Reading Stephen King's The Drawing of the Three - The Dark Tower II
Are you excited about the coming movie the "Dark Tower" which will be shown on August 30? Do you know who Roland the gunslinger is? Well, I'm way ahead of you for those who haven't read the book the movie was based on.
I bought a Stephen King book entitled "The Drawing of the Three - The Dark Tower II" last May at SM Manila, at a book kiosk selling second-hand books. I paid a bargain price of 99 pesos for it. This is going to be my first time to read a Stephen King creation. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it. I think Stephen's novels are best appreciated on the big screen. Like the movie "The Mist" which was really scary and the story was really twisted.
I did some online research about the book and I found out that the Dark Tower is a saga. Stephen King began writing "The Dark Tower" saga in 1978 and introduced Roland of Gilead, the gunslinger, to the world.
Anyway, I told myself to finish the book but not in one reading, except when I'm really into a book. This is also a great opportunity for the downtime that I'm currently enjoying. Unfortunately, I really can't say a lot about this particular book because it's already the 2nd of four volumes. So I need to look for the first, third, and fourth volumes so I can read the entire epic saga. It would take a while because I need to scour bookshops for all the volumes that I don't have. Another more expensive option is to order all of it online.
The plot of the Dark Tower II revolves around three principal characters. The lead character is a gunslinger named Roland who is from another dimension. From the looks of it, he is one of the good guys. He is on a quest to defeat something worse than the devil which is at the Dark Tower. Roland has this ability to travel to another dimension through a door. He can also go inside the head of a person whose body he decides to occupy.
Another character is Eddie Dean. He is a heroin addict in this story. Eddie has a brother named Henry whom he dearly loves. Henry was killed by a crime mob because of botched drug delivery. Eddie's fate would cross-path with the gunslinger's through the portal. Eventually, he will team up with Roland in his quest to destroy the evil that's waiting for them at the Dark Tower.
Another interesting character in this book is Odetta Walker, a schizophrenic beautiful black woman who lost her legs to a serial killer. Odetta has two personalities - one evil and one good. The evil side is Detta Walker. A surprising twist in the plot would suddenly show that a third person would surface by the name of Susannah. I didn't see that coming.
There are two settings in this story. One of the settings is in Roland's world where it is arid, desolate, and filled with strange creatures especially the hideous crablike monsters that like to eat humans. The other setting is in this world where Eddie and Odetta live. Eddie's world is dark because it revolves around organized crime and drugs. Meanwhile, Detta and Odetta lead separate lives and lives in separate places which depends on which one is in control at the moment.
Roland sought out both Eddie and Odetta in this story. These two characters, which I think, would be valuable to Roland when he faces what's in store for him at the Dark Tower. However, both Eddie and Odetta/Detta are dysfunctional individuals who will freak out once Roland reaches out to them from the other side.
Anyway, I told myself to finish the book but not in one reading, except when I'm really into a book. This is also a great opportunity for the downtime that I'm currently enjoying. Unfortunately, I really can't say a lot about this particular book because it's already the 2nd of four volumes. So I need to look for the first, third, and fourth volumes so I can read the entire epic saga. It would take a while because I need to scour bookshops for all the volumes that I don't have. Another more expensive option is to order all of it online.
The plot of the Dark Tower II revolves around three principal characters. The lead character is a gunslinger named Roland who is from another dimension. From the looks of it, he is one of the good guys. He is on a quest to defeat something worse than the devil which is at the Dark Tower. Roland has this ability to travel to another dimension through a door. He can also go inside the head of a person whose body he decides to occupy.
Another character is Eddie Dean. He is a heroin addict in this story. Eddie has a brother named Henry whom he dearly loves. Henry was killed by a crime mob because of botched drug delivery. Eddie's fate would cross-path with the gunslinger's through the portal. Eventually, he will team up with Roland in his quest to destroy the evil that's waiting for them at the Dark Tower.
Another interesting character in this book is Odetta Walker, a schizophrenic beautiful black woman who lost her legs to a serial killer. Odetta has two personalities - one evil and one good. The evil side is Detta Walker. A surprising twist in the plot would suddenly show that a third person would surface by the name of Susannah. I didn't see that coming.
There are two settings in this story. One of the settings is in Roland's world where it is arid, desolate, and filled with strange creatures especially the hideous crablike monsters that like to eat humans. The other setting is in this world where Eddie and Odetta live. Eddie's world is dark because it revolves around organized crime and drugs. Meanwhile, Detta and Odetta lead separate lives and lives in separate places which depends on which one is in control at the moment.
Roland sought out both Eddie and Odetta in this story. These two characters, which I think, would be valuable to Roland when he faces what's in store for him at the Dark Tower. However, both Eddie and Odetta/Detta are dysfunctional individuals who will freak out once Roland reaches out to them from the other side.
The plot thickens when crablike monsters attacked Roland in his world and before he reached out to Eddie. The crabs with huge incisors mangled his right hand and foot and almost severed them from his body. Roland, in big trouble, fought his way out of that bloody mess and killed the crabs.
After coming out alive from the scene, he examined his wounds and saw that he badly needed food and medicine for his injuries. The only way to get them is through the door that goes through another world where Eddie lives. Roland has an unusual ability to hijack a person's mind like he did with Eddie. When he does his mind-hijacking thing, there are actually two people inside one body (weird).
Eddie's story in the book began when he tried to smuggle drugs into the U.S. aboard an airplane. Inside the plane, the flight attendant became suspicious about Eddie's behavior. She decides to report this to the captain, who in turn informed the police before landing. When the airplane lands, Eddie is going to be in big trouble and will face some serious jail time. While Eddie was finding a way out of his mess, Roland reached out to Eddie from his world through his mind.
With Roland's instruction whirling around his head, Eddie managed to ditch the drugs he was carrying using the portal between two worlds. He was not detained by the police at the airport because they couldn't find any drugs. Meanwhile, Eddie would freak out during moments where Roland would be inside his mind. Fast forward. Roland saved Eddie from being caught and he was able to get some food and medicine through Eddie.
After they got to know each other, the gunslinger tried to convince Eddie to join him in his quest. Eddie agreed to go along because of the numerous times Roland had helped him, including the chance to kill the crime mob who murdered his brother Henry.
All of the scenes happened when Roland and Eddie were shuttling back and forth through the door during tight situations. There was a lot of traveling back and forth scenes. On top of that, there are gruesome scenes as well, which is Stephen King's writing style to get you excited. Which is why I decided to finish reading the book.
Eddie's story in the book began when he tried to smuggle drugs into the U.S. aboard an airplane. Inside the plane, the flight attendant became suspicious about Eddie's behavior. She decides to report this to the captain, who in turn informed the police before landing. When the airplane lands, Eddie is going to be in big trouble and will face some serious jail time. While Eddie was finding a way out of his mess, Roland reached out to Eddie from his world through his mind.
With Roland's instruction whirling around his head, Eddie managed to ditch the drugs he was carrying using the portal between two worlds. He was not detained by the police at the airport because they couldn't find any drugs. Meanwhile, Eddie would freak out during moments where Roland would be inside his mind. Fast forward. Roland saved Eddie from being caught and he was able to get some food and medicine through Eddie.
After they got to know each other, the gunslinger tried to convince Eddie to join him in his quest. Eddie agreed to go along because of the numerous times Roland had helped him, including the chance to kill the crime mob who murdered his brother Henry.
All of the scenes happened when Roland and Eddie were shuttling back and forth through the door during tight situations. There was a lot of traveling back and forth scenes. On top of that, there are gruesome scenes as well, which is Stephen King's writing style to get you excited. Which is why I decided to finish reading the book.
The plot further thickens when Roland and Eddie reached out for Odetta and brought her across Roland's world. Roland would be needing Odetta's mean side Detta, but her sinister side were making their travel in the unforgiving land extremely miserable and difficult. Detta thought that both of them would kill her. Detta managed to place Eddie in a life and death situation. She used him as bait to lure the gunslinger so she could kill them both. Mysteriously, Susannah, the third woman would surface from the two women to help them battle the crablike monsters.
A surprising twist in the story unfolds. Eddie fell in love with the good side - Odetta, but her bad side -Detta wanted him dead. It's quite difficult to imagine and feel the "falling in love" part between Odetta and Eddie because of the gory scenes and exchange of foul languages, and the fact that Detta, the mean one, is out for blood. In fact, in one part of the story, Detta hurt Eddie so much that he was indisposed in the last part. But when he came around, Eddie would come looking for Odetta and will instead find Susannah. I guess Stephen is stretching his literary muscle into a twisted romance story.
Unfortunately, the story ends there. So I have to find the third volume to start off where the second volume ends. I'm now convinced that the story is great and I'm recommending to you all to read this volume and read on to the other volumes. It's sure to be a thriller. Although, it will add up to the would-be readers looking for the first, third, and fourth volumes.
That's not the last of it, Stephen will be coming out with volumes number five, six, seven, and probably eight. I searched Amazon to see if it's already available. As of this date, volume number five is not yet available for purchase.
Just recently, I was surprised by a movie trailer with the title the Dark Tower. I said to myself could this be related to the book I've read? So I searched YouTube just to make sure.
I got confirmation, and yes it's related to the book I've read. The movie was based on the first volume, because there's this one character, a boy named Jake, who Roland remembered in the second volume.
I won't say what happened to Jake because I would be spilling the beans and it won't be fair to the readers who are going to watch the movie. The movie is going to be shown in August. After that, I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of movie sequels to the Dark Tower.
I won't say what happened to Jake because I would be spilling the beans and it won't be fair to the readers who are going to watch the movie. The movie is going to be shown in August. After that, I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of movie sequels to the Dark Tower.
It's been quite a long stretch since 1978 (almost 40 years) when Stephen King created Roland. Now it's going to be shown on the big screen so I can't wait to see it.
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