The Waste Lands (edit title)

• Rated 3 stars

“This one was pretty good, although it has the super graphic sex scene in it that made me a little more than uncomfortable. Otherwise, I like it. I don't like how it leaves us hanging, though. At least the other books were already written when I read it...”

• Rated 5 stars

“The story begins five weeks after the end of The Drawing of the Three. Roland, Susannah, and Eddie have moved east from the shore of the Western Sea, and into the woods of Out-World. After an encounter with a gigantic cyborg bear named Shardik, they discover one of the six mystical Beams that hold the world together. The three gunslingers follow the Path of the Beam inland to Mid-World.

Roland's group receives two new members: Roland's formerly-dead companion Jake Chambers from 1977, and an unusually intelligent billy-bumbler (which looks like a combination of badger, raccoon and dog with parrot-like speaking ability, long neck, curly tail, retractable claws and a high degree of animal intelligence) named Oy. Jake is able to pass into Roland's world using a portal which exists in a haunted house on Dutch Hill in his place and time: the New York City of 1977. The portal ends in a 'speaking ring' in Roland's world. Due to Roland's actions in the previous book, this Jake had avoided the death back on Earth that had originally brought him to Mid-World to meet Roland the first time. Unexplainedly, however, the time-line that was canceled out and thus never happened becomes the one Roland and Jake both remember. During this crossing over, Susannah has sex with the demon of the speaking ring to keep it from attacking Eddie.

The ka-tet continue on the Path of the Beam to Lud. The ancient, high-tech city has been ravaged by decades of war, and one of the surviving fighters, Gasher, kidnaps Jake by taking advantage of the near-accident the team faced while crossing a decaying bridge that looks like the George Washington Bridge of Jake's NYC. Roland and Oy must then trace them through a man-made labyrinth in the city and then into the sewers in order to rescue the boy from Gasher and his leader, the Tick-Tock Man. Jake manages to shoot the Tick-Tock Man, leaving him for dead. The ka-tet is eventually reunited at the Cradle of Lud, a train station which houses a monorail that the travelers use to escape Lud before its final destruction brought about by the monorail's artificial intelligence known as Blaine the Mono. The "Ageless Stranger" (an enemy whom the Man in Black warned Roland that he must slay) arrives to recruit the badly-injured Tick-Tock Man as his servant.

Once aboard Blaine, a highly intelligent, computerized train which is insane due to system degradation, it announces its intention to derail itself with them aboard unless they can defeat it in a riddle contest. The novel ends with Blaine and Roland's ka-tet speeding through the Waste Lands, a radioactive land of mutated animals and ancient ruins created by something that is claimed to have been far worse than a nuclear war, on the way to Topeka -the end of the line.

”

• Rated 5 stars

“ Man after this one it will just really suck you in. My roommate asked me about this series and the only thing I could think of the tell him was that it was like nothing I've ever read before. It was just a so imaginative book and I never really see any of the events coming. It's just such a different type of book that I can't really explain. The world they are in is just so grand and I just want to know more and more. King's writes in such a great way that the story just plays out in my head and I won't even realize I'm reading for a couple of pages. I'll just say that I'm glad I don't have to wait six years for the next one to come out like the people did when this was new. Great book. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“An excellent series that I devoured. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“Out of the 7 books in the the series, this is one of my favourites. It has 3 stories going, that all merge into one. Also, we see a freaky post apolyptic world.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Great fantasy characterization and plot.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I was really getting into this series, but found I lost interest when it took so long for each next edition. I love reading King but was a little disappointed waiting so long for each new book.”

• Rated 5 stars

“One of my 2 favorites of the Dark Tower series. In this book, Roland, Susannah, and Eddie have to bring Jake into their world at high risk, because Roland is beginning to go insane in his world and Jake in his. We are introduced to the wonderful character of Oy in this book as well. I loved Oy so much that I named one of my cats after him. We follow the ka-tet into the city of Lud, where they must find a way out on Blaine the Mono.

ALSO- just an FYI for avid King fans who have yet to read this series but who have already read The Stand- you are in for BIG surprise toward the end of this book! ”

• Rated 5 stars

“Of the series, this is the only one that I've read. I got the book on a book sale and I was instantly hooked. The way King described every scene was so vivid and the way the story flows just seems to take you to that magical world of Roland.

I haven't read the other books yet, but I'm planning to. It's just that I can't find the first 2 books on BookSale so I have no choice but to buy new, expensive, ones. But first, I have to have money. ”