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The Dark Tower: The Waste Lands
Reviewed: December 13, 2005
By: Stephen King
Publisher: Signet Books
608 pages, $10.99
My continuing re-read of The Dark Tower saga has taken me through the Waste
Lands. In book three of the series, Roland the Gunslinger is suffering from
the effects of having changed history. Two sets of memories are colliding
in his brain and driving him crazy. The same thing is happening in our world
to Jake, the young boy who died in Roland’s Mid-World during the first book,
but whose original death in his own world was forestalled when, in the second
book,Roland eliminated his killer before it happened. Most of this story is
about how Roland, Eddie and Susannah find a way to bring Jake across to Mid-World,
thus resolving the temporal confusion and setting them all back on the trail
towards the tower.
There is a generous mixing of material in this book, including references
to Richard Adams's Shardik, some classic childrens’ literature, and
hints of H.P. Lovecraft style monsters. There’s a devastated city that would
put the works of John Carpenter to shame, and an outrageous cliffhanger at
the end of the story which leaves our quartet at the mercy of a mad monorail
named Blaine. I recall how annoyed I was when I first reached the end of this
book in 1991. This time I was able to move right on to the next volume, a
much more satisfying experience.
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