By Jack Mulvey, Staff Writer

May 10, 2021

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

Stephen King

1987

Roland sits upon the beach of the western sea. The Man in black is gone and the Gunslingers future is more unclear than ever. This is the opening that both the reader and protagonist find themselves at the beginning of the second volume of "The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three." 

Contrary to the very isolated and story of the Gunslinger, "The Drawing of the Three" focuses on two new characters Eddie Dean or the Prisoner, a drug addict who Roland finds smuggling said drugs on a plane heading back into New York, and Odetta Holmes a schizophrenic woman who is left in a wheelchair after someone or something pushes her into an oncoming train. 

The aspect that makes this book so beloved compared to its predecessor is the character writing that is present throughout the novel. Both Odetta and Eddie are extremely well developed and bounce off of Roland’s cold matter of fact demeanor very well. "The Drawing of the Three" also does a good job at humanizing Roland the unbreakable Gunslinger now relying on both Eddie and Odetta to aid him in his journey that up to this point had been an isolated affair. 

One of the larger character aspects centered mainly around Eddie is addiction. King not only describes but shows the effects that addiction has on the human mind gives the character of Eddie dean even more depth along with having a conflict with Roland. Along with Eddie Dean’s addiction, Odetta Holmes’s schizophrenia is also given a significant spotlight. Her character is a slight mess of several different characters as she hops in between each differing personality. This gives the book another level of conflict and challenge that the main characters have to face. 

Overall, "The Drawing of the Three" is a wonderful second addition to the still strange and fantastical Dark Tower series.  I give it a final score of 10/10