Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Dark Tower III, Volume 3: The Waste Lands

This book is so incredibly well written and enjoyable. It had me feeling tense whenever I had it open, and itching to pick it back up the second I put it down.

The world King created in this series is so uniquely weird, and endlessly dark, but he brings little moments of light and reminders of the characters' humanity to balance it out (Oy is definitely a highlight of this book for me).

Can't wait to pick up Part IV and continue the adventure.

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draven_deathcrush's review

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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bookbelle5_17's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Review of The Waste Lands

By: Stephen King

This is the last one to reread before I continue the rest of my journey to The Dark Tower with Roland and his Ka-Tet. I remembered even less of this one then I thought and what I did remember comes much later than I expected in the story. Roland, Eddie, and Susannah continue to travel through Mid-world to get to the Tower as Roland trains them to be Gunslingers, but he is being driven insane by two different memories. One of Jake Chambers and one where he never met the boy. Back in New York city in the 70s, 11-year-old Jake is experiencing the same thing, and has become obsessed with finding the door to Roland’s world, knowing that is where he belongs.

Though, I don’t remember most of this one, I can still say so far, this is my favorite out of the first three books. I appreciated how we spent more time in Roland’s world as much as NYC. We got to see several locations, such as the forest guarded by a giant cyborg bear and the city of Lud where only seniors are left and are strong as they used to be. It showed what is left since the world moved on and we got a glimpse of what a Gunslinger was to people. Some feared Gunslingers and others treated them like saviors. Seeing Roland interact with different people, not just Eddie, Susannah, and Jake, showed Roland’s compassion and understanding of people. Though, he is a hard teacher, he cares about people wanting to make sure the vulnerable can defend themselves and survive, but it does have a cost. The love he has for Jake is sweet and gives off fatherly vibes. I liked the scenes when he is using Susannah’s and Eddie’s emotions and memories to motivate them. They see it as a cruel and harsh, but to Roland, it fuels them and makes them stronger. There are some colorful antagonists such as Gasher and The Tick Tock Man. Gasher is that annoying and aggressive lackey for the bad guy, who is brutal but dumb, and is determined to please his master. The Tick Tock Man is more intimidating with his temper and his need to control things in anyway he can. Blaine is a shadow looming over them, but he doesn’t appear until closer to the end. He’s like Gollum from Lord of the Rings but is physically Thomas the Tank Engine. We still get a bit of New York, as Jake lives there like the other two, and has a mysterious link to Eddie. I liked how his teachers at school were nice and understanding and his English teacher loving his “essay” that is about Mid-World to be funny. Jake’s dad was an ass like Henry, Eddie’s older brother, and like the Dean brother’s mom, Mrs. Chambers was frustratingly passive and submissive. There was a sex scene that made me uncomfortable giving me the same feelings I had about the scene in IT with the kids that will never be shown on screen. I can’t say if it was necessary or not, but I was not comfortable with it and skimmed through it. There is a lot of back and forth between characters so it’s less in your face. There is a lot of traveling and talking/thinking from the characters slowing the story down a bit, but we do get some thrilling sequences of action and tension throughout. There is a trope I like where we have something for children that’s supposed to be fun, but there is a hint of creepiness and danger to it. So continues my journey throughout Mid-World, and don’t forget to remember the face of your father.

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ggcd1981's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The Waste Lands é o terceiro volume da série The Dark Tower e é uma melhora desde The Drawing of the Three. Continuamos seguindo o Gunslinger Roland, o ex-usuário de drogas Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean (a união das duas personalidades conflitantes de Odetta) e Jake Chambers. Jake é o menino que, no primeiro volume, foi sacrificado por Roland na sua busca pela Dark Tower. No segundo volume Roland entra na mente do homem que mata o garoto em Nova York e impede o crime de acontecer, consequentemente criando outra realidade na mente de Jake enquanto ele está em Nova York. Stephen King nesse livro aprofunda as personalidades dos já conhecidos personagens e fortalece o relacionamento deles. King especialmente se aprofunda em Jake e Eddie nesse volume. O autor explora a luta do garoto com as memorias de duas vidas diferentes, uma em que ele vive e uma em que morre. Eddie por sua vez luta com o fantasma do seu irmão bully, com seu relacionamento com Roland e com o seu recém encontrado desejo de ver a Dark Tower. Susannah devo acrescentar também está se tornando um sólido personagem feminino. Em determinado momento ela faz sexo com um demônio para tirar a atenção deste de Eddie que estava tentando abrir a porta do Mid-World para Jake. Nessa situação o consentimento de Susannah é dúbio e pensei que a história da personagem giraria em torno desse ocorrido, mas para minha feliz surpresa o acontecimento não define a personagem e ela é capaz de seguir adiante na jornada com o grupo. Roland continua sendo um protagonista bom o suficiente para me manter lendo. Minha única ressalva dos personagens é que a química deles é boa, mas não excelente. Eles são um grupo tão heterogêneo (um menino, um ex-usuário de drogas, uma herdeira e militante social e um gunslinger) que é difícil pensar neles como a trope da “Found Family”. Os personagens são tão diferentes um do outro que é difícil imaginar o que eles têm para conversar além da Dark Tower, mas isso pode ser minha Ansiedade Social e Introversão influenciando minha visão do grupo. Vale mencionar também que o personagem do “Tick-tock man” foi introduzido e desconfio que ele ainda terá mais influência nos volumes a seguir. A atmosfera da série é bem única, um cenário de filmes Westerns misturado com Sci-Fi Distopia e com toques de Fantasia. Para minha surpresa essa atmosfera me agradou pois normalmente esses são gêneros (Western, Distopia) que não gosto muito. Devo então elogiar King pois se ele conseguiu misturar gêneros que não gosto e ainda assim criar uma atmosfera que me prende isso é pura habilidade dele como escritor. Isso não é surpresa, King tem uma das melhores escritas que já li. É claro, ela não é perfeita, não importa em que década o livro se passe os personagens, independente de sexo e idade, falam e fazem referências como se estivessem na década de 70. Porém, no geral, isso não diminui muito o meu divertimento com a leitura dos livros do autor. O enredo foi interessante o suficiente: Vários meses se passaram e os dois companheiros de Roland tornaram-se pistoleiros proficientes. Eddie Dean desistiu da heroína e os dois eus de Odetta se juntaram, tornando-se a personalidade mais forte e equilibrada de Susannah Dean. Mas quando lutou contra The Pusher em 1977 em Nova York no Volume 2 de The Dark Tower Series, Roland alterou o ka ao salvar a vida de Jake, o menino que – no mundo e no tempo de Roland - já havia morrido. Roland e Jake passaram a existir em mundos diferentes, mas unidos pela mesma loucura: o paradoxo das memórias duplas. Roland, Susannah e Eddie devem trazer Jake para o Mid-World e seguir o Caminho do Feixe até a Torre Negra. Ao longo do caminho, o “tet” tropeça nas ruínas da cidade de Lud e fica preso entre as gangues em guerra dos Pubes e dos Grays. A única maneira de sair de Lud é acordar Blaine, o Mono, um trem insano que tem paixão por enigmas e por viagens suicidas. A história é, em maior parte, intrigante e inesperada, mas em alguns pontos tem problema de ritmo. Por exemplo a parte do livro em que Jake está em Nova York sem saber se Roland e Mid-World tinham sido apenas sintomas de sua loucura ou algo real, e se foi real como retornar aquele mundo, foi uma parte que se arrastou por mais tempo do que deveria. A jornada de Jake, desde que apareceu no texto achando que estava louco, sua procura por algo que não sabia realmente o que era, até finalmente conseguir atravessar para o Mid-World foi desnecessariamente longa e detalhada causando alguma impaciência e diminuindo um pouco a sensação de curiosidade da minha parte. Quanto a lógica interna da obra, bem, esta é um tanto randômica. King não parecia ter realmente um plano de para onde a série estava indo. A sensação é que o mundo e o enredo dessa obra foram criados no improviso. A explicação para o que não tem explicação no livro é “Ka”, algo semelhante a destino. Algo que não faz sentido acontece? Foi Ka. A ideia de Ka-tet também me pareceu um pouco confusa. Aparentemente Ka-tet é um termo no que Roland denomina “High Speech” para um grupo de vários indivíduos centrais ligados uns aos outros para um propósito, com indivíduos adicionais desempenhando papéis transitórios e funções específicas dentro do grupo. Mas se a história e seus conceitos as vezes são ilógicos eles também são inesperados e imprevisíveis, assim aumentando seu nível de entretenimento. Nesse aspecto posso dizer que a obra sim me entreteve e estou curiosa para ver onde o autor vai levar essa história não usual. O meu rating é um sólido 3.75 estrelas.

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roenfoe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

These just keep getting better! I can see why so many people cite The Waste Lands as their favorite Dark Tower book; I haven't read the rest yet, but this installment one of the coolest books I've read this year.

There is plenty to love that is old news at this point in the series.

A deliciously weird setting with continuously teased world-building (never feeding you as much as you want, but just enough to keep your interest)
Excellent plot that is constantly introducing new elements as much as it harks back to prior ones. Remains fresh without feeling cheap, keeps you hooked throughout
Further development of the ka-tet relationship between the main characters as it increases in strength due to the addition of Jake and Oy
Intensification and clarification of the plot, both within the story of The Waste Lands and across the series as a whole
Excellent characters, with the added bonus that Detta makes fewer appearances. Don't get it twisted, she still plays a role in this book (and is still an insanely racist caricature), but she's present less
Great pace that kept things grooving quite nicely. It doesn't feel overbloated at all, a problem that I hypothesize will become an issue with the latter installments, based solely on their significant bulk

However, I do still have some criticisms (that are also mostly old news).

Detta, once again. I've harped on this in prior reviews so I won't do it again here. But jesus, that
rape scene with the ghost demon and Detta was heinous. King, what the hell?!
.
The Jake plotline had an inevitability element to it. I couldn't see him realistically killing off Jake after investing such a huge portion of the book in him finding the door to Mid-World. Therefore, these sections were the most boring part of the book. It seemed that Jake would make it to Mid-World, no matter what happened
.

I can't wait to read the next one. I'm spacing them out like rations, so it might be a couple months. Overall, the best Dark Tower book so far!

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saemiligr's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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tiepilot_dandy's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Only Stephen King could put a fantasy version of a Wild West gunslinger, a heroin addict from the 1980s, and a disabled activist with multiple personalities in a riddle contest with a sentient train and make it feel like horror. And not just horror, but really good horror.

After The Drawing of the Three, I really wasn’t enjoying this series all that much. I only read book two to discuss it with a friend, and said friend (and a spoiler he gave me after I finished book two) was the main reason I picked up this book.

And I’m so glad I did, because I actually enjoyed this one.

I think a large part of that was the setting. Instead of desert in The Gunslinger and an interminable beach in The Drawing of the Three, Roland and company actually went to some interesting places in this book. They spent some time in a forest, traveling across a grassland, and in a small village entirely populated by elderly people. But the most interesting place to me by far was the city of Lud.

Lud has a very post-apocalyptic feeling – even though it hadn’t gone through one singular apocalypse, it’s been devastated by years of war, two different factions fighting each other within the city walls, and terrifying technological happenings that take on a supernatural element because no one understands how or why they work. Considering that the gang was just passing through, I got to see a remarkable amount of the city, but I wish I had been able to explore it more. I love the idea of a long-lost people creating great architectural and technological marvels and the people living with them now not comprehending what it was that the ancient people actually did.

This book also reveals some more details about Roland’s world and why it is the way it is (giving no answers but raising plenty of questions), a bit about Roland himself, and a lot more about Jake. It gets Eddie on board with the “find the Dark Tower” quest, but it still doesn’t explain what the Dark Tower does or why Roland wants it so badly. There’s several encounters with terrifying ancient technology that were really interesting, and it’s definitely leaning harder into horror than the previous two books did.

I can’t call this one of my favorite books, but I actually enjoyed it. I was already planning on reading the next book, and then this one went and ended on a cliffhanger. As annoying as that is, it makes me glad I’d already decided to continue the series. If nothing else, this world is finally getting interesting.

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