Rating: 
Summary: My favorite of the series so far
Review: This story in the series propelled me to Mid-Earth, and kept me awake many nights. If you like Sci-Fi and Fantasy, this book is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Only Three Stars for Number Three
Review: This installment of the series is a bit disappointing. In places, the action and plotting seem a bit too much like a comic book, and the character development is a little weak. Roland, Eddie and Susannah don't come off as three-dimensional as in the last book, and the character of Jake has gone from a mysterious, compelling young man to an innocent schoolboy who makes us fear for his safety. The haunted house section was way out of place in this tale, and threw the whole story out of whack. King could have invented a better plot device here. Still, in parts the story is still strong and hypnotic, and I plan to continue along the journey to the Tower.
Rating: 
Summary: More like three and a half
Review: Though this may have been much better than the frist of the Dark Tower books, I put books 2 and 4 above this. It seemed to be much more surreal than the other books in the series. Though I won't say that it was necessarily a bad thing given the genre, but it is why I put it below the others.Some of the settings in this were very intriguing, however I have a small complaint about them. We went from a society that had hardly any developement to a futuristic city without travelling from one world to another. It made little sense to me go from where people are living out in the desert, to a large city. If King had made more of a conversion from one world to another, it could have fit much better. One thing that I did truly enjoy within this story was that it showed how Roland did care about the others in his ka-tet. This truly helped me to see him as more of a protagonist that I could care about than I had in the previous books. In the end, though this book had some disappointments, it is a great book to place at this point in the series given how it can make us more anxious to find out what happens. This one will probably be where you start to get into the series as a whole.
Rating:
Summary: The Dark Tower World Grows
Review: When last we left him, Roland Deschain, the Last Gunslinger, had liberated the heroin addicted Eddie Dean and the schizophrenic crippled civil rights advocate Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker/Susannah Dean from their own respective New Yorks via doorway portals on the beach. Now stuck in Roland's mess of a quest, the two Yanks have no choice but to accompany the cowboy in his search for the Dark Tower. In "The Waste Lands," the trio of Roland, Eddie, and Susannah find a path to the Dark Tower by way of the Beam, and a character Roland wronged long ago bursts back into his life. King keeps up his gorgeous writing from "The Drawing of the Three," and sharpens and refines it even more so. With more characters, our central ka-tet can play off each other and really grow into actual beings. The further contrasts between Mid-World and New York make for some odd and often-humorous moments. And, most importantly, the plot gets even deeper and more and more engrossing. The very few doubts "The Drawing of the Three" left you about the Dark Tower series will be alleviated by this masterpiece. It's a worthwhile addition to all but the most empty-headed fans' collections.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book in the series so far
Review: At the end of book two I for one was hoping Roland and his new found traveling partners would at least make it to the base of the tower by the end of book three. If not, then I was hoping Jake would eventually be drawn into Roland's world in book three. If that didn't happen then I wished we could at least explorer Roland's post apocalyptic world a bit more. Two out of three aint bad! In this book, Jake is eventually drawn into Roland's world, we learn a bit more about how messed up that world is and we learn a little bit more about Roland's past. The tower itself is talked about in depth as well and we learn more about it as we learn more about the beam and how both worlds are affected by one another. Finally, there is a chase scene through the ruins of a great city and a cliff hanger of an ending. You couldn't ask for more short of them arriving at the gates of the Dark Tower itself.
Rating:
Summary: This is the portion that sticks with me the most
Review: I see a lot of people mention this as the least of the Dark Tower books. I disagree - that to me would be the fourth which was all back story and did not move Roland's KA-TET any closer to the tower. But that is still one of my favorite books. This series is what makes reading so satisfying. they are epic - and to appreciate them - one really needs to read them all. And the more King you read, the more you will love this book. One of the main characters from my all time favorite Stephen King book "The Stand" makes his first appearance in this book - Randall Flagg you crazy [guy] you. Not to mention "The Talisman", "Insomnia", "Black House" and more short stories than you can shake a stick at. This is one of the most enjoyable, epic reads one could ask for. I first ran into the gunslinger by accident, having heard of it but could never find it. I finally found it and since then every time one of these books has been released I can not read it quick enough. harry Potter is a great way to get kids to read but if they want to see a real epic story - this is Stephen King's answer to "The Lord of the Rings" and in characterization gives us much more depth than even that epic series. and that is saying quite a lot. Blaine may be a pain...but he kept me rivetted for the fourth volume to see if that train falls off the track - will our heroes ever be back... And thankfully they were...
Mr. King - all I can say is thank you for this modern masterpiece that again shows us all how reading can truly be one of the most rewarding activities. This is the part of the story that stuck with me the most - more than lobstrosities and roses - but any one of the volumes of this series will truly give you one of the best reads you can find. Highly recommend this to anyone...
Rating:
Summary: A solid adventure
Review: This Dark Tower novel, "Waste Lands", is more action oriented, with more fights and conflicts than in the other volumes. Roland, Eddie, and Susanna have spent a couple of months stationary, Roland teaching the others how to be Gunslingers. It was a fast paced book, and also explined a lot more about the Beam, and some myths involving the Guardians. It all ends with a showdown in a demolished ruins of a city called Lud. Also the most important event so far happenes here, Jake returns from New York of our time. Also there are now connections to King's "The Stand". But for the most part this is a fight book, very exciting.
Rating:
Summary: The Drawing Continues and the Pace Quickens
Review: At the end of "The Drawing of the Three" we had left our three heroes - Roland (the last Gunslinger), Eddie (the addict) and Susannah (a composite of the previous split personalities of Odetta and Detta) - at the start of their quest to find the Dark Tower and unlock it's secrets. At the beginning of "The Waste Lands" they have moved on a little - slowly Eddie and Susannah are becoming Gunslingers themselves. But they are no closer to finding the dark tower until they disturb a huge bear who, of course, is more than he appears. Meanwhile Roland is steadily getting worse as strange voices enter his head - just like Susannah's split personalities before. With this opening, "The Waste Lands" picks up a hectic pace and never lets go. The writing style of the first three books has changed a lot - each book has it's pros and cons - but this one is much more focussed on movement, on plot. Character development is still very much there and, of course, we get dribbles of information about the quest. Once again the links between the Gunslinger's world and our own are very much evident. The first half of this book deal with the drawing of Jake - the boy we last saw falling to his (second) death in the first book. If you were anything like me, you read "The Drawing of the Three" and felt uncomfortable about the paradoxes that Roland might have opened up by killing Mort. And you would be right to be - those strange voices that Roland is hearing are caused by them. And in our world they are having a devastating effect on Jake's life too. This part of the tale was one of the most engaging stories in the series so far. And King's imagination shows no sign of quitting. In an extraordinary parallel, our heroes go on a search for Blaine the Train - a character, it appears, who exists in a forgotten children's book about Charlie the Engine. It really isn't possible to describe the imaginative leaps that King comes up with here - you will have to read it. The second half of the book concerns this mini-quest and a breathless chase through a parallel New York - a city inhabited by strange factions - the Greys and the Pubes. As we hurtle through the book suddenly the dreadful truth hits us - it's finished with an enormous cliffhanger! Argh, if I had read that when this book was first published I would be in agony waiting for the resolution. Luckily, "Wizard and Glass" can be enjoyed right now. If you have read the previous Dark Tower books, this one is unmissable. If you haven't read them yet, do so and then read this!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not the best
Review: I started The Wastelands enthusiastically. Well, when I was done, I thought, Hey, it was suspenseful...but it didn't resolve a lot of things. Thus, I claim this book as a detour in the series almost.
Rating:
Summary: The Worst So Far
Review: 3.5 stars The Gunslinger was wonderfully evocative, and I think most of this was due to the fact that the book was laced with gleanings of Roland's past, which apeared to be very long and very interesting. I love a character with a deep past, and I think Roland of Gilead tops them all, at least out of the books I've read. I think what made The Gunslinger such a good book were the character insights. The most interesting part of The Gunslinger was Roland's genocide of Tull. First, it showed the gunslinger in his element, doing what he was trained to do, and it showed just how deadly he really was. Second, it shows the conflict within him, how he is doubting his actions, as he reflects that "Cort had known black from white." I'm still waiting to come across something that powerful again. The Drawing of the Three didn't have any of the character insights, but it did have a fast-paced plot, a good deal of action, and lots of tension, so it was equally good in its own way. So, The Gunslinger had lots of character insights, TDotT had intensity. But The Waste Lands had neither, and that's the main reason for the 3.5 stars: it simply didn't have enough to put it on the same level with the first two books. I guess one thing that it did have that the other books didn't have was forward movement to the Dark Tower, where TG was the beginning's end and TDotT was simply getting ready to go to the Dark Tower. But there wasn't much action to go with this book, and it fell short. The story starts some 2 months after the end of TDotT, with Roland and co. moving through the forest, traveling what-they-think-is-north-but-is-actually-south.(did anyone else notice this?) Roland is slowly going mad. The first half of this book is really a continuation of TDotT; you'll understand when you get there. The second half focuses on Lud, a city under anarchy that Roland and co. must go through. This book did have some high points. First, while it didn't have any insights into Roland's character, it did have insights into the history of his world, what happened to it, and why The Dark Tower is so important. Yes, we get some more pieces to the puzzle. Second, King's characterization is as good as ever, and that's always a plus. Thirdly, things get pretty interesting when they get to Lud, though that doesn't happen until about the last 150 pages or so. (Also, the title can be deceiving; they don't get to the Waste Lands until the very end.) And last, I was very interested when King briefly introduced the Ageless Stranger for the first time towards the end of the book, a character who appears will have some import in the books to come. Things get really interesting at the end when the quintet reaches a computerized train called Blaine the Mono. They get into the Waste Lands, and then BOOM - Cliffhanger ending! If I had read these books when they first came out I would have been genuinely pissed, as I'm sure many people were. I mean, it was, what- 7 years or so before he wrote the next book? That's terrible. If the conflict set up by the cliffhanger takes up the majority of the next book then it makes sense. But I've already read a little into Wizard and Glass and I can tell you that the conflict is resolved in the first three chapters. This book didn't end; it stopped. The ending of The Waste Lands can be found in the first three chapters of Wizard and Glass. Stephen King just dived into this series without knowing the end. I suppose that works out all right with his regular novels, but it doesn't in a multi-volume story, and I think this book shows that. All in all, this book is OK. It definately has some flaws, but, in the end, it's still Stephen King, and it's still The Dark Tower. Somehow I get the feeling that mediocrisy is a one-time deal when questing for the Tower.
|
