Stephen King's epic fantasy series, The Dark Tower, is being made into a major movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. Due in cinemas February 17, 2017 USA.

In the second novel of King's best-selling fantasy masterpiece, Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger, encounters three doors which open to 1980s America. Here he joins forces with the defiant Eddie Dean and courageous, volatile Odetta Holmes. And confronts deadly serial killer Jack Mort.

As the titanic forces gather, a savage struggle between underworld evil and otherworldly enemies conspire to bring an end to Roland's quest for the Dark Tower....

Masterfully weaving dark fantasy and icy realism, The Drawing of the Three compulsively propels listeners toward the next chapter.

And the Tower is closer....

Listening Length

12 hours and 45 minutes
Author

Stephen King
Narrator

Frank Muller
Audible release date

14 June 2012
Language

English
Publisher

Hodder & Stoughton
ASIN

B00QTG3MZY
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	12 hours and 45 minutes
Author	Stephen King
Narrator	Frank Muller
Audible.com.au Release Date	14 June 2012
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00QTG3MZY
Best Sellers Rank	1,919 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 42 in Dark Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals) 150 in Dark Fantasy (Books) 167 in Epic Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals)

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4 star		15%
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2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Imaginative and well written but drags a little in the middle

Reviewed in Australia on 11 January 2021

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A good read and some great ideas but found it a little dark for a little too long. Comes good in the end but still a lot left unanswered, suppose that’s why there’s another 5 books..

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Ross Campbell

Five Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 17 June 2017

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Mesmerising

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Kris Bradley

did-a-chick dum-a-chum dad-a-chum did-a-check?

Reviewed in Australia on 17 July 2014

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this book does not fail in great story telling it succeeds by getting straight into it right at the start.

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Bonnie

Five Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 13 January 2015

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Top book Top series well done Stephan king!!

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Loosely drawn

Reviewed in Australia on 12 January 2015

Stephen King's Dark Tower series has become a modern classic, with its gritty imagination and mix of fantasy and horror. "The Drawing of the Three" is an expansive follow-up to "The Gunslinger," introducing a new cast of brilliantly unusual characters, but it's a bit slow and too devoted to setting up the main quest of the series.

Roland of Gilead wakes up on a beach, surrounded by carnivorous lobster creatures that manage to bite off fingers and part of his foot. Sick and possibly dying, he stumbles away and collapses.

But despite his problems, he still has to find and "draw" two people to assist him in his quest for the Dark Tower. He finds a door that leads him into our world, and inside the head of Eddie Dean, a young junkie/drug smuggler. Eddie reluctantly allows Roland's voice to guide him, as his beloved brother is murdered and his drug deal self-destructs.

While Eddie goes cold turkey, Roland starts to pursue the second person: Odetta Holmes, a beautiful African-American activist who lost her legs when someone pushed her off a train platform. She is also mentally ill -- she has a second personality, the foul-mouthed, psychotic Detta. Now Roland and Eddie are stuck with a woman who can turn into a malevolent killer at any moment. And now Roland pursues Jack Mort -- and runs into a familiar face from his past.

"The Drawing of the Three" is almost very good, but not quite. Unlike "The Gunslinger," this is pretty obviously a bridge between the first and third books, setting up the scene for the rest of the series. So it's rather awkward at times, as King tries to write a story around his formative characters. In that, he does a pretty good job.

King's writing has an evocative slam-bang quality, with lots of vivid moments -- the lobstrosities, the doors, the airplane, the blistering postapocalyptic world that Roland lives in. The descriptions comes alive with vibrant intensity. But he doesn't seem to be at ease with the constant, sprawling flashbacks to Eddie and Odetta/Detta's past lives, which add a weirdly fragmented quality to the book. It's easy to lose track of the action.

Enigmatic gunslinger Roland doesn't get much fleshing out in this book -- it's all about Eddie and Odetta/Detta. King brings their struggles and feelings up in all their beauty and ugliness, showing Eddie's love for the brother who led him astray. Odetta/Detta is particularly interesting -- one personality is a cultured, refined heiress, and the other is a murderous, racist psycho.

King stumbles over his fragmented narrative at times, but "Drawing of the Three" is a good follow-up to "The Gunslinger" and sets the stage for the remainder of the Dark Tower series.

One person found this helpful

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THE JOURNEY CONTINUES....

Reviewed in Australia on 2 September 2014

The sequel to the hugely original and ground breaking GUNSLINGER is also in it’s own right, hugely ground breaking and highly entertaining. It leaves the reader with the feeling of being an uninvited witness, an interloper if you will, to the imagination of a genius. A story teller with unparalleled access to, and control of, the English language, and an uncommon ability to create links from the reader's mind straight to the incredible universe that is accessible via the pages to be found in this book.

Readers of the book may well find themselves fascinated at the transformation of Roland of Gilead from hugely talented gunslinger to arguable superhero. Compared to the common folk of twentieth century America - for that is where the book is set - he certainly appears that way.

Mr King’s classic writing style is the same hugely entertaining and easy to read exposition it always is. The book is structured in a very simple way - indeed, it follows the title of the book virtually to the letter. Each part relates to the collection of party members that can be used by Roland as he completes his task of reaching THE DARK TOWER - but at this early stage of the book, neither Roland nor the reader know much about this fabled monstrosity. Nor do they care. They are having way too much fun to worry about it!

Part one is called THE PRISONER and relates to Mr Eddie Dean who is enslaved to the power of cocaine as well as the evil people who try to control it. Roland sees a strength in this character, even in this entrapped state, and the reader may well find themselves fascinated with the observations that Eddie makes about his new friend and rescuer, as well. Obviously the two are destined to become close friends and the baddies in this section of the story are easy to identify, and hate. The reader can’t wait to see how they will be bested by our two burgeoning heroes and this sub-quest can’t help but make the read all the more enjoyable.

The Man In Black is officially dead, so obviously his character can’t have a role to play in it’s own right but he still manages to remind us of his wisdom - or otherwise - via a recurring voice in Roland’s head. His capture and assumed destruction by Roland was the main existential point of reference in book one, so the reader may well ask how book two compares to the excitement and drama of it’s prequel without the main protagonist. That is one question I will let the reader answer themselves.

We know for a fact the ultimate mission of Roland the Last Gunslinger and his friends won’t be achieved until the end of book seven. But just like life itself, the fun is in the journey. And Mr King's books are so convincing, with characters in turns so endearing, lifelike, loveable and hate-able, we can easily supplement these books and use them as a metaphor for life. Which for the purpose of this review, I have done. An easy and hugely satisfying four stars from me.

BFN Greggorio!

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Top reviews from other countries

x0/AB\x0

Book 2 of 8 in the series. Excellent read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 November 2021

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Continues the adventures of Roland the Gunslinger.
You must read in series order.
A longer book that the first one, set in our time, featuring three linked characters.
Excellent writing, especially the Eddie character as he first encounters Roland.
A very different novel is some respects - Roland is no longer a 'lone wolf' and the novel is much better for this expansion in characters.

Garrerobritanico

Spine of book is yellow

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2017

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Don't buy if you want the advertised collectable covers that spell out "Dark Tower". The spine of this book and also book 3 are yellow.

17 people found this helpful

MarkC

And the story gets better...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2009

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The second book in the Dark Tower series, The Drawing of the Three, is the continuing story of Roland on his quest to the Dark Tower. Picking up where the events of The Gunslinger left us, Roland has aged by almost ten years after his encounter with the Man in Black and is faced with a huge stretch of beach which he must now travel. Not only does Roland have to face this journey with little food or water, but he is soon attacked by lobster creatures that take off fingers from his right hand after which he is inflicted with a fever that grows ever worse. But all this is just a background to the bigger picture - the doors he finds along the beach that lead back to our world and into the heads of certain individuals.

The Drawing of the Three takes Roland and puts him firmly in an unknown situation, with some very interesting results. Thrown into our world is a completely different experience for Roland and we see this immediately with his conversations with people he encounters. What is worse is the fact that as he's taking over the body of someone else to do it and putting himself in danger in the process. However, King does a good job with Roland and lets us see more of his character and personality through these situations. Roland may be a stranger to these places, but he sure isn't stupid and knows what needs to be done - and how.

The interaction between Roland and the people he must communicate with is great. As the title suggests, there are three doors he must enter in order to draw his three. The first of these is Eddie Dean, a junkie and native New Yorker. Eddie is an interesting character because of his flaws and the fact that he isn't just another doped up waster. He has something special about him but has been led into the wrong situations in the past which has ended him up in some serious trouble. The second door leads to Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker, one woman with split personalities. Roland senses the difference in these two immediately - one is kindly while the other is vicious, all of which goes back to an incident in their childhood. Not only this, but Odetta/Detta has lost her legs and is bound to a wheelchair which does not help Roland in is journey across a difficult terrain. The last door leads to Jack Mort, a man whose private life is in stark contrast to his successful career. He is a murderous man behind the false front, pushing innocent bystanders into traffic, trains and anything else he can get away with without notice.

It's difficult for me to say too much about the encounters that Roland has with these people with really spoiling the story, but King has weaved a very impressive story here. Many fates are intertwined and the repercussions of the events here are going to be felt for a while to come. The interactions between the characters, specifically with Roland, is very interesting and we get to see more of what makes Roland such a formidable person, and not only through his fighting. There is always a sense of danger throughout The Drawing of the Three and I never once felt the story was playing it safe, all of which made the pages turn all the quicker. Some of the twists here work very well and although hinted at during the story I didn't fully appreciate the impact until the end, which has left the story open to progress at a good strong pace.

The Drawing of the Three is another reason to pick up this series and is a strong novel in its own right, although even at book two you must have read the first installment to fully appreciate many of the events. Highly recommended.

3 people found this helpful

C. R. Spencer

As good as it gets

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 December 2013

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For me, this is about as compelling a story as one can get. As you will have gathered from the other glowing reviews, this is the second in the series and where this epic really gets going. I am, however, definitely NOT advising skipping volume 1, there is lots of scene setting there.

I love the invention, the writing style, the story, everything. Mr. King was in exceptional form when he wrote this. My second read, easily as good as the first, and it's good to refill the content that leaks out of memory. At time of writing, there were no 1 star reviews (out of 87) which says a lot, so yes start reading the gunslinger series. 4.6 out of 5 (and this review might just push that up) say you will be delighted.

One person found this helpful

Appleton

A good volume in the Dark Tower series, vastly improves on The Gunslinger

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 June 2017

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A Good read and so much better than the Gunslinger... A very character driven story that starts well and really gets going in the later stages. Although there were some dry patches about half way through.

I won't be rushing to read Wastelands, although I understand it's a much more story driven book.

Love some of the characters, so will definitely dip back in at some point in the future!

One person found this helpful

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