While pursuing his quest for the Dark Tower through a world that is a nightmarishly distorted mirror image of our own, Roland, the last gunslinger, encounters three mysterious doorways on the beach. Each one enters into the life of a different person living in contemporary New York.
Here he links forces with the defiant young Eddie Dean and the beautiful, brilliant, and brave Odetta Holmes, in a savage struggle against underworld evil and otherworldly enemies.
-Goodreads
Book Information
- Title: The Drawing of the Three
- Series: The Dark Tower #2
- Author: Stephen King
- Page Count: 463
- Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy
- Rating: 3.75/5.0
- Date Read: April 28th, 2024
Opening Thoughts
To begin this review I want to state that I’ve really wanted to enjoy the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I read the Gunslinger for the first time a couple of years ago now. Recently I gave book one another try and though I felt a bit better about it I still wasn’t really sold. With that being said, a bookish buddy of mine really wanted me to give book two a try as he felt the series was much better than the first book may elude to.
We decided to give a buddy read a go for The Drawing of the Three in the month of April. I did enjoy this one considerably more than I did book one. There was still some things that I thought were more than a bit odd or grating to me personally. I’ll get to these shortly. I would imagine big fans of Stephen King don’t mind these though and actually expect them if not actually enjoy them.
Pacing
The pacing was fine with this read. I didn’t really have any issues with pacing on the first book either. I think most of my Stephen King reads are paced fairly well. Maybe I’ve just been lucky so far, I’m not sure. No issues with names or places and of course these works are edited well. I went with the audiobook version which was narrated by Frank Muller who does a solid job in bringing this story and these characters to life. This book is on the shorter side compared to a lot of my other reads so in that aspect it felt a bit fast as well. I short, no issues on the pacing of these read in my opinion.
World Building
The world building continues to be really good with this series. This is one of the reasons I’ve really wanted to enjoy it. I caught the film awhile back which gave me a bit of a primer and I’ve been intrigued ever since. Now that I’m two books in, I realize the film barely scratched the surface for this world. At this point I’m not even sure where things are going from here. With Roland’s ability to use these doors to travel to other dimensions or times anything and everything seems to be on the table. And knowing this world is created with the imagination of Stephen King, who knows what happens next. By the end of book two we do see some plot twists coming together though.
Character Development
The character development was also solid even if I wish one of the three were done a bit differently. The Prisoner was really fun and entertaining to see unfold. Death was also entertaining if a bit darker, yet still entertaining. The Lady is the one that was just really grating to me. I do get that it was necessary and part of where the story was going but I found myself simply not enjoying those parts of this book as much as the others. If you haven’t read this book don’t take this as me not enjoying a female role within the story. The Lady refers to a specific card and character which I just don’t agree with some of how she was portrayed. That might not even be the way for me to describe it. It’s more back to the level of enjoyment, which just wasn’t there the majority of the time with that character.
Roundup & Recommendation
At this point I do plan to continue onto the next book in the series. I know my buddy is chomping at the bit to get into the next one. May is looking rather packed. I do have it on my monthly TBR but it’s on the lower end of priority. We shall see how the month progresses.
Scoring
World Building 4.5/5
Pacing 4/5
Character Development 3.5/5
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