Hello everyone, I’ve been on a Stephen King kick for the past few months and I’m currently three books into his series The Dark Tower. I think what I’ll do for this series is write a review for books 1-3, 4-5, and 6-7. So let’s jump right in!
The Dark Tower series is nothing like Kings other work. When I think of King I think of horror, which he is very very good at, but that isn’t the case with The Dark Tower. If anything it’s closer to a fantasy series. There are other realms and mysterious connections between them, strange monsters and demons, an entire history that is only revealed to us piece by piece, and a lot of information we have to pick up along the way. Also, be prepared to not know the reason why anything is happening at any given point, the whole point of the Dark Tower seems to be something that will be revealed as we go along. In my opinion, the first three books get progressively better, with the first book being kind of meh and the third book making me want more!
Book 1: The Gunslinger
I have this weird thing with books I’m not quite sure how to articulate. I notice this a lot with older books (The Great Gatsby/Slaughterhouse-Five/Anna Karenina) where their plot just seems to be really thin and there’s not a whole lot going on outside the immediate storyline. What I think of as a really good book would be like a fat juicy thanksgiving turkey, and books like these I think of as a smaller, drier turkey that just doesn’t hit the spot. The Gunslinger falls into this category for me unfortunately. I think maybe, like with so much else in our modern world, media nowadays does more/includes more to draw you in and play with your senses. They have to really, considering how desensitized we’ve become as a society to things that would have been unheard of when older novels were written. I think that’s why when I read certain books it just feels like there is something lacking, for better or worse, and that something might just be the fat of the turkey, or the “extra” that comes with modern media.
The Gunslinger is centered on our main character Roland and his quest to catch up to the Man in Black in order to get information on the Dark Tower. Roland is chasing the Man in Black across a post apocalyptic desert that’s giving Wild West vibes. We know very little about Roland at this point other than he is a gunslinger. The world he lives in is not our world but it is very similar, even having some of the same songs, and it is constantly being referred to as having “moved on”. Roland stays with a man in the desert one night as he is following the trail of the Man in Black and tells the story of the small town of Tull he passed through recently. He stayed a few days and took a lover, but in the end was forced to shoot every man, woman, and child in town because the Man in Black used their local priestess to turn them all against Roland. This effort to get Roland off his trail was unsuccessful.
After leaving the man Roland meets a young boy, Jake, at the way station (a place to get water and trade horses when it was still in use). Jake was from our world but was pushed in front of a moving car by a priest we later find out was the Man in Black. The description of Jakes death is pretty gruesome. Somehow Jake ends up in Roland’s world after his death and they team up. Before they leave the way station they discover a demon in the cellar and Roland takes its skeletal jaw bone (wow, cool souvenir).
Now we find out the first bits of information about Roland’s past. He comes from a place called Gilead, which has also “moved on”. The set up there seems to be like that of a medieval kingdom. He was training to become a gunslinger with other boys since he was a child, similar to training to become a knight. To become a gunslinger you must defeat your teacher in battle, which Roland did at a surprisingly young age by choosing his Hawk as his weapon.
As Roland and Jake catch up to the Man in Black atop a mountain, Roland is faced with the choice of saving Jake from falling off the mountain or finally catching the Man in Black. To all our disappointments he chooses to let Jake fall, who says “Go then. There are other worlds than these” before falling to his death (again)(I don’t have a very high opinion of Roland at this point). After finally catching the Man in Black, Roland has his fate read to him from a pack of Tarot cards. “The Sailor”, “The Prisoner”, “The Lady of Shadows”, “Death” (but not for Roland), and “The Tower” are drawn. We will find out what they mean in the coming books. Roland and the Man in Black then talk about the Dark Tower; Roland learns that the Man in Black is not Roland’s enemy and is just a pawn of the true being that controls the Dark Tower. He tries to get Roland to give up on his quest and when he refuses, is put to sleep for 10 years. The book ends with Roland waking up on the beach with a skeleton next to him that he assumes is the Man in Black, and a new task to form a group by bringing the prisoner and the lady of shadows into his world to help him reach the Dark Tower.
I guess it’s just difficult for me to appreciate this book with Roland and his quest when we are given so little information about the Dark Tower. What is it? Why is it important? and why does Roland even wants to find it? Even if he does find it, what’s he going to do when he gets there? We also know hardly anything about Roland and his past (other than he lets kids fall to their deaths off mountains). The book tries to portray Roland (or maybe I just want to view Roland) as the good guy, the honorable knight on a quest, but after some questionable choices I don’t regard Roland as a sane and rational figure. The whole time I read this book I just kept asking “why?” “why?” “why?” over and over again! Luckily the next book does more to fill us in and introduces more characters and more opportunities to show us that Roland can be a sane and rational protagonist. I’m sure it was Kings goal when writing The Dark Tower to intentionally leave us with no information and slowly build up our understanding of Roland and his world throughout the series, but I don’t know if I’m a fan of the process at this point…
Book 2: The Drawing of the Three
The Drawing of the Three begins immediately after the end of The Gunslinger. Roland wakes up from his 10 year sleep on the beach and is immediately attacked by creatures from the sea he calls the “lobstrocities”. After fending them off (barely, and losing a few fingers along the way) he stumbles up the beach until he runs into a door labeled “The Prisoner”. The door seems to go nowhere as there is just more beach behind it.
Roland opens the door and enters the mind of Eddie, a man from our world, on a flight to New York in 1987. Eddie, a heroin addict, is trying to smuggle drugs into the city for a drug lord. Speaking to Eddie through his mind, Roland helps bring Eddie through the door back to his world to hide the drugs and get past security at the airport. The security agents are convinced Eddie is smuggling but are unable to find anything and must let him go. The drug lord hears of the problems at the airport and kidnaps Eddies older brother (also an addict) so Eddie will still deliver the drugs (I don’t really get this part because why wouldn’t Eddie deliver the drugs? He was always planning on delivering the drugs!). Unfortunately Eddies brother overdoses while in the possession of the drug lord, completely unrelated to the drug deal situation, which enrages Eddie. Roland comes through the door into our world to help Eddie win a shootout against the drug lord and his lackies. Roland, very sick from his previous wounds, gets ahold of some penicillin and starts to recover, but he needs more medicine. After the shootout Eddie returns with Roland to his world and starts the long process of recovery.
Roland and Eddie continue searching for the second door. Roland is still sick and their only source of food is the lobstrocities. The second door, labeled “The Lady of Shadows”, opens up to Odetta Holmes, a disabled black woman in 1964 New York. Odetta has an alternate personality that sometimes “wakes up” and takes control of her body, although she doesn’t know this. While Odetta Holmes is a wealthy civil rights activist, her alternate personality Detta Walker is a violent, nasty woman with a vendetta against those she calls “Honkey Mafahs”. Roland abducts Detta Walker as she is trying to shoplift cheap jewelry. As Roland and Eddie search for the third door they must push Odetta/Detta in her wheelchair which slows them down. While Odetta is helpful to the two men, Detta needs to be tied down to the chair and still does a great deal to slow down their journey.
After finding the third door labeled “The Pusher”, Roland leaves Eddie to watch the mischievous Detta while he enters the mind of Jack, a man who enjoys committing random acts of violence in 1977 New York. Coincidentally (or is it?) he is the man responsible for Odetta/Dettas childhood head injury that created her split personality AND the subway accident that severed both her legs. While Roland is in Jacks mind, Detta plans to trick Eddie, who is falling in love with Odetta, and kill both him and a Roland when he returns from the door.
Inside Jacks mind, Roland is able to prevent him from pushing Jake (the boy from The Gunslinger) in front of the moving car that kills him, thus preventing him from being sent to Roland’s world in the first place. After saving Jake, Roland takes over Jacks body in order to obtain and bring back medicine and ammunition for himself in his world. He leaves Jack to be run over by the same subway he pushed Odetta into years prior. After witnessing this act through the open door, Odetta/Detta are forced to become aware of each other and merge into one single personality. This person, Susanna Dean, is a combination of the two and is much stronger than either Odetta or Detta. After merging her two personalities she rescues Dettas Eddie from the trap Detta set for him and joins him and and Roland on their quest to the Dark Tower. Roland is painfully aware he may have to sacrifice these two the same was he sacrificed Jake in The Gunslinger.
The second book leaves off here and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more than the first book. It was engaging and brought more characters into the storyline. We still have many many questions about Roland and his past but I was able to look past that and focus on Eddie and Odetta/Detta while they dealt with their own problems.
The mysterious doors between worlds are an interesting concept in this book. They each go to New York but in different times, and not in chronological order (1987, 1964, and finally to 1977). They also function using very specific rules, Roland can go through and bring back objects and even people, but objects from Roland’s world can not enter our world. It is also not clear how Roland saving Jake will effect the chain of events that happened in The Gunslinger because technically Roland never met Jake, sacrificed him, and talked to the Man in Black. What does that mean for our story? I enjoy these theoretical questions much more than the simple “What is the dark tower and why do we want to find it?”
Book 3: The Wastelands
Now that the group is assembled (almost) they can really get their quest started. The Wastelands start with the our party moving out from the beach and into the forest. They camp while Roland teaches Eddie and Susanna the skills they will need for the journey ahead. In the woods they stumble on a gigantic cyborg bear that was designed to protect one of the six mystical beams that hold the world together. After Susanna shoots the bear they are able to follow the path of the beam inland towards the Dark Tower.
As their journey progresses Roland becomes sick yet again, this time in his mind. He is cursed with having two sets of memories, one of sacrificing Jake on the mountain and then other of saving him from being pushed in front of the car. Meanwhile Jake is having the same thoughts and struggles while trying to attend school in New York. Somehow by throwing the jawbone Roland took from the way station into the fire, Eddie is able to understand that he must carve out a key to let Jake into their world. Eddie just barely finishes the key to let Jake in before he is devoured by a terrifying monster guarding the door in an abandoned house in New York. Finally reunited, the double memories Roland and Jake experience finally stop.
Now we get introduced to my favorite character Oy the Billy-bumbler! Oy is basically just Jake’s “dog” that can repeat sounds and phrases like a parrot. I’ll include a picture from The Dark Tower Wiki so you know how cute Oy is, but also go look up billy-bumbler art because they get even better than this!
The group then pass through River Crossing, the last village before entering the larger city. The few remaining elderly residents feed the group and give what little information they can on conditions in the city. Stories told by the elders grandparents follow of the decades long wars that have left the city in ruins.
While crossing a dilapidated bridge into the city of Lud, Jake and Oy come close to falling, which distracts the group and allows a wild stranger to block their exit. He demands Jake come with him or he will blow them all up with a grenade (the young are very sought after in this world because the majority of people now are elderly). With no other choice, Jake goes with the man after Roland promises to find him again. After the two leave the bridge Roland tells Eddie and Susanna to start looking for the train station while he and Oy go after Jake. The man takes Jake deeper into the city, zig zagging through a maze of debris and rubble with boobie traps set every few turns. With the help of Oy following Jake’s scent, Roland is able to get past these traps and follow Jake and the man down into the sewer. There, Jake is brought before an underground civilization (it’s giving The Time Machine by HG Wells) lead by the Tick-Tok Man. Roland comes up with a plan to free Jake by having Oy attack the Tik-Tok Man, though he knows this is a suicide mission for Oy. Thankfully Jake is able to stop this from happening by shooting the Tik-Tok Man with his own gun in all the confusion (Roland be getting on my nerves sacrificing kids and animals. I almost screamed when I thought Oy wasn’t going to make it out of this book).
While this is going on Eddie and Susanna find the train station. (Jake had a premonition based on a children’s book about a train in his world which made him very uncomfortable. He now believes they are meant to find this sentient train in Roland’s world and use it to take them to the Dark Tower.) Blaine the monorail is powered by Luds artificial intelligence systems that have still been active all this time. Blaine and his partner Patricia watched for years as people fought and killed one another before Patricia became sick with system malfunction and derailed herself into the river. Blaine shows very strong sociopathic tendencies and threatens to electrocute Eddie and Susanna if they do not satisfy him with riddles. They convince Blaine to bring Roland, Jake, and Oy to them at the station by telling him how many riddles Roland knows (they used to have riddle contests on festival days in Gilead).
Blaine brings them all together and they must solve Blaine’s riddle to board the train before the agents of chemical warfare Blaine has activated destroy the city and the remaining people living there (what remains of the great war is now a deadly feud between the people living above ground and those living below ground). After solving the riddle Blaine takes them out of the city and through the wastelands, which are the result of something far worse than a nuclear war. The book ends with Roland convincing Blaine to participate in a riddling competition. If the group of gunslingers can stump Blaine with a riddle he will take them to the end of the line and let them live. If Blaine is not satisfied he will derail at the end of the line killing them all.
This book is jam packed with suspense and adventure which is why it’s my favorite of the three. I’m also a sucker for futuristic feuds between post apocalyptic societies. My mind loves coming up with different scenarios on how the city got the way it did. What was the city like before the war started? How long did it take to fully collapse into ruin? Like I said earlier in the summary, it has the same feel as The Time Machine with the Eloi and the Morlocks. Also similar to Beneath the Planet of the Apes where the remaining human population lives beneath the city to escape the apes.
I also find the concept of Blaine so out there but somehow fitting. There’s a talking train that controls the entire city! What’s crazy about that? Makes total sense. And at the same time it is a whimsy concept, King makes it very intimidating and scary. This train has access to the life and death of everyone in the city. Makes me wonder if the people who programmed Blaine knew what it was capable of and had any idea what it would do after they were long gone. Makes me think of what our own systems and inventions will be used for after we’re long gone.
Thoughts so far…
After reading the first book I didn’t know if I wanted to continue the series or not, but I’m so glad I did. I enjoy the storyline and the history of this other world we get to learn along the way. King has a habit of ending books in The Dark Tower on a cliff hanger which really keeps me wanting more. Do the gunslingers make it off Blaine alive? There are five more books so I’m betting yes, but we’ll have to wait and see! I’m excited to continue The Dark Tower series, although I might be waiting a while to get my hands on book four. The second review will be coming and should cover books 4, 4.5, and 5 so stay tuned!
-Atlas
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