Reviews with content warning for Blood - 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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bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

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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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nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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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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luciawolfie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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