The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

By Stephen King

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

The Dark Tower series follows up the introduction to The Gunslinger with The Drawing of the Three. Roland finds himself on a beach after the events of the first novel, but is faced with three doors that are floating and seem to hold magical powers behind them. In one of the most interesting, and world bending attempts in literature the reader and Roland start to realize that the universe we know may have alternate, and subsequently parallel, worlds happening at the same time as the one we are witnessing. Each of these doors on the beach opens up to modern day New York City, and into the life of three different people. The Drawing of the Three introduces us to Eddie Dean and Odetta Holmes who become pivotal characters in Roland’s mission to reach The Dark Tower.

496 May 16, 1987

4.23

4.6

“Control the things you can control, maggot. Let everything else take a flying fuck at you and if you must go down, go down with your guns blazing.”

Thoughts

This is the best book I have ever read. Period. Sure it is a fantasy novel and it is hard to compare to memoirs and business books, but Stephen King truly does some masterful work here. The first book in this series, The Gunslinger, had me hooked for sure, but this book takes the obsession to the next level. What it does is take Roland’s world (Mid-World) and merges it with our own through two fascinating characters Eddie Dean and Odetta Holmes. It twists time periods and realities in such a mind bending way that you are still able to follow. Roland’s world becomes the vehicle for the true timeline we are supposed to follow in his quest for The Dark Tower, but Eddie and Odetta both come from different time periods of the real reality we all know. This creates a multi-layered problem of explaining what the hell is going on and adds to the conflict playing out on the beach with the damn mutant crabs. And now I understand none of that made sense. But if you give the intro a try, the second book will force you to finish the entire series. King does such a great job at character development that when each new one is introduced in this novel you are fully bought in to seeing their stories play out. Eddie who we meet during a drug smuggling operation and Odetta who becomes schizophrenic after Jack Mort drops a brick on her head, the two become irresistible. Easily the best book of the series, but I promise you will only get more out of it once you finish the whole series. 10/10 must read content here, folks.