"Yet suppose further. Suppose that all worlds, all universes, met in a single nexus, a single pylon, a Tower. And within it, a stairway, perhaps rising to the Godhead itself. Would you dare climb to the top, gunslinger? Could it be that somewhere above all of endless reality, there exists a Room? ... "You dare not." (The Gunslinger)

The second book in the series picks up where we last saw Roland, on the beach following his protracted argument withe the Man in Black. Before Roland can continue with his quest, he is attacked by monstrous creatures from the sea, which he calls "lobstrosities", and during their encounter, he loses two fingers and a big toe, seriously hampering his ability to shoot. In fact he has to teach himself to shoot with his left hand as well as he does with his right.

The Drawing of the Three concerns Roland's bringing together more of the people who will accompany him on his quest to find the Dark Tower. Seriously injured and near to death, Roland chances upon a series of doors on the beach, and deciding that he needs medicine of some sort, he decides to investigate.

Through the first door he finds himself in modern-day New York, where he encounters Eddie Dean, a heroine addict on a plane who will almost certainly be caught red-handed at the airport customs. Roland persuades Eddie to give him the drugs and goes back through the door, leaving the authorities unable to find anything on Eddie and therefore unable to charge him. Eddie follows Roland through the door into his world, having already secured aspirin for the dying gunman.

The second door takes Roland back to the 1960s where he encounters Odetta Holmes, the Lady of Shadow, who is schizophrenic. Odetta is a sweet, caring person, whilst Detta is the exact opposite, hateful and violent. Unfortunately for Roland and Eddie, Detta is the dominant one, and this could cost them their lives.

The third door brings Roland to an encounter with Death, in the form of Jack Mort. It is clear that Mort has had a big influence on what happened to Detta/Odetta Holmes. The end of the book sees a fight for life and death, from which only one woman can survive, and this turns out to be Susannah Dean. There are clues as to what might be coming in subsequent books: "He had no urge to kill his own. But he had done it before, hadn't he? Yes. Had not Alain, himself, one of his sworn brothers, died under Roland's and Cuthbert's own smoking guns?" This indicates that Roland and his gunslinger companions had been involved in an incident that resulted in Roland's killing Alain.

A big thank you to Kerry Hood and Hannah Norman at Hodder UK for supplying images for this series.

Links: There are numerous sites dealing with King's Dark Tower series, many of them started with the best of intentions but fizzling out before book 4, Wizard and Glass was published. Best of all are the three official sites, one from Stephen King's own official site, one from the US publisher Simon and Schuster, and one from the UK publisher, Hodder. Click on the images below and you will be transported to Mid-World, Stephen King's universe of the Dark Tower. But don't forget to come back here, Constant Reader!