In the second book of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' series, Roland of Gilead reaches out to the world of a heroin addict named Eddie Dean for help.He's dying of starvation and infection.Roland, the last in a long line of fabled gun-slingers, helps this heroin addict stand up to mobsters who would otherwise destroy him.Eddie barely escapes with his life into Roland's world, which is much harsher but in many ways more fulfilling than the Earth Eddie's used to.It has been foretold to Roland he would draw three souls who would help him achieve his quest of 'The Dark Tower.' Eddie Dean, the heroin addict who has had to go cold turkey, is the first of the three.The second is revealed to them as they approach another door in the plain that is labeled 'The Lady of Shadows.'.Eddie, hoping to get back to his own Earth to get heroin, begs to be allowed to go through that door.Roland doesn't let him.He knows the addict will get high if allowed to go and won't return.So he goes through himself, even though Eddie threatens to kill his sleeping body.He now sees a world in 1960's New York through the eyes of a black woman in a wheelchair.She is Detta Walker.She is also Odetta Walker.She's a multiple personality,and Roland has drawn her as his second card.She is Detta one minute and Odetta the next.She's a 'wild one.' Roland returns with her to his own world.Things get crazy as this multiple personality woman is sweet one moment and tries to kill them the next.She's brought her wheelchair and her temper with her.She's not there willingly.Roland slips back into fever.The course of antibiotic wasn't enough.He must enter the 3rd door for more medicine, guns, ammo, and his 3rd card.But the man whose body he enters this time is evil, not one he wants to bring back to his world.He likes to push kids, women, anyone he can in front of Subway Trains.In fact, he's the one responsible for Detta being in a wheelchair.Roland uses this murderer to get the supplies smuggled back into his world.Then he forces the murderer to leap in front of the train he's pushed others in front of.But in killing this murderer of the 1960's, he stops a murder from being committed that changes the future (which is in his past) and upsets the balance of things considerably.A boy is left alive who should have been dead.This is his manipulation of the murderer.He finds himself as he enters this third door with the ability to fit in this world and not make people so suspicious.Now he's learning to use his brain to help him get what he wants.Roland plans to manipulate the murderer by taking control of the man's body.He fools two cops into helping him to steal guns, ammunition, and medical supplies while in the murderer's body.These will help him stay alive, and will also help him in his quest for 'The Dark tower.'.Roland forces the murderer in front of the train, getting revenge for Detta Walker and saving a boy from ever getting murdered.Unfortunately, this upsets mother nature.Roland is now resupplied but one person short of the three he was promised.He takes a stronger course of antibiotic and gets as healed up as a person with missing digits can get.He takes time to get to get acquainted with his two apprentices.Detta's split personalities become one after some struggle.They melt into one person -- Susannah.The addict forgets about drugs and becomes a 'gunslinger' like Roland.So does Susannah.Soon, through another type of doorway later in the book, Roland does draw his third card, a boy named 'Jake.' He's the boy who should have died by the hand of the murderer, but who didn't because of Roland's actions.Nature is furious.'The Drawing of The Three' is one of the best fantasy stories out there.I won't comment on the other books in the series other than to say the first two books seem to have literary value.Anyone used to Stephen King's usual suspense can find that in the first two books of The Dark Tower.But look a little deeper and the characterization is also well done as well as setting.Roland of Gilead in fact is a character rooted in the very soul of the 'Wild West.' Sure, it has 'genre' written all over it.But it is a mixture of several genres that seems almost to link modern thought with the gritty character of the old west.In a way these two books put us in touch with ourselves.It is in the juxtaposition of three characters, Roland of Gilead, Detta Walker and Eddie Dean, that King fuses three entirely different eras and walks of life.These three, along with a fourth who comes later on in book, set out on a mission that forces them back to the roots of their existence.Oddly enough, the quest of Roland of Gilead for The Dark Tower turns out to be a quest all four heroes in this book need to take.No longer are the main characters alone in their struggle.They now serve a cause higher than themselves, instead of either serving or ruining their own existences.There is no more 'alone.'.
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