The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, Book 3)

Rating:
Summary: Breathlessly waiting for the contest to begin.
Review: As always, Stephen King made me feel I was with them crossing the wastelands. I read this book some time ago and have been waiting for the sequel to it for what seems like, and probably is, years. He makes his characters so real for you, you can feel their pain, share their fear and experience everything with them. He's drawn Eddie, Susannah and Jake together with him in this adventure across the Wastelands with the crazed Blaine the Mono. There's adventure, danger and my heart pounded, as I was left hanging out in the Wastelands with them all waiting for the contest to begin. I recently received, with my two latest King books, an excerpt from the upcoming "Wizard And Glass", the 4th in the "Dark Tower" series. Stephen King mentions there is "one unanswered riddle in here. If you know the answer, stick it on the Net. I'll be peeking!" Well, I think I know the answer; it's: The letter "M". I love Stephen King, his amazing imagination, his eerie way with words and the wonderful way he "scares me to death". Suzanne Goffeney ([e-mail].

Rating:
Summary: Far from a "Waste"
Review: Stephen King hits his stride in "The Waste Lands," the third volume of his epic dark fantasy Dark Tower series. Now that the quest is underway, King's world of cyborg bears, insane trains and sex-addict demons coalesces into a tight, engrossing story.

Newlyweds Susannah (formerly Odetta/Detta) and Eddie Dean are rapidly becoming expert gunslingers, even proving themselves as Susannah guns down cyborg bear Shardik, and Eddie takes out robots. But Roland is having problems. Since he saved the life of eleven-year-old Jake in the previous book, he remembers two realities -- one where he saved Jake, and one where he let him die. Now that paradox is slowly driving him insane -- and worse, in his own world, Jake is also going mad.

They find a doorway to Jake's world, but it's guarded by a malevolent demon. Susannah manages to trap the demon (by having sex with it) as Eddie barely manages to draw Jake into Mid-World. Now they are a "ka-tet," or a group brought together by destiny. But the ka-tet has barely formed before it's threatened, by a mysterious figure that is following them at a distance -- and an insane train that traps them on its suicide run....

In "The Gunslinger" and "Drawing of the Three," King spent his time establishing the main quest and the lead characters. Now he's got those in the bag, and the story revs up as Roland and Co. set off to find the Dark Tower rather than just talking about it. It feels like the series had finally hit its stride.

The world that has "moved on" is not a nice place -- just about everything is dangerous, bleak or at least rough-edged. But King manages to keep the weirder elements -- like the cyborg animals or the riddling train -- from seeming silly. His writing is not usually good in the technical sense, but it excels at having atmosphere and lots of gruesome slam-bang action.

Roland remains the rough cowboy with a hidden heart of gold and a tragic past. His bond with lonely Jake is a particularly touching detail. Eddie becomes a bit annoying at times with all his wisecracking, but he has a past almost as hard as Roland's. Susannah is perhaps the most interesting of all -- two opposing personalities merged into one. And don't forget Oy the faithful billybumbler, a sort of dog-like creature.

Ending on a pulse-pounding cliffhanger, "The Waste Lands" is a smooth and thoroughly engaging dark fantasy. The pinnacle of the Dark Tower series so far.

Rating:
Summary: The Waste Lands
Review: The Waste Lands is the best in my opinion so far as the first three books. I also thought this was the most enjoyable of the first three to read, though a couple spots where King overwrote.
It was kind of dissapointing at the ending to just leave the book hanging like it did, but it was a good idea, cuz it will lure people to read the fourth right away.
It was interesting how the ka-tet all had in some way knew what was going to happen in the future. It was kingd of interesting probably the most interesting with Jake. How he came back to Rolands world after he dies? or did he not?
I also liked the fact that this book was the first to introduce Flagg or a hint that it was Flagg. I basically thought that because of- MY LIFE FOR YOU! which was Trashcanman's favorite line in the Stand. I'm sure thier be a lot more of Flagg and the Tick-Tock MAn in Wizard and Glass.
So overall this is the best so far in the series. I also thought of it as being the most complete of the first three.
So if youve read the first two I strongley recommend THe Waste Lands.