The Dark Tower: The Waste Lands (Review)

I just finished the third book of the Dark Tower series, The Waste Lands. I didn't bother to do reviews of the first two, but I figured I could get this review out, just for fun.

Summary (No Spoilers. Very Minor Spoilers for Book 2)

The story in The Waste Lands begins with the Gunslinger and his two new partners, Eddie and Susannah, continuing on the quest to the Dark Tower. The destination remains shrouded in mystery, but the characters, Eddie in particular, shows a strong desire to find the Tower, however, which seems to be tied to the supernatural knowledge that people often get in these stories. Along the way, Roland is plagued by insanity caused by the events of the prior two novels, where a time paradox was formed.

Discussion

I want to start by discussing this book in the context of the first two books:

The first book is definitely set apart from the rest in terms of how it is written. The book is much slower, more confusing, and harder to get into than the rest. This is not to say that I hated it, but I do think the story cuts out potential readers. King, himself, has suggested that readers should just skip over the novel. I would not recommend that, but I would warn readers that this book, although short, was much harder to push through than either of the other two I have read. One thing I really did appreciate about the book was the world; especially all the potential questions and roads to explore it provided. This sets the stage for later books, especially this third book. Another thing that really stuck out to me was the prose. In particular, the diction. His descriptions are the furthest thing from trite and unoriginal. I don't know if this is because I became acclimated to his writing, or he toned down his style as he continued, but I don't think the diction is as full as it was in the first book.

The second book was notable for its incredibly tense action scenes. King is not a writer who thinks action scenes are only guys exchanging blows, or only people shooting at one another. He is the master at suspense and building tension. Before an explosive shootout happens, he builds up that scene by creating escalating tension between the different characters. There are multiple threads that need to be resolved in the scenes, as well. While one plot thread is being dealt with, another thread is hanging and begging to dealt with fast, or there will be dire consequences. King takes time to cycle us through these scenes, building up the tension before letting the scene break down into violence. And King also manages to replicate this build up and climax, so that the middle of the story and the end of the story proceed like this.

The third book is notable for taking the best aspects of the first two books and rolling them all together into something incredibly compelling. The first book had its odd, esoteric world of the post-apocalyptic, and book two had its tense action scenes. This third book brings together these elements and gives the series a more coherent identity that was somewhat disjointed before. The third book has only further convinced me that this series will be great.

Strides (Spoilers)

The Waste Lands is a strong continuation of The Drawing of the Three. Like the previous book, I think there are two major climaxes in the story, one around the middle of the story and one around the culmination of the story. King, again, shows his excellent ability to build up tension. In the middle of the story, this is also shown in lieu of any significant fight scene, showing that King has an amazing ability to make a scene compelling through the buildup of tension. The haunted house's transformation into a monstrous amalgamation of rubble was portrayed in such a compelling manner. I loved the description, in particular; it was how he described the distorting wall slowly punching outward like a face was pressing against it. And the slow crawl advance of the monster only further contributed to the scene. While, from a more objective standpoint, you know that Jake isn't going to die at this point in the story, the way the scene progresses really makes you consider that possibility, all the way up to the point that Jake is feeling the teeth close around him.

The second half of the story is even better than the middle climax. At this point in the story, the characters have come upon the city of Lud, which is hinted to be a post-apocalyptic New York City, and the way the story is portrayed is so unique and terrifying and even funny in a twisted way. Probably my favorite aspect of this city is the God Drums. In the past, yet after the collapse of civilization, loudspeakers had been placed throughout the city for the purposes of communication, but their function has long been forgotten by the people who live there. Now, a drum track is all that plays on the loudspeakers, at intervals. The speakers are loud enough that they can be heard miles out from the city. The drums are ominous, at first, until Eddie claims they sound like the drum track to a ZZ Top song called Velcro Fly. This is only confirmed as the story progresses. And then, when the characters arrive in the city, they find one of the groups within the city called Pubes (yeah Pubes), and they are convinced these drums are connected to evil spirits residing in the ancient degraded machines below. They are convinced they must sacrifice one of their own by lynching them on one of the speakers each time the drum track begins, all this to hold these spirits at bay to protect them. So, yes, these people are ritualistically killing themselves to the drum track of a ZZ Top song.

The city only becomes more interesting when you consider the perspective of the Greys, who are another group within the city. These people, on the face of it, are less ignorant than the Pubes. They live primarily underground, and they are aware of all the ancient machinery down there; in particular, the computers. They don't know how to use them, though, but not without a desire to take control. As the heroes attempt to escape the city, they awake an artificial intelligence named Blaine that controls a high-speed train. Their intent is to use this train to move into the Waste Lands. It is revealed that Blaine is the presence that resides within the city and is controlling the so-called God Drums. The best part is that the book explicitly states that the more superstitious Pubes are actually much closer to the truth than the Greys are. I thought this was an interesting twist: while Blaine isn't an evil spirit residing in the machines, it was definitely a force to be reckoned with, something that the Grey took for granted and thought they could control.

This twist ties into an interesting line of thought that runs throughout much of this book, which is the blurring the lines between technology and magic. The series makes clear that both of these things exist, yet when it comes to the cyborg bear, the gate that produces the Beam, and Blaine, we often see a technological thing presented in a way that suggests magic. I find this to be a very interesting spin on the two things, where they are usually portrayed in opposition, but are instead bound up with one another, even potentially synonymous with one another. Another medium that does something similar is the Lost television show. Lost more explicitly toys with the audience's interpretations, by presenting technology and magic as opposing explanations, but the notion that they could explain the same phenomena still poses a similar thought that The Dark Tower does. I think King improved the notion, though, given that Lost was more interested in creating mysteries than coming up with answers; King isn't interested in the mystery aspect at all, but the presentation of ideas and the subversion of expectations.

(And, I'm joking. I know Dark Tower did it first).

Another thing that I really enjoyed was the opening up of the next novel. This wasn't done in the annoying way that movies often are, where the entire movie exists to promote the next one, and then the one after that. This story has small moments tossed into the climax, hinting at the next villain, who is a wizard acquiring companions to stop the Gunslinger. The story makes me want to continue on to the next one without squandering the story they have going now.

Finally, I actually like the place that it ended. Usually, a cliffhanger ending can be annoying, but in terms of the structure of the plot, I thought the story ended where it should before the story became too bloated.

Stumbles (Spoilers)

There were a few things that I did not like so much in the story. The most notable thing that comes to mind is Jake's first batch of chapters in the beginning of the story. These read almost like the first book in the series in that they were just confusing and the space that they take up seems wildly disproportionate to the content that they cover. This isn't a major gripe. I never put the book down, and I didn't have to push through, but I still think it is worth mentioning. The only relevance that King seems to give this series of chapters is draw vague comparisons between what Jake saw and what the other members of the group saw in their own visions. Apparently, the purple grass is related to what Roland saw in book one. I don't know what any of it means. And maybe King does have an idea of where this will go, though I know he's a seat of the pants writer, so I'm not expecting something to neatly tie it all together.

Another minor point would be the omniscient/head-hopping point of view. I'm not necessarily referring to my preference, though I'll admit I do prefer third person limited. I just thought that some places were confusing, with the constant jumping between different heads in a given scene.

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I had a hard time thinking of things I thought were problematic, too, so that is always a good thing. I think I will give this book a 9/10.