The Drawing of the Three is the second book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. We pick up immediately where The Gunslinger left off: Roland is on the beach, exhausted and passed out, facing immediate peril. His quest must continue though and as foretold at the end of The Gunslinger, Roland is about to meet (draw) three strangers that may help him in his quest.
First – let me tell you this is the second time I’ve read this book. The first was 27 years ago on my honeymoon before I gave up on the series because Mr. King hadn’t finsihed writing it (personal rule: don’t start a series until it’s completely done). And over all those years, I still remembered parts of the story which speaks well of the writing and the images created.
That said, while I know I found this book compelling the first time I read it, this time, I struggled a bit to get through it. Last night, as I was powering through to finish I finally realized why. We’re not just having this story told from one characters point of view but many. Furthermore, almost every scene of importance is scene not just from a single point of view but from the point of view from each character involved, so as the story climaxes, we’ve got more than three view points going at times. To me it dragged the story down when it should been moving along at a good quip and wasn’t necessary. I’m still going to continue with it but only giving it three starts (really wishing for that 2.5 star rating – between it was okay and I liked it), on GoodRreads.