The Wastelands

The Wastelands is King's third entry in the Dark Tower series. It is here that King finally delves into the world he created whereas in the first two books we saw characters be introduced and storylines created that will be followed through for the rest of the series. We finally get to learn of the plight of Mid-World, the universe in which the Dark Tower series is set. Mid-World is a strange place that is literally being torn apart at the seams by time. The land is dying, the people are going insane, and computers begin developing humanity and use it to torture large populations of people into murdering each other. If this all seems, pardon the phrase, out of this world, then welcome to Stephen King's mind. This is just the third stop. The main appeal of this novel definitely is the world King has created. The Gunslinger's ka-tet have entered a familiarity with each other after the insanity that happened with the last novel. We know the ka-tet won't be broken up by personal problems but rather external forces this time. A main part of the novel is travel. Essentially, the novel is a road novel. We learn about the land around us and what is at stake at the Dark Tower. Depending on how much you like getting lost in another world (in my case, a whole lot), this novel will be either hit or miss. In terms of story, not much happens other than the characters getting from A to B, but in terms of fleshing out the world, you get a whole lot of landmarks and monuments to marvel at. While this novel doesn't rival Drawing of the Three in terms of intensity or set-pieces, it is still entertaining enough to make you want to return for the next book. It also doesn't help that the novel ends on a pretty huge cliffhanger.

Under the Dome

One of the longest of King's novels, Under the Dome will go by a whole lot faster than you would think. The plot of the novel is a classic story that wouldn't be out of place in a Twilight Zone episode: a mysterious forcefield appears around a small Maine town, cutting the people off from the rest of the world. The plot is simple, but King's approach to it is far from it. A master of characterization, King uses this claustrophobic setting to pit each character against each other. Alliances are made and broken, riots break out, and government cracks down. All of this is played inside a town that gradually begins to feel the effects of pollution that is unable to escape the mystical forcefield thus giving the novel an environmental message. King has a lot on his mind in his book. He criticizes politics, governments, authority, foreign policy, and everything in between as he weaves his narrative back and forth through a cast of fifty or so characters. Perhaps what is most on King's mind is the idea of man being the worst monster of all. While King's supernatural novels such as IT and The Shining are good, nothing is more terrifying than what man can do to each other. King delves deep into the distorted minds of the sociopathic and psychotic in this book and it is this understanding of such a mind that makes this novel such a terrifying read. Reading this book isn't going to make you afraid of things that go bump in the night. Instead, it's going to make you afraid of the people around you and that is a much more unsettling feeling than any monster underneath my bed.

Drawing of the Three

The second book in King's Dark Tower series, Drawing of the Three is a noticeable improvement on the first entry. King is more confident in his abilities as a writer, and his pacing is vastly improved. Starting off immediately (though that's tough to explain...read it and you'll understand) after the end of The Gunslinger, this novel finds our hero, Roland, trying to gather the remaining members of his ka-tet in order to continue onwards in his quest of reaching the Dark Tower. A ka-tet is a group of individuals gathered together by fate in order to perform an extraordinary task. Essentially, a ka-tet is the King version of the Fellowship of the Ring. The first thing you'll notice in this book (and the series as a whole) is that King is emulating the classic fantasy stories: we've got the fellowship setting out on a dangerous journey to save the world, an evil wizard, magic weapons, monsters, etc. But what sets these fantasy book apart from others is that bit of magic we like to call Stephen King. Make no mistake, these books are written by King. For instance: in this book, Roland must travel to our universe in order to gather together his ka-tet. These people consist of a heroin addict in over his head in a crime syndicate in New York City in the seventies and a crippled black women who has multiple personalities: one is a well-educated and well-spoken businesswoman, and the other one is an extremely vulgar, extremely angry woman who speaks in ebonics and constantly feels threatened by "white boys." This is just a taste of what to expect from a fantasy series penned by King. It's a shame that The Gunslinger is such a poor start to this series because Drawing of the Three is an extremely clever, extremely original piece of fantasy literature that more than makes up for its predecessor's missteps. I encourage all readers to push through the mediocre first novel because the reward is well worth the effort.

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