I liked The Waste Lands, but I still think The Drawing of the Three was better.
The second book was the first real “oh damn, this is a wild story” moment for me. The Gunslinger got me interested in Roland, and then The Drawing of the Three opened those doors and brought in Eddie and Odetta/Detta. That was a big change from where the series started, and I liked how strange and harsh it all became.
By The Waste Lands, I had a better idea of what I was getting into. King had already shown me that this journey could go just about anywhere. I was ready to see where he took it next, even if this book didn’t have quite the same impact on me as the one before it.
The story follows Roland and his companions farther into Mid-World as they follow the Path of the Beam toward the Dark Tower. Their journey takes them through a world full of remnants of something older, eventually bringing them to the decaying city of Lud. There are more people, creatures, and strange things to encounter along the way, and some of those additions were what stood out most to me.
Oy was one of them.
I thought the billy-bumbler was a cool addition. There’s something about putting a creature like that into this particular group that works. You’ve got Roland with his constant focus on the Tower, Eddie with everything he brings to a situation, and all this danger around them. Then you have Oy, and suddenly there’s another personality to pay attention to.
His connection with Jake gives him a place in the group pretty quickly. The way he picks up words and responds to people makes him memorable, and King gives you enough to understand why somebody would become attached to him. For a story with this much ugly stuff in it, having a character like Oy around adds something I appreciated.
That’s also part of what keeps this series interesting. King can bring in something that sounds unusual when you try to explain it, then make it feel like it belongs with these people. A billy-bumbler fits right into a journey that already involves gunslingers, doors between worlds, and a Tower nobody seems able to leave alone.
And then there’s Blaine.
He was definitely no Thomas the Tank Engine.
A talking train sounds almost funny when you say it out loud, especially if somebody has no idea what these books are about. Put that idea in Stephen King’s hands, though, and it becomes something a hell of a lot less friendly. Blaine has a personality of his own, and that personality gives the group plenty to deal with.
I thought he was another cool addition because he takes the story’s weirdness in a different direction. We’ve already had the desert, the doors, and people pulled into circumstances they weren’t prepared for. Now there’s a train you have to treat as a character. At that point, you understand why it’s hard to give somebody a quick explanation of The Dark Tower.
Lud adds to that mixture. The ruined city brings more of the world’s decay into view, with people still living among the remains. It gives the journey a different setting and puts the group into a different kind of trouble. You keep getting pieces of what this world has become as they move through it.
I still give The Drawing of the Three the edge. The introduction of those characters and the movement between worlds made a bigger impression on me. The Waste Lands was good, though, and Oy and Blaine gave me two more reasons to remember it.
By this point, King had me following a gunslinger, caring about a billy-bumbler, and dealing with a train with serious problems. That’s a pretty good indication of how wild this series had become.
Who I’d recommend it to: Readers who enjoyed the first two books and want to keep exploring Roland’s world with this group. If the strange characters and unexpected turns are part of the appeal for you, there’s plenty more here.
Caution: Read The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three first. This builds directly on both, and the violence, disturbing imagery, and harsh language are still here.
Discussion question: Did The Waste Lands top The Drawing of the Three for you, or did the second book make the bigger impression?
— Cory Lane