February 21, 2018sarahylockwood

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

Rate: 4/5

Medium: Audiobook

Overview (No Spoilers):

This journey King is taking us on keeps getting better and better, making me ever more thankful that I didn’t give up on this series after The Gunslinger.  At this point, I’m just along for the ride as our ragtag group continues their adventure to the Dark Tower.  As with The Drawing of the Three, our four main characters continue to grow exponentially in depth and interest as the series progresses.  As I’d pondered after the conclusion of book two, the ramifications of Roland saving Jake from being pushed by Jack Mort were brought to light with almost devastating consequences.  The Waste Lands flops back and forth from Jake in his world to Roland and his two sidekicks traveling in the Gunslinger’s.  These perspectives gave the reader both a deeper understanding to Jake’s background, as well as demonstrating how Eddie and Susannah were flourishing and coming into their own in Rowland’s strange realm.  Additionally, King significantly developed the world building in this novel as our group of wanderers come in contact with other cities and their inhabitants, while simultaneously detailing the new people’s history and culture.  Moreover, we are finally getting hints regarding Roland’s mysterious past, with the promise that all will be revealed in upcoming books.  Overall, The Waste Lands is a fast paced read that will keeping you on the edge of your seat due to the sheer enjoyment of partaking in such a unique quest, despite the path of that said journey being blurry at best!

Additional Insight (Spoilers Abound):

  • What was the significance of the cyborg bear? Why was it sick and rotting despite living for many, many years?
  • Is the turtle that is mentioned several times the same one from IT?
  • I loved that Jake came back into the story! He had quite the adventure between thinking he was losing his mind, to the battle with the house, and finally being kidnapped by the Gasher.
  •  Oy was the best new addition to the story line. I was so sad when we thought he was going to die while rescuing Jake.
  • What is the  significance of the Rose that Eddie and Jake are seeing?
  • Will the group be able to beat Blaine the Mono at the riddles? What happens if Blaine realizes he has a split personality? What happens if Jake tells him that he is in a book?
  • The riddle book will come into play, however what happens if the group doesn’t know the answer to a riddle that Blaine can’t guess?
  • When will Susannah tell Eddie she is pregnant. The scene with her and the demon was so very difficult to listen to.
  • The Tick Tock Man survived and is spurred on by someone we assume to be evil to follow the group. How can he follow if he is not on Blaine?

 

15 comments

  1. u know i’ve never actually read anything by king yet?? im not sure how i even managed that. especially when every time i see ppl talk abt his books, it’s all good things! like with ur review. i guess i should finally give him a chance huh…..

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  4. Yes, I really liked this one! I’ve only read the first 4, but in my opinion, this one of the fourth were leaps and bounds above the first two. I hated the way this one ended though – with that cliffhanger 😛 I hope you’ll like book 4 too. Believe it or not, you’ll actually start to get some answers then too.

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    • Ya that cliffhanger was brutal! King talks about it in the Author’s Note and pretty much said he had hit a writers block at that point in the story. I’m excited to see where book 4 goes! Are you going to continue with the series?

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  5. Seeeeee…if you would have stopped after “The Gunslinger”, you would’ve never known how much better the series gets after slogging through that one ;). Loved this one too!

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