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I highly recommend this book, as well as the entire Dark Tower series. I read the entire series when I was younger, and have recently re read each of the seven books after purchasing a Kindle. The Waste Lands is one of the more interesting and engrossing books of the series, for me. King really starts to delve into what makes each of his characters unique in this volume, and the results are outstanding.
I just am afraid to see what the "poor" quality would be like. I am now wishing I had looked for and/or purchased a cheaper copy. It took a while for the book to reach me, it seemed like, and when I got it, it didn't look like the "very good" quality that was tagged to it. The items should be tagged correctly with the quality. Even though, I was happy when I finally got the book. It's worn, and looks like something I would be owning anyways. Other than that, I love the book, and am glad that I bought it.except I got another book for a penny (+$3.99 shipping) and the quality was better. Oh well, still happy with purchase, I guess.
Continuing from the previous story, we find Roland of Gilead and his two new companions, Susannah Dean and Eddie Dean (now lovers), stranded in a forest near one of the "portals" connected to the "beams" (quasi-magical and -technological forces supporting the Dark Tower that represents the source of all existence). All of these parts are vividly described, and while the fantastical elements in King's stories are often manichaean (divided by a good-bad, light-dark dichotomy between the forces fighting for control of the universe) and surreal, King makes them flow plausibly in the story.However, this book has a major weakness. "The Waste Lands" is the third book in the "Dark Tower" series by Stephen King (his magnum opus and the work that unifies almost all of his other works under one umbrella). Characterization, one of King's greatest traits as a writer, remains strong in this story - we get inside all of the main characters' heads, and they plausibly develop based on their background and the circumstances put before them. It is the first, but unfortunately not the last time, that King does something like this within the Dark Tower series.In spite of this, "The Wastelands" remains a highly readable novel, and an excellent novel occurring in the middle of a series. After a ferocious encounter with one of the last surviving Guardians of the Beams, Roland and his group head along the beam towards Mid-World, on the path to the Dark Tower. We find out more about how the Dark Tower is supported, the history of Mid-World (and the ancient civilization of the Old Ones), as well as the remnants of the wars that show how Roland's world has "moved on".
The former is excellent, and serves as a useful device to characterize both Jake and Eddie. It is an immensely interesting book with one major flaw, and its quality is largely the reason why I chose to continue the series after "The Drawing of the Three" (which I found good but heavily flawed). In some sense, it is really TWO stories - the path to possible reunion between Jake and the rest of the "Ka-Tet" (or fellowship), and the trial and tribulation through the ancient, mad city of Lud. Meanwhile, in New York, the now-living Jake Chambers struggles with increasing insanity from his split mind (due to events in the first and second books, part of him thinks he is and ought to be dead, while the other part thinks he is alive), and to find a way back to Roland's world. They are driven by "Ka", or the force of destiny within the universe of the Dark Tower, but it almost always appears as a natural outgrowth of the universe that the characters find themselves in, and almost never as simply a plot device.Moreover, King takes us into greater detail concerning both Roland's world and the Dark Tower. The latter, unfortunately, is not complete - King cuts off the story with the end of the book as this second "sub-story" is climbing towards its climax, weakening the story as a whole. I recommend it to anyone interested in Stephen King novels or the Dark Tower series in particular.
What a great audiobook. Well read and excellent writing. I normally don't like King's writing, but this is a really cool series. I'm hooked.
Maybe this gets explored a bit in the next book(s). The actual land o' waste doesn't actually happen until the last 50 pages or so.and I felt it was far too under-described--but this is understandable considering the circumstances of Blain the Train.
The landscape of the world in which the Gunslinger lives and treks changes and becomes more real to the reader. Finally: the novel happens.
I enjoyed this volume very much.I just feel it was titled incorrectly. Two more characters permanently (one is a boy from New York City and the other a small animal called a billy-bumbler that mimics back human words with a sense of intelligence) join up with the Gunslinger's group.
Some post-apocalyptic machinery takes place which takes the story from a Dalí-esque desert to a sci-fi analogue of a city (much like New York) in ruin that is governed by violent acts between two gangs of self-destructive marauders. Still, I was expecting a Waste Land, and not just mere glimpses.
We shall see.
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