The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (CBR-III #15)

Series: The Dark Tower Book II
Cannonball Read III: Book #15/52
Published: 1987
Pages: 480 (5,599 total so far)
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure

This is the second book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series and I have to say I liked it much better than the first. The story flowed a little better and we added a few much-needed characters to keep the mystery of Roland from becoming too dull.

This book continues right where The Gunslinger ended. Roland wakes up on the beach and immediately enters a battle with these giant lobster-like creatures that results in him losing a couple of fingers and toes. After defeating the creatures, he continues his journey up the coast until he finds a door standing upright in the sand.

The door is labeled "The Prisoner" and enables Roland to enter the mind of a heroin addict named Eddie Dean. Eddie is in a completely different world and time than Roland - 1980's New York City. Roland must convince Eddie to join him in Roland's world and go with him on his journey to the Dark Tower.

There are also two other doors placed in intervals down the beach. The second enters into the mind of a schizophrenic woman in 1960's New York. Sometimes she's the calm, mild-mannered rich woman named Odetta Holmes and other times she's the crazy, white-person hating woman named Odetta Walker. Through the third door, Roland enters into serial killer (or "pusher" as he calls himself) Jack's head.

The purpose of this book is pretty much to set up the main characters for the remainder of the series. King introduces us to some pretty interesting (and unconventional) characters and I'm excited to read the rest of the series now. I wasn't so sure about it after the first book, but this one definitely got me hooked.