Stephen King, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
ATTENTION: Contains spoilers if you haven’t read The Gunslinger…
After reading The Gunslinger, novel about which I has mixed feelings, but which however awoke my curiosity, I did not wait much. On the same day, I began The Drawing of the Three, because I wanted to know more about the Three, and what the strange predictions Roland had received stood for..
The Dark Tower epic introduces Roland, a gunslinger from a planet resembling a desolate earth after some kind of catastrophe. Roland is after the man in black, he is pursuing a quest from which he won’t let himself be distracted: the quest for the Black Tower. He is ready to sacrifice everything or everyone in order to find it. The tower seems to control all time and space…
At the end of The Gunslinger, Roland has chosen to sacrifice his young companion Jake in order to catch the man in black, because he knew that the information he held was crucial to his quest. What he learns amongst other things is that the man in black is Walter, someone he used to know and trust. He also learns more, thanks to some Tarot cards, about the three persons who will help him in his quest, three persons who must be drawn from earth. The first card, the Prisoner, represents someone who is “infested by a demon called heroin”. The second, the Lady of the Shadows, is a “veritable Janus”. The third card is Death, “yet not for [Roland]“…
The Drawing of the Three begins with Roland asleep on a beach. When he wakes up, a lobster-like animal attacks him. Before he can react, he loses a toe and two fingers from his right hand. Despite a life-threatening infection and a serious handicap considering his line of work, Roland resumes his quest. He finds a door who will enable him to make contact with the first of the Three, marking the beginning of an adventure made of many dangers and surprises…
As much as I was critical about The Gunslinger, I can say I absolutely loved The Drawing of the Three. I don’t know if it really qualifies as a fantasy novel, but it is definitely recognizable as a Stephen King’s novel, with King’s particular voice. Roland’s candid perception of our world, and his unique use of vocabulary, make for a big part of the fun. The new characters introduced are powerful and interesting and the suspense is intense.
Needless to say that it is extremely difficult to put this book down. Moreover, once you have finished it is hard not to pick up the following volume, The Waste Lands… However, I will try to wait a bit because I don’t want to finish the three remaining volumes within 2-3 weeks and have to wait until November to know what will happen in Wolves of the Calla (but I don’t think I can wait long… Fortunately, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, another long-awaited book, will be released in the meantime…)
I really recommend The Dark Tower (so far) to Stephen King’s fans and to Fantasy fans. He has invented a world in which we like to come back to (at least in our imaginations) and characters whose fates we quickly becomes interested in…
Rating: 4,5/5
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