The Dark Tower, (PtIII), The Waste Lands, book review. (Stephen King)

So, book three in the series, and this one feels a little disjointed, like a play of three acts: a beginning, a middle and an end, all good, but the intervals, the bathroom breaks if you like, are a bit lacking.

Let me explain.

Act one is about a giant cyborg bear that guards the beam, (one of twelve beams that lead to the Dark Tower), and when I say giant, I mean absolutely massive. The pace, the near death experience of Eddie and Susannah, (Susannah finally becoming a gunslinger), all has you on the edge of your seat, as does act two.

Act two is where Jake is rescued from New York again, and the connection he has with Roland and his ka-tet in Mid-World, is inescapable. As Jake edges his way through the city, getting ever closer to where he thinks he needs to be, Roland, Eddie and Susannah get ready for his arrival, and it's here that things get a bit slow; or is it just that when Jake enters a derelict house, and Susannah enters a stone circle in Mid-World - letting the Demon that resides there possess her - that the writing is sooooooo crazy good, that everything else seems dull?

Possibly!

Act three, the end of the book, where our five travellers - Jake's made it through from New York and has found a friend in a Billy Bumbler, (small furry raccoon like animal with limited vocabulary) - find themselves at Lud, a city not to dissimilar to New York, but one that has suffered from hundreds, maybe thousands of years of neglect.

Act three is good, not quite the best bit in my opinion, that's Jake in the derelict house, but I think the reason for this is found on the back cover: 'Set in a world of extraordinary circumstance', it reads, and at times, even though I know I'm reading a book of fiction, it feels like some parts are just there to plug the gaps rather than enhance the story. I suppose you could level this criticism at a lot of Stephen King novels, it can almost be a part of why we enjoy reading them so much, but here, it felt contrived.

The ending of course, isn't really an ending, because this is only book three in the series, but their run through Lud and their escape from the city on Blain the Mono, is fast paced and action packed enough to make you jump straight into book four.

Overall then, not as good as book two, but with moments of pure genius, three and half stars.