The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three By Stephen King

 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

By Stephen King

In this second installment of The Dark Tower series, Roland wakes on the beach just hours after the events in The Gunslinger. In search of the Tower, he has to draw three doors open, and "three" people to become gunslingers to aid him on his quest.

Through the first door, marked The Prisoner, he find Eddie Dean, a junkie on an airplane moving cocaine into the US where he is supposed to deliver it to a crime boss. Roland enters Eddie's mind and is even able to control Eddie's body if he needs to. But Roland is sick and needs Eddie's help. When the two come to understand what is happening, they agree to help one another. Roland helps Eddie navigate the crime boss when Eddie fails to show up with the drugs because he was detained by Customs officials when he was acting suspiciously on the plane. In return, Eddie helps Roland with some medicine. When events do not go as smoothly as they would like, Eddie has no where to go but back to Roland's world, the world that has "moved on."

Together the two of them move north on the beach, fighting nightly with creatures called lobstrosities (one of which had bitten off two of Roland's fingers and a toe), lobster like beasts that roll ashore each night and ask lawyerly-sounding questions in their weird language. These provide food for Roland and Eddie. But Roland is becoming sick again.

The second door is marked The Lady of Shadows. This is where Roland finds a schizophrenic paraplegic woman named Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker, the first personality a beautiful and kind, intelligent and wealthy, black woman. The second is a vicious killer thief who thinks all white men are out to hurt her and she intends to do them in first. Roland brings her back to his world to free her from an impending arrest only to find that he and Eddie have to restrain her when Odette makes her appearances. The three of them struggle up the beach with Odetta/Odette's wheel chair to find the third door, with Roland becoming weaker and Eddie withdrawing from his drug addiction. Now, not only do they have to worry about the lobstrocities, they also have to contend with Odette, who is hell-bent on killing the both of them.

The third door, marked The Pusher, takes Roland into the mind of a serial killer, the one who hurt Odetta and caused her to become schizophrenic and paralyzed by first dropping a brick on her head when she was a girl,, and then pushing her in front of a train when she was an adult. Through this man, named Jack Mort, Roland gains access to guns and ammunition, as well as the medicine that will make him better. He uses Jack, knowing Jack is evil, and then makes Jack jump in front of a train in front of Odetta, causing her personalities to physically split in his own world, where the two women fight until Odetta embraces Odette and the two bodies fuse. She becomes one whole woman who decides to be called by her middle name, Susannah.

Roland gets well, Eddie kicks his habit, and the three of them go in search of the Tower. Roland knows he needs them, but he knows he may have to sacrifice them for his ultimate goal. Eddie knows this as well, and the two reveal their love and care for one another. They've been through a lot, taken care of each other, and have no one but each other now, and Susannah.

This was not what I expected for this series to look like. It was an interesting and pleasant surprise. I liked the ways in which Roland went into our world at different periods of time. It showed the boy Jake from The Gunslinger, and Roland diverting Jake's original death which brought the boy into Roland's world to begin with and Roland's wrestling with the idea of changing history and if saving Jake would make his own quest different. The characters were not what I expected. They seem to be a ragtag bunch and I'm curious how this will play out with them. The settings were immersive, of course, and I always wonder how King knows so much about so many things. The plot and pacing were excellent. I find it hard to believe King does not plot. There seem to be so many introduced mysterious elements that it's hard to imagine that he wouldn't know where it is going and what those elements will mean to the story.

Flagg is mentioned in this book, as a demon figure, and Roland mentions witnessing Dennis and Thomas chasing Flagg, an event that occurred in The Eyes of the Dragon, stating that one of them is turned into a dog on that chase. An interesting side note and addition to that story. King also mentions the film of The Shining, which was a fun inclusion.

I think ultimately this book is about the choices we make and the repercussions of those choices, about giving in to the great mystery and letting go of what is past. It's a solid book, which will get us into the rest of the series, a gathering of forces you could say. As a standalone this book suffers. A casual reader would not understand many of the references in it. But it is meant for King's Constant Readers, and is meant to be read by avid fans who would make the connections. A solid, strong book with great story telling, King is a master of relationships and characterization, and the minutiae of life. 4 stars.