From the book jacket:
After his confrontation with the man in black at the end of The Gunslinger, Roland awakes to find three doors on the beach of Mid-World's Western Sea — each leading to New York City but at three different moments in time. Through these doors, Roland must "draw" three figures crucial to his quest for the Dark Tower. In 1987, he finds Eddie Dean, The Prisoner, a heroin addict. In 1964, he meets Odetta Holmes, the Lady of Shadows, a young African-American heiress who lost her lower legs in a subway accident and gained a second personality that rages within her. And in 1977, he encounters Jack mort, Death, a pusher responsible for cruelties beyond imagining. Has Roland found new companions to form the ka-tet of his quest? Or has he unleashed something else entirely?
Moe's Review
Picking up right where the Gunslinger left off we meet Roland as he is waking up on the beach. Unfortunately for Roland he is being eaten alive by vicious creatures from the sea which he dubs lobstrosities. He is able to escape from them with his life but he has been seriously wounded, including the loss of several fingers and some toes. These wounds will affect him tremendously throughout the story. Roland sets off up the beach in search of his destiny as laid out to him by the man in black. He seeks The Prisoner, The Lady and Death. Roland comes across a door standing on the beach, the door is labeled "The Prisoner". Upon opening the door Roland is transported into the mind of Eddie Dean. Eddie Dean is a smart man, but he is also a junkie with a heroin addict. When we meet Eddie he is in process of muling some drugs for drug kingpin Enrico Balazar and he is about to get caught. Roland is able to posses Eddie while he is inside of him. From the moment that Roland steps into Eddies mind we are in for a rollercoaster ride that brings us from be detained by customs for cocaine possession to an amazing gun fight with Balazar and his men. Along the way they also are able to pickup some penicillin for Roland's wounds. Roland learns the ins and outs of the doorway portal and quickly acclimates himself to them.
Once Eddie has been brought over to Rolands world things don't get any easier. Eddie's addiction to heroin comes into play as he struggles through the withdrawals and the person Roland pulls through door number two doesn't help matters.
The second door, labeled "The lady of Shadows" opens to the mind of Odetta Susannah Holmes. This lady of shadows is not one person though, she is two people in the body of one. There is Odetta Holmes who is a wheelchair bound civil rights activist and there is Detta Walker, a crazy, hate-filled and deadly sly woman who wants nothing to do with Roland.
The third door, labeled "The Pusher", is death. Jack Mort is the pusher and he is a serial killer who kills by pushing victims to their deaths. Jack Mort is also behind the death and severe injuring of two people close to our Roland. Roland is able to use Jack to get what he needs to get done and he also gets to dish out some justice against the sick and twisted Jack Mort. Unfortunately for Roland, this justice creates a major paradox which is a key element in the next book.
The Drawing of the Three is my personal favorite in the Dark Tower series. It starts with a bang and never lets up. King has written amazingly deep characters and the action is first rate. We don't learn much about the Dark Tower or even about Roland himself, but after reading this book you are going to have to learn more. Read this one folks. |
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