the Home of the Tick-Tock Man. Remember Gunslingers, you do not to aim or shoot with your hand and you do not kill with your gun. Those that do have forgotten the face of their father. Aim with your eye, shoot with your mind and kill with your heart and your Ka-Tet may just make it through.



FINAL EXCURSION :

Location: Cradle of Lud
Places of Interest: Blaine the Mono
Description: Well Gunslingers, we saved the best for last, do you ken. Top off your unique adventure with a wild ride on the last sentient transport of a World Moved On. Ride in comfort and enjoy the sights….but beware Sais…Blaine can be a pain and you may have cause to complain of his riddles so they say. Be prepared to win the day….for if Blaine can hold sway….you will die on the way.



One of my all time favorites. 6.0 stars. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!
Nominee: Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel (1992)
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Horror/Dark Fantasy Novel (1992)

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

To the Wastelands OK!... Well with a little bit luck, we'll make it through this book! The third instalment of King's Magnum Opus on first reading was just another expansion of the fabulous The Dark Tower verse and King could do no wrong. On this, my third reading the book almost feels like a filler, dare I say! Do we really need that much more detail on the world moving on, on Mid-World and the dying reality? Admittedly it's a great read, watching the Ka-tet in their first real adventure as a unit, and Roland getting use to having people around him again, but in hindsight there's so many other stories that could have been told at this stage, pre the telling of Wizard and Glass.

Artwork uploaded by: ecasasweb, on YouTube
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Despite my misgivings, I think this is still a wonderful expansion of Mid-World's present and past and its possible last days; in addition there are some great antagonists and then of course there's Oy! 8 out of 12.

Artwork from; https://www.criminalelement.com/the-d...

[LTJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands” by Stephen King is the third novel in this incredible book series that was another phenomenal read. So far, in my long journey to The Dark Tower, I’ve enjoyed all the characters, events, situations, and incredible dark horror action in each entry.

Before my review, I’d love to share how I’ve tackled this book series. It took some time to research everything, but below is the reading list I finalized for this reading adventure. This came from the advice of fellow Constant Readers, librarians, and many who confirmed this was the best route for the ultimate Dark Tower experience…

The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
‘Salem’s Lot
The Talisman
Black House
Everything's Eventual (The Little Sisters of Eluria)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
Charlie the Choo-Choo
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

Here are the trigger warnings I found while reading “The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands”...

- Homophobic slurs
- Racial Slurs

If any of these trigger you, please don’t read this book. Moving along, I loved continuing the gunslinger’s story and how he now has a great ka-tet. Just like King has written numerous times before, the power of friendship, groups, and their unique dynamics shine through in this novel. This ka-tet was awesome, from their terrific dialogue to numerous fights against dark fantasy-inspired creatures.

Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything for you, but I loved seeing the latest involving Jake, especially after the events of the first novel in this book series. It was also great to get more info about these infamous beams that connect The Dark Tower to other parts of King’s multiverse. It’s just one hell of a story that I couldn’t put down. As primarily a night reader, I was up late many nights devouring this novel because it was so damn good.

That ending was absolutely bonkers! I loved it, and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The suspense and tension were killing me. Needless to say, I can’t wait to continue this story due to how it ended.

I give “The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands” by Stephen King a perfect 5/5 for being another fantastic novel in this magnificent book series. It was a genuine pageturner from start to finish, with some insane fights, surreal characters, and an ending that left me wanting more. I’m so glad I decided to finally read The Dark Tower series since it’s everything Constant Readers told me it would be and more.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m done visiting the Waste Lands and have my train ticket ready to board a choo-choo train named Charlie.

[Adina ( not enough time ) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

I almost, almost, gave 5 stars to this one. I consider this volume to be the best out of the three that I’ve read so far. If the book had stopped midway it would have got the maximum recognition from me, no doubt. I love and hate King’s way of writing too much. He managed to keep me at the edge of my seat for 100 pages, hungry for more, promising my undying love and then, after the climax (the forth drawing), he slightly bores me for the next 100. Maybe the plot got too intense and he thought we needed a cool down but still, my serotonin levels dropped too much.

The best part of the novel for me was the drawing of the 4th member of the Ka-tet after an adrenaline pumping sequence of evince in both worlds. I was enthralled by the changing of perspective from one world to another. The tension of those moments was King at his best. Even breathing was a nuisance as I feverishly turned page after page in order to see what happens next.

The Waste Lands is the first in the series to finish with a cliffhanger but I won’t be rushing to start the next one as I do not want to overdose on King and lose interest.

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Ka was like a wheel, its one purpose to turn, and in the end it always came back to the place where it had started.”

The third book in the Dark Tower series finds Roland and his ka-tet following the Path of the Beam towards the tower. Along the way they’ll pick up two new members...

I was contemplating writing this review as an Ode to Oy, but words can’t even express how much I love that little billy-bumbler; he is the CUTEST. A particular highlight for me is when he calls Gasher “asshole” - SASSY OY!

I also have a revelation that may shake you all to your cores... having previously ranted and raved about how Blaine did my head in, I actually LIKED Blaine the Mono this time around. Now, the riddles I can still do without... but I found Blaine to be highly entertaining. Memory is a funny thing, isn’t it?! He was completely different in my head!

The house on Dutch Hill - how STRESSFUL is that part, the bleakness of Lud, the people in River Crossing, that huge freakin’ bear, MEETING OY..... this book has so much fucking awesomeness packed into it that I don’t know where to begin and I can’t fit it all in here in detail, so I’ll just say it was INCREDIBLE.

This reread is completely challenging all my prior thoughts and feelings on certain books in the series. Now, I would rank The Waste Lands as the best in the series so far - whereas before, it was down near the bottom for me (but still excellent, I do love all the books!) This one has gained an entire star following my reread!

I honestly hate reviewing these books because it’s just word vomit. I JUST LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH. 5 glittering shiny stars!!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the events of the Drawing of the Three, Roland the Gunslinger has two people from our world along side him in his quest for the Dark Tower. However, he's also going mad because of a strange double set of memories in his head, memories of a boy he crossed the desert with...

The Waste Lands is probably my favorite Dark Tower book and epitomizes what I like about the series. It's got the lost technology, lots of action, more bits about Roland's world, and makes Roland's ka-tet complete. The story of Jake in New York was well done. I even liked Oy the Billy-Bumbler. All the stuff that goes down in Lud had me dying to read the next book in the series. The ending would have made me furious had I been reading the Dark Tower books as they were published.

Notes from the 2011 re-read:
The Waste Lands drives home the notion that Roland's world is coming apart at the seams. It also gives us hints about what Roland was like before the world moved on, hints that will be further explored in Wizard and Glass.

Even though I knew the whole deal with the key, this being my fifth or sixth read, it was still a tense moment when the key didn't turn and the creature was loose in the haunted mansion in New York. I felt a single man tear threaten to roll down my cheek when Roland and Jake were reunited.

I also liked the Robert Howard reference, this being the first re-read since I read all the Howard Conan stuff.

As I said after my re-read of The Gunslinger, it's a testament to Stephen King's skill that I was still a little worried about Jake in Lud, even though I've read the book a few times before.

Blaine is a pain and that's the truth.

Notes from the 2014 re-read:
I always forget about Roland having to deal with the time paradox he created. Roland and Jake both going mad because of it was really well done and pretty believable.

Are the robots at the portal symbolic of the ultimately circular nature of Roland's quest? Did King know how the story would end way back when he wrote The Wastelands?

Every damn time, King still hooks me with the Jake situations in the mansion and in Lud. That's why he's a bajillionaire, I guess.

If I couldn't have dogs, I'd take a billy-bumbler.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take the guesswork out of your next vacation!!

FORSPECIAL Travels and Tours presents:

Lud, the Jewel of the Send

Your Guided Mid-World adventure starts here!!

Charming Local Accommodations

- See the amazing, bumbling Shardik, Mid-World’s largest, comedic bear, searching for picnic baskets
- Glimpse (and maybe chat with) an elusive billy-bumbler
- Pick some devil grass. We won’t tell.
- Chat with the oldest people in Mid-World. Find out what their secret is to long life. (Hint: It’s not yogurt.)

Small Group Sizes

Authentic Local Experiences

- It’s Cosplay, every day.
- Lud is a storybook wonderland as the locals re-enact Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery daily.
- Test your skill in the wacky, fun obstacle course
- Groove to the constant ZZ-Top beat
- See the beautiful, one-of-a-kind underground city of neon lights
- Kids of all ages can play riddles with Blaine the Train. If Blaine wins, you get an electrifyingly special prize.

Last chance to book for this family fun vacation!!

[Lucy'sLilLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

On my journey of reading/re-reading all of SK's books in publication order. My second journey to The Dark Tower this is still a 5 star read for me - incredible. I couldn't wait to get back into this world.

The character growth/relationship building is done so beautifully our characters are picking up each others sayings, habits and even emotions and is so lovely to read. I love Jake so much and I am so glad he is back in this instalment of The Dark Tower.

There is so much foreshadowing in this book due to Ka, the Charlie the Choo-Choo book Jake picks up and his riddle book are such a perfect example. This is the book in the series that really starts to pick up the pace.

My re-introduction of Oy made me so happy - in my opinion there is no better animal companion than Oy and I find myself thinking about him randomly through the day. Roland starts to show more of his soft side in this book, the reader is getting a much closer connection to our characters and the emotional impact is outstanding, it makes everything feel high stakes.

There wasn't a dull moment in this book, and in true Stephen King style we had some really well written body horror too. The villains in this book are so well done too, Blaine for one will always be terrifying to me and I love to hate these characters.

"Don't ask me silly questions, I won't play silly games, I'm just a simple choo choo train
And I'll always be the same. I only want to race along. Beneath the bright blue sky and be a happy choo choo train. Until the day I die."

"Roland let me die. That is the truth. I still love him. That is the truth."

I know some people don't appreciate the ending to this book, but I think it is brilliant it leaves the reading hanging in suspense. I remember the first time I read it and I had to wait for my dad to finish the Wizard and the Glass before I could find out what happened next, I couldn't imagine having wait years back in the 90s for it to be released. I love this journey and I am looking forward to continuing it soon.

[TheNeverendingTBR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, i finally got some time to finish this. Held up obviously due to the Christmas craziness.

Oh and i just completed my Goodreads goal!! 😃

I loved revisting my favourite book of The Dark Tower series.

Cool new characters.

Previous characters becoming more developed.

He just brings the characters to life in this one in my opinion, i can feel their emotions and it turns it into a intense page-turner.


Probably the most intense book in the series, there's so many 'edge of seat' moments and the characters are always facing danger.

The ka-tet has grown ever so stronger and the Tower is closer.. 🥀

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mini reading slump over

Took me about 2 weeks to finish this. I usually have a reading slump at the start of the summer and this year was no exception.

I really enjoyed this the second time around. Most people seem to prefer the second half of the book but I much preferred the first half with Roland trying to get Jake

Now onto "Wizard and Glass" (which I absolutely loved the first time around)

[Delee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous buddy-read with my Dark Tower Posse: Quick Draw Stepheny, Jumpin' Jeff, Calamity (slow poke) Bev, and last but not least- Bronco Bustin Black Jackin' Jason- The name stands PERVERTS!!!!



Five weeks after The Drawing of the Three- Roland, Susannah, and Eddie are deep into the woods of The Out-World- where they encounter Shardik- a ginormous cyborg bear on his last legs.



After putting him out of his misery- they realize- they have to follow the path of the beam to The Mid-world...

....but first they need to bring back a fallen member of their ka-tet...



...meet a billy bumbler- Oyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!...take on a demon...and catch the train ride from Heeeeeeeellllllllllll. Blaine the Paiiiiiiiiiiin.



Sooooooo much to do sooooooo little time...and there are more than a few bumps in the road along the way.



I cannot express how thrilled I am that I started this series (*take note Anne). And I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to be experiencing this reading adventure with. On to book IV- Wizard and Glass. I can't wait!!!

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

“April is the cruellest month”

Stephen King’s ambitious and challenging Dark Tower series continues with the third novel, The Waste Lands, first published in 1991.

I am reading this series very slowly. I read The Gunslinger in 2012, not really sure what I had read and why and not understanding what all the fuss was about. The second book, The Drawing of the Three, was more impressive and more complicated and though I liked it (after a three year gap after the first book) I was still unsure as to how to contemplate and follow the storytelling.

“What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.”

Now, I THINK I get it and am captivated. This is not just the Great American fantasy but the “world that has moved on “ is THE postmodern fantasy, rich with allusions to literature, film, art, and popular culture. The Gunslinger provided a foundation of medieval / feudal setting but with American western motifs and styles. In Roland of Gilead (who looks like Clint Eastwood) King has given us an impressionistic look into our world peripherally, seen in allegory in a world pulled free of it’s moorings – it has moved on. This is a world made up of not just the remains of our physical world, but also composed of the intellectual and cultural elements that form our perceptions and make us who we are.

“Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.”

A casual reader, as I was initially, may be flustered by the surreal and even absurdist qualities of the writing, but King is not just imitating Beckett or Ionesco for absurdist sake, but rather to give life and breadth to a poetic attribution. The references to Browning and Elliot and all the other Easter eggs of reference and allusion are the detail with which King fills his landscape and discovering these hidden gems was part of the great fun of reading. ** I especially liked that King makes a Discworld reference with the turtle guardian with the world on its back.

“Unreal City
Under the brown fog of a winter noon
Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant
Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants
C.i.f. London: documents at sight,
Asked me in demotic French
To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel
Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.”

The inclusion of the city of Lud and of the train is a further connection to our world, but made strange and alien by King’s narrative. Likewise, the perspective from Roland shifts to Susannah and Eddie and Jake as their POV provides a scaled viewpoint from which to compare our world to King’s great vision. I love that King broke the fourth wall by discussing Jake’s essay about Roland and the Dark Tower and it is this kind of personality that gives this work life and makes it such an enjoyable, page turning book.

“In this decayed hole among the mountains
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home.
It has no windows, and the door swings,
Dry bones can harm no one.”

A great book and series and I am now fully on board. Highly recommended but you have to reads in order.

[Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A not-so-quick, but so-very-important, spoiler-free word before I begin.
I’m likely the only Blaine you know. It is not a common name. And in my review for Ready Player Two, which you can find here, I publicly unveiled the Blaine Hall of Fame, which originally had only four members:

1. Blane from the movie Pretty in Pink;
2. Blaine from the tv show Glee;
3. Blain from the movie Predator (the self-described “goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus” who “ain’t got time to bleed,” two lines I promise you I used a lot in my teens), and
4. Blaine the Australian surfer who was Barbie’s boyfriend for about two years after she and Ken broke up in 2004–who was tragically omitted from the Barbie movie (though at least they didn’t use him like Alan).

At the time, I had a number of people nominate Blaine the Mono from The Waste Lands for inclusion in the Hall. I demurred as I hadn’t read this book. But now? Do I want to induct a literally insane, homicidal, riddle-loving train into the Hall? HELL YES!! So please allow me to introduce our newest inductee …

5. Blaine the Mono from The Waste Lands!

Sure, Blaine’s World is so small that all five of our heroes are fictional, two don’t spell their names correctly, one is made of plastic, and one even isn’t human. Still, I can dream the next inductee will be … a real person. And spell his name correctly.

And now, the actual book review. 😜

“You haven’t finished the key, but not because you are afraid to finish. You’re afraid of finding you can’t finish. You’re afraid to go down to where the stones stand, but not because you’re afraid of what may come once you enter the circle. You’re afraid of what may not come. You’re not afraid of the great world, Eddie, but of the small one inside yourself. You have forgotten the face of your father.”
…
Blaine is the truth.
You have to watch Blaine all the time, Blaine is a pain, and that is the truth.
I'm pretty sure that Blaine is dangerous, and that is the truth.

The Waste Lands picks up several months after The Drawing of the Three. Roland, Eddie, and Susannah are traveling through Mid-World, looking for the path that will point them towards The Dark Tower. But Roland is not well; he’s slowly going mad because he remembers both letting Jake Chambers die in his world and saving Jake’s life in our world. And in our world, Jake is also suffering from the weight of these paradoxical double memories. Through their sensed connection, memories, and dreams, the four of them work to find a way for Jake to reach Mid-World and join Roland’s quest ….

By focusing on bringing Jake to Mid-World, the first half of The Waste Lands continues the getting-the-band-together vibe of The Drawing of the Three. Indeed, I cynically began to wonder if this entire series would feel like six prequels before the last book. I needn’t have worried. With Jake’s return, Roland’s group appears to be complete, and their quest seems to be picking up speed. The Path of the Beam brings them to the decaying city of Lud, with its dangerous cast of characters, including the return of the Man in Black. In classic King fashion, there’s a good mix of character development, plot, and action sequences. Throw in a cliffhanger ending, and I’m certainly looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Recommended.

[Misty Marie Harms · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blaine is a pain and that is the truth Book 3 finds us with Roland and his ka-tet in the dead city of Lud. They find themselves having to board Blaine the crazed mono train to get them close to Mid-World. As they glide through the toxic, void called The Wastelands, our group discovers Blaine has had a psychotic break. Can they make it through the Wastelands unharmed? Will Blaine commit suicide and take our ka-tet with him? I love this series. I can't wait for the next book. Keep them coming, Mr. King.

🐱🐱🐱🐱

[Court Zierk · Rating 5 out of 5]

5⭐️s

The highest stakes riddle battle with a sentient train of all-time? I think so. This is a dreamlike, whimsical, ethereal journey, which had me hanging on every word with desperate intrigue.

This has become my favorite book of the series on my second journey to the Tower. I love everything about it, from the breakneck pace of the action, to the character work to bring the ka-tet together for the first time, to the indelible cast of new villains that were introduced (as well as some old favorites)

Themes…
Find your ka-tet and then do anything to save them. There’s also a redemption arc, the deepening of romantic bonds and the irresistible pull of finding one’s purpose.

Character Work…
The ka-tet is finally all together, and I love every single one of them. But, a special shout out to Eddie and Oy.

Prose…
This is King fully formed. The prose is gorgeous.

Pace…
For a chunky novel, this one flies. There’s really only one part that lulls a bit for me while they are in River Crossing, but other than that, this had a propulsive pace.

[Zoeytron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A key, a rose, and an insatiable demon trapped in a circle of stones.  A world beneath the world, and it is called Mid-World.  Time is not the same here.  You will not want to linger in the city of Lud.  It is toxic in every possible way.  The evil coming off the Tick-Tock Man is palpable, and the miscreants and cretins in his service are shudder worthy.  The drawing now complete with the addition of Jake and Oy, the ka-tet is ready to continue their journey in search of the Dark Tower.  Blaine the train awaits.  Make no mistake, Blaine the train takes riddling very seriously, taking extreme umbrage at silly ones.  He's a pain.

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly think this might just be my favourite book out of this series. I say might because who knows, one of the next books might really grab me on my reread. But I somehow doubt it because this magnificent book reintroduces one of my favourite characters from the series, introduces another favourite character AND introduces my favourite "villain" from this series. I won't name any names because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. also thoroughly enjoyed the world building that happened in this book, I feel like this is where King truly starts to hit his stride for this series. His writing is so beautifully detailed that I can see the landscape and the buildings emerging in my mind as I read and it is truly stunning. Despite this book being longer than both previous ones, it almost felt like it was shorter because it was just filled with so much action and development, it was hard to stop turning the pages once I picked it up. I was honestly on the edge of my seat so many times, I lost count and it's left me itching to revisit what happens next!

[Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Behold ye, the return of the White! After evil ways and evil days, the White comes again! Be of good heart and hold up your heads, for ye have lived to see the wheel of ka begin to turn once more!"

What a journey! From incomprehensibly horrible to absodamnlutely fantastic to okay.

This book was all over the place. Both literally and metaphorically.

The first half is more of what we’re given in The Drawing of the Three. That is... a painfully boring story about Roland leaving his wildly interesting world behind to pick up three annoying travelling companions from different times and places in the city of New York.

To clarify for those still in doubt, I fucking hated that shit was slightly disappointed by these developments.

About halfway through however, the story steps into a whole new world (literally), and that world is like heaven compared to what has happened so far (to be frank, it wasn’t that good, but hey, after one and a half book of utter boredom you take what you can get).

Roland of Gilead assembles his company of gunslingers, and as the quest for the Dark Tower begins in earnest, the ka-tet arrives at the little town of River Crossing.

A great civil war - perhaps in Garlan, perhaps in a more distant land called Porla - had erupted three, perhaps even four hundred years ago. Its ripples had spread slowly outward, pushing anarchy and dissension ahead of them. Few if any kingdoms had been able to stand against those slow waves, and anarchy had come to this part of the world as surely as night follows sunset. At one time, whole armies had been on the roads, sometimes in advance, sometimes in retreat, always confused and without long-term goals. As time passed, they crumbled into smaller groups, and these degenerated into roving bands of harriers. Trade faltered, then broke down entirely. Travel went from a matter of inconvenience to one of danger. In the end, it became almost impossible. Communication with the city thinned steadily and had all but ceased a hundred and twenty years ago.

Like a hundred other towns Roland had ridden through - first with Cuthbert and the other gunslingers cast out of Gilead, then alone, in pursuit of the man in black - River Crossing had been cut off and thrown on its own resources.

River Crossing is a paradise of fantasy worldbuilding. While Stephen King has kept his cards close about the gunslingers and their world so far, he now starts showing his hand. And if you think this guy cannot really write fantasy, you are sorely mistaken.

Here starts a rain of epic stories and descriptions of places and names beyond any normal imagination...

“What is Mid-World?” Eddie asked.

“One of the large kingdoms which dominated the earth in the times before these. A kingdom of hope and knowledge and light—the sort of things we were trying to hold on to in my land before the darkness overtook us, as well. Some day if there’s time, I’ll tell you all the old stories . . . the ones I know, at least. They form a large tapestry, one which is beautiful but very sad.

“According to the old tales, a great city once stood at the edge of Mid-World - perhaps as great as your city of New York. It will be in ruins now, if it still exists at all. But there may be people... or monsters... or both. We’ll have to be on our guard."

The rest of the book is not quite as good as the amazing part at River Crossing, but it’s still much better than anything in the series since the opening sentence of the first book. However, it ends with a horrible cliffhanger. Well, not even a cliffhanger, but in the middle of a scene. It’s like one of those old TV shows ending with “To be continued” just at the climax.

But despite my ratings and sometimes low opinions, and even though it feels like the story hasn’t even started yet (three books in!), I’m greatly looking forward to the continuation.



Dark Tower reviews:
#1 The Gunslinger
#2 The Drawing of the Three
#3 The Waste Lands
#4 Wizard and Glass
#5 Wolves of the Calla
#6 Song of Susannah
#7 The Dark Tower

[Algernon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some day if there’s time, I’ll tell you all the old stories ... the ones I know, at least. They form a large tapestry, one which is beautiful but very sad.

Some fine day ... but not today and not in this third installment of the Dark Tower series. For now, Roland and his friends are too busy doing nothing much for about six hundred pages. They travel, they fight the ocassional monster or deranged mob leader, the sit by the campfire and have some obscure nightmares and prophetic visions. All wrapped up in a hefty dose of mysticism, predestination and ambiguity.

For every thing I do know, there are a hundred things I don’t. You – both of you – will have to reconcile yourselves to that fact. The world has moved on, we say. When it did, it went like a great receding wave, leaving only wreckage behind ... wreckage that sometimes looks like a map.

It looks to me more like the author is winging it, improvising the story as he swears that it will make sense in the end, once he finds out how to deliver on his promises of epicness.

My criticism should be taken with a ‘reader advisory’ as a very subjective reaction, since most of my friends here rate this third novel, and the series in general as one of the best things that ever happened to speculative fiction. Personally I am bored, and only my obsesive compulsion to finish whatever I start is keeping me going. I was reading about the gunslinger’s journey across the waste lands in parallel with the revenge melodrama of Edmont Dantes, and almost every evening I would pick Dumas over King. I also finished the Dumas a good two weeks before the King, despite the former having almost double the page count.

Your mileage might vary, and other readers will prefer allusions and delayed gratification over explicit plot and worldbuilding. For me, as I remarked right from the opening volume, The Dark Tower remains a triumph of style over substance: an exceedingly well written story that aims to create a mood rather than to present an epic adventure. The adventure and the worldbuilding are present, undoubtedly, but they are drip-fed to the reader in between long passages of walking and wondering what the heck is going on. in this book the set pieces are : a fight with a giant bear, a dramatic crossing of a portal between worlds by Jake, the crossing of a high suspension bridge, an undergound duel in a dying city. All good and spectacular, but do they justify the length of the novel?

Stephen King forte so far in this series is his ability to capture anxiety and fear in his characters. The interplay between the members of the ‘ka-tet’ is also helping to turn the pages, but I believe the author is at his best when he tries to scare the reader:

From solid ground, the bridge seemed to be swaying only a little, but once he was actually on it, he felt as if he were standing on the pendulum of the world’s biggest grandfather clock. The movement was very slow, but it was regular, and the length of the swings was much longer than he had anticipated.

Hit and miss are the pop culture references that are more prominent here than in the previous two episodes, and a half-hearted attempt to unite the two best settings of King : “The Dark Tower” and “The Stand”. Let me try to illustrate my points:

- I am a big fan of Richard Adams, and “Shardik” was one of the first novels I read as an adult that brought me back to fantasy. One version of Shardik is roaming the waste lands, and if I were in the mood for speculation, I could probably draw some parallels with the death of myths in both fictional universes. I am also a big fan of Z Z Top, and I was thrilled to find one of their songs featured here. Both references though failed to be an integral part of King’s story and feel more like a nod and a wink to the fans right now instead of a true key to unlock the mysteries of the gunslinger world. Other similar nods and winks are directed at Asimov (positronics), Shirley Jackson (The Loterry), a children’s book about trains that I am not familiar with, Greek mythology (The Sphinx) and Harlan Ellison (The TickTockMan). They may all be part of the project to anchor the imaginary world to the real, historical Earth that Roland & Co. can visit through the warp-gates but, like the backstory of the gunslinger, the connection is left for a later episode.

- There is a significant moment in the middle of the book that shows Roland in a new light (and thus might be considered a spoiler!1!), a sequence that made me think immediately of The Stand :

When they reached Roland, they knelt before him and touched the sandalwood butt of the revolver which jutted from the holster he wore on his left hip. He put his hands on their shoulders and kissed their old brows.

Will the whole epic quest to discover the Dark Tower be reduced to a battle between the forces of Good and Evil, with two god-like creatures leading the opposing armies? Roland seems destined to be the avatar of Good, and later on there is even a gigantic statue of him in the manner of the Colossus of Rhodes. And (more spoilers !!!) of course he is chased by a creature of darkness :

“I’m a man of many handles, pardner,” the man said from inside the darkness of his hood, and although his voice was grave, Tick-Tock heard laughter lurking just below the surface. “There’s some that call me Jimmy, and some that call me Timmy; some that call me Handy and some that call me Dandy. They can call me Loser, or they can call me Winner, just as long as they don’t call me in too late for dinner.”

I will probably read the next book in the series while I still remember what went on in this one, but right now I don’t consider it a priority, and I can only echo one of Roland’s exasperated companions, baffled by the nature of the waste lands and the secretive atitude of the gunslinger :

“When are you going to tell us what you do know?” Eddie asked the next morning.

[Santy]

De camino a la Torre.

➤ "Por fin he encontrado el rumbo. Después de tantos años he encontrado el rumbo, pero al mismo tiempo parece que estoy perdiendo la cordura."

El panorama es el siguiente: todo empezó con un libro confuso al que apenas le pude seguir el hilo, continuó con un cambio radical que no hizo más que enamorarme y desembocó en esto: el final de una primera trilogía que se sitúa muy lejos de ser algo simple. Si algo es cierto, es que, a diferencia de sus predecesores, en esta tercera entrega, finalmente, sentimos que avanzamos hacia la Torre; tanto el primero como el segundo libro fueron construyeron el ambiente, presentado personajes y deleitándonos con la creatividad del autor, pero seamos claros, el viaje de Roland hacia su tan deseado destino parecía estático, lejano, y hasta casi imposible. Las Tierras Baldías tiene otra cosa en mente.

Si vas a empezar a leer este libro, procurá asegurarte de poderle brindarle la suficiente atención, porque es aquí, señoras y señores, donde caerán varios baldazos aislados de información argumental que, si no la sigues bien, te podría llegar a ahogar. Una inmensa introducción de historias que amplían el universo y forman su pasado están presentes aquí, así como una serie de personajes secundarios que protagonizan tales narraciones. Por otra parte, se nos da una mayor visión de esta tierra alternativa, el Mundo Medio, sus habitantes y paisajes, aunque sin despegarnos del todo de momentos protagonizados por nuestra Tierra. Si hay algo de lo que no me puedo quejar, es de su complejidad, no suena a algo que haya leído nunca (y eso que tampoco sé todo). Tiene mucho potencial y parecería prometer no más que buenas ideas, pero por el momento, lo único que sé con seguridad es que el mundo se movió (si es que eso tiene algún sentido).

➤ "Así que este es uno de los doce portales. ¿Adónde conduce, Roland? ¿A Disney World?"

Creo que la epicidad de la saga no solo reside en su argumento, sino también en su exploración por elementos de distintos géneros. Tenemos plena fantasía, un poco de western, vistazos de ciencia ficción, anduvimos entre un mundo realista y otro maravilloso, y, por si todo eso fuera poco, en este libro tenemos al King clásico, popular, el del terror. Su presencia aquí es más sólida que nunca, y se aprecia en la aparición de entidades y personajes completamente sombríos (desde un demonio hasta un mutante degenerado) así como en las situaciones que van experimentando nuestros protagonistas, que, indiscutiblemente, son muy sombrías y repugnantes (en especial una que, los que habrán leído el libro, sabrán a cuál refiero).

En materia narrativa, es excelente. Su estructura es sumamente ingeniosa, los cambios de narradores y las conexiones entre estos (especialmente entre Jake y el resto del grupo) es admirable. También, en esta entrega, la astucia y el juego de palabras es mucho más desarrollado que en sus predecesores: tenemos toda una subtrama relacionada a las adivinanzas y su importancia (vaya que fueron importantes…), ni hablar de las múltiples referencias que se dan, cada detalle cumple una función, no queda a mitad del camino, más bien llega hasta el final y hace suficiente escándalo para dejarte asombrado. Y aún se sostiene ese sentido del humor que tanto me hizo reír en ocasiones.

(Acho tiene todo mi amor)

En cierto punto, me molesta no haberle dado cinco estrellas, pero hay una contracara: no se me hizo tan ligero como el anterior y es lógico, por todo lo anteriormente explicado, que tenga sus momentos densos que se sienten sobrantes. Sea como sea, con ese final criminalmente abierto, y tres libros leídos, abandonar el viaje ya no es una opción, por lo que mi continuación en la saga no es una posibilidad, sino más bien, un hecho.

[Ms. Smartarse · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Stepheny · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

The Waste Lands is the third installment in the Dark Tower series. I’ve been through this series so many times over the years I have lost count. But what has made this trip so important is all of the wonderful people I have gotten to take along the Path of the Beam. I would like to thank my posse for allowing me to hold their hands and guide them on this most epic of quests. Rootin’ Tootin Pistol Packin’ Delee, Jumpin’ Jeff , Calamity Bev and last but certainly not least, Bronco Bustin’ Black Jackin’ Jason

I am a pusher of books, anyone who has had even a minute’s interaction with me can attest to this. I get especially pushy when I know the books could change someone’s life. There is only a handful of books that fall into that category for me-obviously, the Harry Potter series and of course, the Dark Tower series.

While I love the shit out of Harry Potter, the Dark Tower series actually changed my view on life and what it all means. I had a breakthrough. I’ve always been a cynical, show me don’t tell me type and the Dark Tower series gave me something to believe in; something that made sense to me. I’ve never been religious, but I’m not an Atheist either. I fall more in line with Agnostics. My problem is that I want to believe everything so much I can’t believe anything.

Ka.

Ka is something all of its own. It does not bend to your will. It does not care for your plans. If you detour around it, you’ll still find yourself where you were meant to be. The wheel of Ka keeps turning and your best bet is to sit back and enjoy the ride. There’s truly no point in fighting it.

We start out with one hell of a paradox. Poor Roland, given the events in the Drawing of the Three is torn between what happened and what didn’t happen. Did Jake accompany him through the desert and up the mountains? Did Jake exist in this world? Did Roland let him fall? How could he have let him fall if he was never there? Roland is in rough shape and only the key can help.

Eddie and Susannah have taken nuptial vows and found a love that is both deserving and beautiful. They are a good match for one another, though, if I am to be honest, I think I would be a much better match for Eddie. Maybe the wheel of Ka will roll through and make that happen for me? What do you say, Ka?!

*looks around hopefully*

Eddie sees that he will need to play a big role in Jake’s drawing into this world. What he doesn’t know is if he is cut out for it, or if he’ll be ready in time. Eddie is constantly at war with himself from the years of being mentally beat down by his older brother.

Susannah Dean, who was once Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker, is trying her best to maintain her one mind now that her alternate personalities have been forced to face one another. She is also trying to figure out her place in this new strange place.

Jake’s drawing into this world is by far my favorite sequence in this whole book. It is such an intense turn of events. The splitting minds, the split perspective and most especially the fact that while Eddie’s door faces down, Jake enters it vertically just creates this insane imagry that blows me away every time.

Then there is Oy. What a wonderful creature King has produced. Oy makes my heart feel so happy with love and pride I can hardly contain myself. He represents all that is good and innocent in this world and his relationship with ‘Ake is one of the best parts of the Dark Tower series.

Our favorite Ka-Tet is on the Path of the Beam in search of Blaine the Mono. Blain is a pain, and this they know; but he is also a necessity to their quest. Will they make it to him in time? Will Blaine still be there? If he is there, is he sane? Can a train be sane? Where will this story go?

The Waste Lands, while not as good as Drawing of the Three, gives us insight into some of King’s best written characters. We get to know them individually while seeing them interact with one another. My favorite interactions are between Roland and Eddie. Roland, so severe and earnest in every aspect vs. the nonstop joker, Eddie, makes for some great entertainment. The character arcs throughout this series are some of the most fascinating that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Each and every time I read this series I find something new that makes me love them all the more.

“[Eddie] cried out but his cry was lost in the golden blast of some tremendous horn. It came from the top of the Tower, and seemed to fill the world. As that note of warning held and drew out over the field where he stood, blackness welled from the windows which girdled the Tower. It overspilled them and spread across the sky in flaggy streams which came together and formed a growing blotch of darkness. It did not look like a cloud; it looked like a tumor hanging over the earth. The sky was blotted out. And, he saw, it was not a cloud or a tumor but a shape, some tenebrous, cyclopean shape racing toward the place where he stood.”

[Jonathan O'Neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

”Talk about Zip! Talk about Zowie! Golly gee, gosh, and Wowie!” If you didn’t already think King was absolutely bonkers, you will after reading this! An entertaining third instalment in ‘The Dark Tower’ series with typically great character work and seamless changes in tone throughout; unfortunately, for me, it’s also a little more transparently fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants than previous books and I couldn’t buy into some of the quirkier “horror” elements this time around.




***SPOILERS AHEAD***


A little bit of the shine rubbed off on this one for me. The sweet, charming unpredictability of the series has just soured ever so slightly as it becomes more and more evident (and King has openly admitted) that he was making it up book by book; who knows? Maybe page by page. Because of this, there is a few too many “just ‘cos” reasonings for events which tend to avoid questioning by invoking ‘ka’. Everything’s just a little too clouded in the mysticism of ‘The Tower’ and lacking in anything concrete.


I’ve gotta be honest, I’m not sold on the “scary train” business. And the whole train thing, from the ominous forebodings of Charlie the choo-choo, to the insidious and cruel nature of Blaine the Pain takes up a significant chunk of the book; so, if you aren’t hooked by this single aspect of the novel, you might feel similarly. There’s much more to Blaine than his cognitive infiltration of a train, of course, but at no stage did I ever find him, in the slightest bit, frightening. Disappointing considering how much he’s talked up throughout the novel…. I mean, he demands riddles?? Oooh, spooky! This had me thinking back to ‘The Shining’, in which King had the audacity, at one point, to expect his audience to be genuinely afraid of finely trimmed hedges; and at another, a fire hose! I applaud you for trying, big fella, but this isn’t a Goosebumps book; what’s next? Choose your own adventure?


Something else that should be applauded is King’s ability to maintain a natural equilibrium between a dark, chilling tone and light-heartedness. While this can diminish the horror element in some cases, like the train, in others such as the Drawing of Jake, Jake’s kidnapping, or the ritual lynching of the Pubes, it manages to add lightness (I don’t mean to say ‘make light of’) some otherwise grim material. The drawing of Jake, for example, is part demonic rape scene (though it’s debateable who was doing the raping) but this is made slightly more palatable “to read” by the manner in which it is written and the way that the characters involved are dealing with the situation. In most cases this can be attributed to Eddie’s joviality or the humorous relationship between the latest addition, Oy, to the rest of the Ka-tet (Jake in particular).


”Will you drink to the earth, and to the days which have passed upon it?
Will you drink to the fullness which was, and to friends who have passed on?
Will you drink to good company, well met? Will these things set us on, Old Mother?


What I’ve found to be the most consistently positive aspect of King’s novels is his outstanding character work and dialogue. All issues aside, these books are always quick and enjoyable due to the excellent characters and the banter between them. I really buy into the emotion they show for each other, despite perhaps the unrealistically short period of time in which such affection has developed. Jake and his new Studio-Ghibli-Type companion, Oy, have a wholesome little friendship while Susannah and Eddie have had a bit of time to add some believability to their dalliance turn insta-love. At the same time, Roland’s relationships with the rest of the Ka-tet has matured and there’s a greater degree of mutual respect since Eddie called him out for using them as pawns in his Quest to the Tower. No member of the Ka-tet would hesitate in making the greatest sacrifice for any of the others, as illustrated by Eddie overcoming his fears to save Jake from a fall from the bridge leading to the City of Lud:

’Eddie opened his legs and seat-dropped to a sitting position. His undefended balls smashed painfully up into his crotch, but for the moment even this exquisite pain was news from a distant country.”


It ends on a cliff-hanger, if ever I’ve seen one, and rather than tying off any plot points, some plot knots are loosened and poised to unravel in future books. I’m still pretty keen for the next book as I enjoyed the glimpses of Roland’s past in ‘The Gunslinger’ and am pretty sure ‘Wizard and Glass’ explores that further. Thankee-sai if you made it this far and remember… Never, and I mean NEVER forget the face of your Father!

”I do not kill with my gun…. I kill with my heart, motherfucker”