"...There's going to be shooting.""There is?"
"Yes." The gunslinger looked serenely at Eddie. "Quite a lot of it, I think."
And so begins the coolest, most intense gun fight I've ever read.
Ever since I put down The Stand 300 pages in, I thought I'd never read another Stephen King novel. You could say I was even proud of the fact. Everyone seems to love King and I'm the only one who doesn't. I'm unique... I also don't like Katy Perry.
Well, then he had to go and write The Dark Tower series. The premise sounded way too interesting to pass by. The Gunslinger (my review) was decent. It was interesting and made me curious, but I still wasn't too impressed. I continued to believe I was a Stephen King Elitist (SKE).
After reading The Drawing of the Three [US] [UK], I can no longer deny it. I'm no longer an SKE. Sorry world, I'm not that cool anymore. I like Stephen King. The Drawing of the Three blew my mind. I still don't like Katy Perry though.
It's been a while since I've been this into a book. I had a hard time not ditching all my classes and just finishing the book. I wanted to spend every waking hour reading and that's a great feeling to have.
***Spoilers (for The Gunslinger only)***
The Drawing of the Three picks up right after The Gunslinger left off.
Roland, the gunslinger himself, wakes up on a beach and almost immediately attacked by huge lobster-like creatures, lovingly called "lobstrosities". He loses two fingers and a toe and coupled with the fact that he's running out of food as well, this does not bode well.Roland becomes very sick, but there's a reason he's the last gunslinger, he's the very definition of one of my favorite words - indefatigable. (Thought I was gonna go with another did you?)
Roland has been given some cryptic information (from the end of The Gunslinger) after finally catching up with "the man in black". He must now find the Prisoner, the Lady of Shadows, and the Pusher.
Luckily, it becomes apparent how this will work when the gunslinger finds a door in the middle of nowhere that also leads to nowhere, at least as far as he can tell without opening it.
***End Spoilers (for The Gunslinger)***
With The Drawing of the Three, we are also slowly given more information into the Gunslinger's mysterious past as he remembers the advice of his trainer. I always love these memories; many of which are filled with these kind of lines:
"Fault always lies in the same place...with him weak enough to lay blame."I'm looking forward to finding out more about the Gunslinger's mysterious past.
As a final note, let me just say, Eddie Dean is awesome, Detta and Odetta are crazy/insane, and Jack, well, not much to say except read it. I will say no more.
Why Read The Drawing of the Three?
If you were a little dissatisfied with The Gunslinger, don't give up on The Dark Tower series yet. The Drawing of the Three takes everything up a notch (or 10). I couldn't have stopped reading even if I wanted to. It is an amazingly well-plotted, well-paced, and incredible book...and I no longer claim SKE status.
4.5 out of 5 Stars
