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Nov 17, 2014danielestes rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I don't have a cool name for it yet so for now I'll call it "Dan's Rule of Part Three." It goes like this: For a book series, a movie franchise, a TV show, etc. to reach or exceed five installments (or seasons), your third needs to be an unequivocal hit. Part one needs to be the attention grabber, part two needs to hold it, and part three needs to delight and surprise beyond expectations. If it could speak, part three would say, "You think you know me? You haven't seen anything yet." This is essential for the whole to have the chance at reaching mass popularity. The Waste Lands, part three of Stephen King's Dark Tower opus, does exactly this. (Minor spoilers ahead) Roland Deschain, a gunslinger knight from an age long gone, frequently reminds us that his world has "moved on," which is to say it's grown old and rusty. Though that's not exactly right. More like it's sick and has worn down in the ensuing centuries. And what is this world exactly? It's not our world, no, and yet it's weirdly similar. It's as if the two have bled together. The Waste Lands opens with Roland and his newly-drawn Ka-Tet locating the Path of the Beam, which is one of six energy corridors that intersect at the nexus of time and space. At this intersection, folks, resides the Dark Tower, and it's what Roland has sought nearly his entire life. The tower though is still thousands of miles away. For now, other dangers are more immediate. When Tower Fans set upon this latest path through Mid-World, it was like having the fog removed from our imaginations and for the first time understanding just what this crazy adventure was all about. The Waste Lands thrills in part because it's a quest in the classic sense. Roland and his new Ka-Tet cover some significant ground by the book's end so there's a real sense of spatial accomplishment. (Something ignored in the next few books.) Of course, the road to the Dark Tower has many obstacles, and distance is only one of them. But beware of what you might find when you go looking for things that have stayed hidden for hundreds and thousands of years.