| The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands |
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 First edition cover |
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| Author | Stephen King |
| Cover artist | Ned Dameron |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dark Tower series |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy, Horror, Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Grant |
| Publication date | August 1991 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 590 |
| ISBN | 0937986178 |
| Preceded by | The Drawing of the Three |
| Followed by | Wizard and Glass |
The Waste Lands is the third book of the The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. The original limited edition hardcover featuring full-color illustrations by Ned Dameron was published in 1991 by Grant. The book was reissued in 2003 to coincide with the publication of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla. The subtitle of this novel is REDEMPTION.
Contents |
Plot summary
The story begins five weeks after the end of The Drawing of the Three. Roland, Susannah, and Eddie have moved east from the shore of the Western Sea, and into the woods of Out-World. After an encounter with a gigantic cyborg bear named Shardik, they discover one of the six mystical Beams that hold the world together. The three gunslingers follow the Path of the Beam inland to Mid-World.
Roland's group receives two new members: Roland's formerly-dead companion Jake Chambers from 1977, and an unusually intelligent billy-bumbler (which looks like a combination of badger, raccoon and dog with parrot-like speaking ability, long neck, curly tail, retractable claws and a high degree of animal intelligence) named Oy. Originally Jake had come to Mid-World by dying on Earth, but Roland's actions in the previous book had involved going back in time and preventing this death from happening; thus, as this volume starts they are both being driven crazy from the paradox of feeling the reality of both timelines, which are mutually exclusive. Jake is able to pass into Roland's world using a portal which exists in a haunted house on Dutch Hill in his place and time: the New York City of 1977. The portal ends in a 'speaking ring' in Roland's world. During this crossing over, Susannah has sex with the demon of the speaking ring to keep it from attacking Eddie. Once the group is reunited, Jake's and Roland's mental anguish ends; but inexplicably, the timeline that was canceled out and thus never happened becomes the one they both remember as real.
The ka-tet continue on the Path of the Beam to Lud. The ancient, high-tech city has been ravaged by decades of war, and one of the surviving fighters, Gasher, kidnaps Jake by taking advantage of the near-accident the team faced while crossing a decaying bridge that looks like the George Washington Bridge of NYC. Roland and Oy must then trace them through a man-made labyrinth in the city and then into the sewers in order to rescue the boy from Gasher and his leader, the Tick-Tock Man. Jake manages to shoot the Tick-Tock Man, leaving him for dead. The ka-tet is eventually reunited at the Cradle of Lud, a train station which houses a monorail that the travelers use to escape Lud before its final destruction brought about by the monorail's artificial intelligence known as Blaine the Mono. The "Ageless Stranger" (an enemy whom the Man in Black warned Roland that he must slay) arrives to recruit the badly-injured Tick-Tock Man as his servant.
Once aboard Blaine, a highly intelligent, computerized train which is insane due to system degradation, it announces its intention to derail itself with them aboard unless they can defeat it in a riddle contest. The novel ends with Blaine and Roland's ka-tet speeding through the Waste Lands, a radioactive land of mutated animals and ancient ruins created by something that is claimed to have been far worse than a nuclear war, on the way to Topeka -the end of the line.
The Twelve Portals and Guardians
Twelve Guardians are explained to guard the Twelve Portals. Each Guardian matches up with a Guardian at the Portal on the other end of the Beam, and at the point where all the Beams meet is the Dark Tower. The Guardians are revealed in several scenes: the first is revealed when Roland is explaining to Eddie and Susannah Dean what Shardik was and his understanding of the Beams; another is revealed when Eddie and Susannah approach the Cradle of Lud; and the last, Bird and Hare, are revealed in the poem Roland and his lover, Susan Delgado, recite to each other occasionally: "Bird and Bear and Hare and Fish...." The only pairs identified are by Susannah and Eddie while at the Cradle of Lud.
Shardik was created by North Central Positronics Ltd., which may be connected to the mysterious Sombra Corporation.
The pairings as mentioned in the book are:
- Bear - Turtle
- Horse - Dog
- Hare - Fish
- Elephant - Wolf
- Lion - Eagle
Gallery
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First edition book cover |
 Paperback book cover |
 Alternate Paperback cover |
 Hardcover Reissue / Tradeback Cover |
 Mass Market Paperback Reissue |
External links
- TheDarkTower.net forums
- The Dark Tower Compendium website
- The Dark Tower official website (requires Macromedia Flash 6)
- List of Stephen King's works - including this series - from his official website
- TheDarkTower.com
- Towerpedia!
- [FR] LaTourSombre.fr : French encyclopedia
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