Entertaining the Alien

34. The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands, Stephen King*

I've noticed I tend to run about a week behind when making these posts. I actually finished this on the plane home from Boston earlier this week. The last Dark Tower book comes out in a week and a half, and the way it stands, I won't have 1-6 re-read by then, which was my original hope.

Overall, this is high on my list of books from this series. I think it's probably the one that comes closest to crossing the line between horror and dark fantasy (in fact, you could argue that it DOES cross that line--Lud is a nightmare). What makes me love it though, is that here's where the characters really start to be who they are. The initial shock of the first two books is starting to wear off, and they're starting to get their bearings. And we start to love them.

Plus, as an additional bit of affection, this book is what first introduced me to T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland", and for that alone it would be one of my favorites.