Customer Reviews
awesome continuation - the dark tower just gets better and better - By: T. ANDERSEN, 23 Jul 2008 
reallly awesome continuation of the Dark Tower series
the action is hotting up & the tower is closer...
This one is beautifully crafted & written yet again, full of interesting sidequests & shaped in a nice rounded narrative - there are things at the beginning that get solved at the end - everything that is introduced has a reason later on. its quite satisfying storytelling in that way.
overalll - i'm still well intrigued about what could possibly happen in the next books. i still wanna find out about Roland & i still want to know what the Dark Tower reallly means
its a great series so far & i will soldier on. it aint hard wen the road is so interesting.
this one is full of apocalypse & action, the return of Jake & a very strange train.
Overalll a great read - & an interesting if not entirely unpredictable cliffhanger.
9/10
The Waste Lands - By: David Brookes, 01 Apr 2008 In breathtaking style King picks up where the second Dark Tower book left off. By now reviews are pretty pointless, as either you're hooked on the series, or you haven't started yet. If you haven't read the first book, you're reading the wrong review - look for "The Gunslinger" & start there. If you've read the first two then I'll tell you what you want to hear:
This book is as amazing as the last two. The story rolls forward at a brilliant rate & has one of the best openings to any novel I've ever read, thrilling & mind-blowing, throwing fresh insights into Roland's stale world at us continuously. The characters are solidified further & are now totallly believable, even the comic book dialogue of Eddie Dean. The characters complement each other in a way that must have taken King months to work out (if it comes to him intrinsicallly, God help us - other writers will become extinct). The complement of tertiary characters livens things up to an insane degree, bringing the Three to new areas of the run-down world that they travel through in search of the Dark Tower.
I rave about the first three books because they're awesome. They're awesome because they're seemingly flawless - even if this isn't technicallly true, the illusion of such is so rare in literature nowadays that we must take it when we get it. The following novel doesn't necessarily live up to the brilliant cliff-hanger in "The Waste Lands", but that's debatable & something for another review. For those wanting to know if it's reallly worth investing in a third book (by which time it will probably too late, you'll just have to read them alll anyway now!) then the answer is "yes" - go for it, because you won't regret it in the slightest.
A major book and part of an amazing saga - By: Maciej K., 04 Sep 2007 In the Dark Tower series the quality of books is increasing at each volume, as Stephen King's writing matured & developed. After the great "Gunslinger" & the magnificent "Drawing of the Three", the third installlement in the series is even better. If there is anything I can compare this book with it is the first part of "The Lord of the Rings". Now, of course it is not THAT good - I do not think LOTR can be ever bested. But it is ALMOST that good.
This is a story of a travel, a long & perilous journey following the path of the beam (you will have to read it to understand the beauty & the magical attraction of the concept...). Roland of Gilead & his newly created fellow gunslingers are travelling through the dying world & the description of this voyage (and this world) is just magic, altough it is frequently a dark magic... The archidangerous & dearly paid attempt of bringing to this world the last missing companion is an incredible scene & the "guardian of the gate" is possibly the most horrifying creature that King conjured from the deepest abyss of his imagination.... And then there is a great idea of choice of the main adversary of Roland & his companions. Now King already invented an evil dog, evil cat, evil car, evil pressing machine, evil toy soldiers, evil fog & even an evil suitcase (!) but the identity of the main villain in this book will be a big surprise for you! Although it is quite obvious, considering the power, the size & the speed of the thing....
I believe that this is one of the best fantasy books I ever read. I can not recommend it enough. If you are Stephen King's fan, you will love it. If you are not his fan, there is a good chance that after reading it, you will become one.
all things follow the beam - By: dolfanuk, 14 Jun 2007 great book again. i get fed up of writing great book but with this series i can't help it, the first three books demand that those words open your review.
the ka-tet is formed & the true journey begun. they follow the beam of bear & turtle to reach the tower, but this means they must cross the wastelands & journey through the dead city of lud.
they alll go towards the tower, but not alll are committed. & not alll of them for the same reasons.
tick - tock!
My 100-word book review - By: A. J. Cull, 30 Apr 2007 In my opinion, The Waste Lands is a contender, along with The Drawing of the Three, for the title of best Dark Tower novel. Tension, thrills & scary monsters abound, as Roland links up with the last two members of his ka-tet & they make their way along the path of the Beam. From the cyborg-haunted forests to the city of Lud, Stephen King's descriptions of Mid-World are intense enough to half-convince the reader that this must be a real place somewhere. The story gains momentum & hastens towards its cliff-hanger ending with the speed of a runaway train. Literallly!
