Book Review - Dark Tower 3: The Waste Lands by Stephen King

      As part of my efforts to read the entirety of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, as well as any notably related works, I finished up The Wasteland about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I know, I waited a long time to write this, but life got in the way and I've been really busy. Without further ado though, here are my thoughts on The Waste Lands.

      I'm not entirely sure if it was because I read The Stand between The Drawing of The Three and The Waste lands, or what, but when I first started on this novel I wasn't really into it. It was slightly interesting and well written, but I just couldn't really get invested in the story. Until they got to Lud that is. Once they arrived at the great city things picked up, they really picked up. One of our main characters getting kidnapped was one of my favorite sequences in the entire story. The vivid description of Jake, Roland, and The Gasherman hurriedly sprinting through the endless heaps and mazes of rubble littering the city was incredible, and the characterization of The Tick Tock Man is by far one of the most interesting antagonists I've ever come across in a Stephen King novel.

      As I said, this book only got more and more compelling the longer the story went on, and the ending was no exception. Everyone says that King's biggest weakness is ending his stories, and this one worked out so well because he didn't end it at all. It leaves off on a major cliffhanger, and the beginning of The Wizard and Glass really feels like the true ending to The Waste Lands. I can see why some people take issue with that, but having the fourth book in my possession to start immediately upon finishing this one, it didn't bother me at all.

      I really enjoyed reading the scenes involving Blaine the Mono in particular. I remember thinking while our protagonists were on the train, that nobody could have possibly imagined that happening after reading only The Gunslinger. I found myself really appreciating just how much of a tonal change King made from book to book, which couldn't have been the easiest task. Especially if he wanted to keep fans of the first book invested.

      One thing I forgot to mention is that I think the opening of this book is far superior to the way the first two in the series began. With a mechanical bear monstrosity trying to kill Eddie, and Roland/Susannah having to save him. New York city was once again a major player here, in both flashbacks pertaining to Eddie's childhood, and Jake 2.0 making his way to Mid World. Reading about the latter story in particular made the recently released movie make a lot more sense

Overall I'd say that The Waste Lands was an inferior book to The Drawing of the Three. It had some genuinely great moments, and some decent character development. However the plot - which at times felt very directionless - combined with the first act which really dragged (aside from the intro) weighed the rest of it down for me, which keeps me from rating it too terribly high.

I'm giving The Waste Lands by Stephen King a:

3.5/5