This novel makes me want to write a nastygram to Stephen King. That doesn’t mean it’s bad: in fact, I really enjoyed it, and it’s definitely my favorite Dark Tower book so far. But the ending!
Think of the most cliffhangery cliffhanger ever, and you have the end of The Waste Lands. It might as well have stopped mid-sentence. It’s such a cliffhanger that Stephen King added an author’s note at the end apologizing for the ridiculous cut-off. If an author has to include an apology at the end of his novel, something is wrong.
That said, I loved this book. The Gunslinger was great and The Drawing of the Three was okay, though I think it was too much of a departure for the first. The Waste Lands was amazing – and still not what you’d expect to happen after either of the first two novels. The Dark Tower series is nothing like what I’d expected.
I don’t really want to include a summary here because it might spoil the first two if you haven’t read them, and they’re totally worth a read, so I’ll direct you to Goodreads if you’re so inclined. The Dark Tower isn’t like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels: you need to read these in order.
And so I’ll leave you with no real information about this novel except that I really liked it, and you should read it – after you’ve read the other two. The stupid ending almost roped me into moving directly into the next book in the series, but I decided to hold off and save some for later. All things in moderation!
