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

Rating:
Summary: Great stuff
Review: Great continuation of Roland`s quest and, more imortantly, great introduction to other major characters! Ya`ll start lovin` Edie Dean right from this book, fellas!

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Summary: Totally Spellbinding! A Terrific Tale!
Review: Roland Deschain of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger, awakens in the middle of the night on the shore of Mid-World's Western Sea to find that he is being attacked by a horde of "lobstrosities," crawling, carnivorous creatures which resemble large, deadly lobsters. He finally escapes their clutches, and discovers himself badly wounded, having lost the first two fingers of his right hand to the bottom crawlers. He has been poisoned by the lobstrosities' venom and will become extremely sick - at risk of dying. Thus opens Volume Two of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, "The Drawing Of The Three." It is urgent that Roland acquire penicillin in order to remedy his illness and continue his quest for The Dark Tower, the complete nexus of time and space. He has dedicated himself to putting right whatever is wrong with his world, which has "moved on," decayed.

Crippled, dehydrated, and dying from blood poisoning, Roland encounters a door, standing alone and freely on the beach. The door opens only to Roland's touch, and it leads to our world, Earth, New York City, sometime in the 1980's. He must draw three people from Earth, (NYC), to accompany him to the Tower. Defiant Eddie Dean, "The Prisoner," is the first of the three, and he needs to act fast to help Roland get medication before he dies.

Eddie's selection was foretold by the man in black when he read the cards for Roland at the end of Book One. Dean is a junkie, a heroin addict and smart - but obviously not smart enough. He's also a cocaine mule for drug kingpin Enrico Balazar. Roland walks through the door on the beach and from the moment he crosses the threshold, he shares Eddie's mind and body - sees the world through Eddie's eyes. Eddie finds himself "possessed" by the Gunslinger while on a plane headed for JFK. From the TWA flight to their detention by Customs for carrying a load of "coke," to a shoot-out with Balazar and friends, with an eventual stop for penicillin, Eddie's and Roland's quality time together is one harrowing adventure after another, to say the very least. The two finally make it back to the Western Sea in "the other world," with medicine. Roland quickly learns the rules of passing through portals, the language and slang of NYC, and begins to acclimate to the mystical principles of this new Mid-World

A second door is discovered and Roland crosses the threshold into NYC in the early 1960's, and looks at the strange landscape through the eyes of "The Lady Of The Shadows' - not one, but two women in one body. Odetta Holmes is a young, beautiful civil rights activist who is wheelchair-bound. Detta Walker is a hate-filled, crazed, sly woman who inhabits the schizophrenic Odetta's mind. When these two are pulled into Roland's world serious problems arise.

Jack Mort, "The Pusher," is Death, ("but not for Roland."). He is also the evil, serial killer behind the third door. He literally pushes people to their deaths. Amongst his heinous crimes, Mort has killed and maimed two people close to Roland. He is also at the heart of a mind boggling mystery - a paradox, which confounds The Gunslinger. Their time together in New York (1970's), is the wildest and woolliest yet. King does great work in this episode. Mort serves his purpose and receives his just reward. The author uses the trips to Earth and the characters he encounters there to deal with the earthly issues of racism, feminism, mental illness, the trials of adolescence, etc..

Eddie and Odetta/Detta, who morphs into Susannah Dean, along with Roland, make three companions - gunslingers all. The Gunslinger really whips them into shape. For the first time in many years Roland of Gilead is no longer alone on his quest. The new characters, their individual histories, and their interactions with each other are what is so fascinating about this novel. These folks really spring to life on the pages with so much energy. The narrative clips along at a good pace with a storyline filled with adventures, which cause one to suspend belief at times. King's imagery is absolutely stunning - very easy to visualize. The gunslinger's world is filled with elements of the fantastic, the magical, some sci-fi, a bit of horror, and the mundane as well. The plot really fleshes out in "The Drawing of the Three." It is a book very difficult to put down - a real winner!!
JANA

Rating:
Summary: The best of the series
Review: This is the best of the series. Wish other vol would be like this.

Rating:
Summary: The Dark Tower Series Just Gets Better
Review: 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!


Rating:
Summary: Three Doors Down
Review: After a slow start in "the Gunslinger" Stephan King's Dark Tower series really takes off in "the Drawing of the Three." The book picks up right where "the Gunslinger" left off with Roland on the beach. The second novel in the series takes place in New York at three different time periods as Roland draws his three companions.

There are some moments that drag during the course of the book but these are necessary moments of character development. There are a lot of exciting twists and turns but not much information about the mysterious Dark Tower. In some ways this is part of the opening chapter as we are introduced to the people that will help Roland in his quest for the Dark Tower. As always King does a magnificent job of telling the story with an intricate eye on detail. "The Drawing of the Three" is an improvement on "the Gunslinger" and the end makes the reader hungry for more.


Rating:
Summary: Drawing the Reader to Certain Addiction
Review: 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.

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Summary: The Gunslinger was an Appetizer, THIS is the MAIN COURSE
Review: Like Tolkien's The Hobbit, SK's The Gunslinger is a glimpse into a weird and different world. Yes, there are similarities, but there are differences too.

In The Gunslinger we meet Roland, but Drawing of the Three introduces us to others who are fated to accompany him and his quest for the mysterious Dark Tower. This is where the story (and King) finds its voice. If Gunslinger has some slow spots, this one has a much stronger narrative. The pace is swifter and you find yourself turning the pages furiously to see what happens next. I read 180 pages in one evening, I was so hooked.

This was a fun book. I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to the further adventures of Roland and his Ka-Tet.

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Summary: A truly original fantasy
Review: A long time fan of fantasy and science fiction literature, I must admit to having begrudgingly had to accept that most of the genre is a retread of old territory. I have read thousands of Tolkein clones and Frank Herbert clones.

I was delighted to read something truly original. The world Stephen King builds is fascinating, surprising and intricate. The fantastic has never looked quite like it does in this novel.

However it is not its originality that makes this book brilliant. It's King's storytelling skills and characterisation. From the moment the Gunslinger steps through the first door the pace does not slow down. A reader has no choice but to turn page after page and journey down the path King has laid.

Stephen King has written many great books in his best selling carreer, but The Dark Tower books are his masterwork.

Rating:
Summary: Did-a-chuck
Review: I enjoyed this book for the most part. The Gunslinger, while still A good book, made Mr. King look too morbid and perhaps too much like a macabre artist. This second book was much easier to read directly after eating. I thought that the door was a clever idea, and Eddie Dean almost instantly became my favorite character in the story-line.
The reason that I cannot, in good conscience, give the book 5 stars was because of the misdiagnosis of Detta Walker/Odetta Holmes. As a huge fan of the human psyche, I'm afraid it stood out like a pimple on Paris Hilton's nose. Miss Walker/Holmes was not scitzophrenic; she suffered from a multiple personality disorder. It's a common misconception, but with Mr. King's credentials, I would have expected more.
The only other complaint I had was about the lobstrosities (who make the sound in the title, in case the reader is wondering.) It's simply a preference, but I thought the title 'lobstrosities' being used to describe over-sized losters was slightly cheesy. I mean, there are no normal sized lobsters mentioned, so why can't the lobstrocities just be this worlds lobsters? Again, I found it to be cheesy, but that's just me.
Even with these minor flaws, I would still recomend the book. That thing about Miss Walker/Holmes has been bugging the heck out of me ever since I read it, and it feels good to finally get it off my chest. Now that it's off, I'm going to go read 'Waste Lands.'

Rating:
Summary: Step two, and now there's three
Review: In my Secret Window review (the movie), I said this was an average movie until the old Steven King twist made it great. Well, this book was good from beginning to the end, but again, there is that Steven King twist that he likes to place at the end of all his books.

It happened w/the boy at the end of the first book, then w/Jack Mort and w/Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker. From the title, you know there is going to be three people drawn to help Roland, but which three? They introduce you to four, then finally there is a fifth, then its not the three you think in the end. He throws that old monkey wrench into the equation you did not consider, the world famous Steven King twist.

Now I must admit, heading into the conclusion of the final chapter of this book I felt a strong commitment to liking the first one much better. However, I felt the conclusion of this book was so well done that I think I like them equally.

At first I really didn't like the idea of modernizing the book, and taking it out of your imagination, and into the 80's and finally into the 60's (yes he goes to the 80's before the 60's). I did not want to picture Roland in modern times; I loved the description of the Alien/post apocalyptic world (that's what reminded me of the J.R.R Tolkien touch King was putting into these books). After reading the first two times Roland goes to our world I was under the impression the first book was far superior.

However, Roland's final trip to our world takes you over the top. Then the climatic ending involving Jack Mort, Detta Walker/Odetta Holmes, Eddie, and Roland all in the span of like four pages was done to perfection.

I love this book. As good as the first one (which was a masterpiece and could stand as its own book.)

Grade: A