The Waste Lands
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands follows The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three as the third volume in this remarkable series, which well may be the most extraordinary and most imaginative cycle of tales in the English language.
Inspired in part by Robert Browning's narrative poem, Stephen King has written once again of his twenty-year affair with The Dark Tower and its strange world that is both so familiar and unfamiliar to us. Writing of his masterwork, King reveals that he is "...still able to find Roland's world when I set my wits to it, and it still holds me in thrall... more, in many ways, than any of the other worlds I have wandered in my imagination."
The first volume in the cycle, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, tells of the haunting, mysterious character of Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger, in a world that has "moved on." A second volume, The Drawing of the Three, picks up Roland's quest upon a deserted beach of the Western Sea.
In The Waste Lands, we are joined with old acquaintances: the boy Jake who has been introduced in The Gunslinger, along with Eddie Dean and Susannah, who are so prominently featured in The Drawing of the Three. Roland's strange odyssey continues. There are new evils... new dangers to threaten Roland's little band in the devastated city of Lud and the surrounding waste lands, as well as horrific confrontations with Blaine the Mono, the piratical Gasher, and the frightening Tick-Tock Man.
The Dark Tower cycle continues to set its author on a plane apart. What lands, what peoples has Stephen King visited that are so unreachable to us except in the pages of his unique writings?
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Stephen King
Stephen King’s name is synonymous with horror, suspense, and the kind of storytelling that lingers long after the final page is turned. Born in Portland, Maine, in 1947, his love for the macabre began early, drawing inspiration from his small-town upbringing and the creeping unease that would define much of his work. From his first short stories published in magazines to the blockbuster novels that changed the literary landscape, King's journey from aspiring writer to a cultural phenomenon is nothing short of legendary.
The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower tells the story of Roland Deschain, a lone gunslinger on the search for the elusive Dark Tower. Why he's looking for the Tower, no one knows. What he expects to find there, even he doesn't know. All he knows is that he must get there, at any cost.
Along the way Roland meets up with many characters, and encounters many strange places. Roland's world is moving on, and he with it, a remnant of the past. Drawn to the brink of death, he draws three people from a very familiar world to aid him in his quest: Eddie Dean, a former New York junkie; Jake Chambers, a boy who has inexplicable ties to Roland; and Detta Walker, a woman who could be their damnation, or their salvation.
The Dark Tower consists of seven primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Related series The Dark Tower Graphic Novels
