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published 1990, Signet
The Drawing of the Three is the first in a series of six or seven books (as of March 1998, books one through four are complete) in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, inspired by Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." Building on a solid first book, Stephen King starts to hit his stride with this one.
The Gunslinger, the first book, left off at the end of the gunslinger's twenty-year pursuit of the man in black. Having caught the man in black and learned a part of what he needs to know, the gunslinger begins to collect the cast which will accompany him on his quest for the dark tower.
Seriously injured by an encounter with a "lobstrosity," missing fingers from his right hand, and lethally infected, the gunslinger begins his poisoned and feverish way along the beach he has reached toward the dark tower. Even more than the first book, this one portrays him as inhumanly driven in his quest; only death will keep him from the tower, and he drives his crippled and diseased body towards his goal, seeming to survive by sheer willpower.
The gunslinger comes across three doors on the beach, each a view of our world from behind the eyes of a different person. Behind the doors he finds the fulfilment of the oracle's prophesy and the man in black's Tarot reading from the first book. The first door holds The Prisoner, a man named Eddie who struggles beneath the dual burdens of a heroin addiction and his needy good-for-nothing brother Henry, whom he loves without limit. The second door holds The Lady of the Shadows, a paraplegic schizophrenic who is alternately the mild-mannered and lovely Odetta Holmes and the furious and extremely dangerous Detta Walker. Eddie and Odetta begin a romance, but Detta's homicidal tendencies, combined with the dying gunslinger's illness, throw quite a wrench into the proceedings. Behind the third door the gunslinger finds The Pusher, a man named Jack Mort who lives a dual life as a successful businessman and a mass murderer. The gunslinger uses these people without compunction to get what he needs to reach the tower: antibiotics, ammunition, and more gunslingers.
This book has a number of excellent characters. The three people "drawn" by the gunslinger are all connected, to each other and to the boy Jake from the first book, though none of them know the others. The unfolding of their intricate connections is fascinating; Stephen King has an excellent feel for complex plot. Unlike the first book, in which the relatively boring gunslinger was the major character, this book is dominated by much more interesting figures. Eddie is particularly well developed, and is truly believable. Eddie's struggles to free himself psychologically from the grip of his brother are powerfully written, though the book ends with him still bound by Henry's chain.
The "small band of travellers" which fantasy tales so often feature has assembled, and they're a really fine set. With such a solid foundation of plot and character to build on, this series promises to be a zinger.
Review by Greg Ferrar
Reviewed August 11, 1998
ISBN 0-451-16352-4
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