Boy....this guy can write! - Rated 
Having the general impression that King books equalled horror I read the first part of 'The Dark Tower' series ('The Gunslinger') with a certain degree of healthy scepticism. I am not a horror fan needless to say, but, it was on the recommendation of a friend so.......
Boy...this guy can write! Whilst 'The Gunslinger' sets the scene for this extraordinary Quest Fest, 'The Drawing of the Three' both extends and hones King's nightmarish vision of Roland of Gilead's Mid-World and its connections with 'ours'. Giving a potted synopsis of the plot seems fairly unimportant and is, no doubt, present in other reviews. What impressed me most was King's style, characterisation and sheer power of writing.
Yes....the tale zips back and forth between different New York 'whens' associated with the various characters but it is the over-riding image of a empty, soulless beach, populated by only creatures which threaten to destroy the Gunslinger...both physically and 'spiritually' and so prevent him from achieving his aim to right the Dark Tower and so overcome the evils that have occurred when his world 'moved on', that will remain. Not wishing to be too 'metaphysical' this is also so much an image for any individual and, in this way, Roland is indeed an Everyman figure: an Everyman who begins to gain some beginnings of redemption through the bonds he gradually forms with those he has 'drawn' from another world.
Great stuff! I'm still on the Quest: it took King some time to write his series and I trust it will not take the same length for me to reach its conclusion.
Highly recommended.
Very enjoyable - Rated 
For all that I actually enjoyed the challenge The Dark Tower: Gunslinger Bk. 1 posed, it was lacking in a couple of departments, one of which was coherency. There was no plot-line running unbroken throughout, and the time scheme jumped from time to time within the main plot. The Drawing of the Three sorts this problem, and the result is another thoroughly enjoyable book.
Following straight on from The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three is less of a challenge, and is far more accessible. Whilst part of me was disappointed at it being less of a challenge, another part of me was wrapped up in the clarity of King's prose as he delivers a haunting and engrossing instalment to the series, really kicking off Roland's quest for the Tower. Highly recommended to all who enjoy a good fantasy yarn.
wow - compulsively readable and addictive - Rated
wow
this book is utterly brilliant - unbelievably well written - completely gripping and compulsively readable.
i will be honest that i didn't expect great things after the slightly disappointing Gunslinger, but this 2nd volume in King's Magnum Opus just takes the piss. it is a million miles better than number 1. and has made me a Dark Tower fan in seconds.
it is basically three doors and a story of drawing sidekicks out of them for the enigmatic hero Roland. These characters are amazing and colorful, the world's they come from and the scenes they get embroiled in are readable and gripping. King crafts characters better than most any other writer i know and this is no exception - the intros to every character are huge - and even minor characters get their entire life related to the reader.
its immensely satisfying - i found myself getting through about 150 pages of it in one sitting - it really was an up-all-nighter - the parallel world's and situations are just amazing to read.
King has done himself proud - and after this blinder of a novel i have high high hopes for this epic tale. if the rest of the series is even half as good as this one - it'll be an epic of unrivalled quality.
10/10 - its going straight in my top books - and hopefully if the series lives up it, has guaranteed a place for the whole Dark Tower tale :D
best in show - Rated
this is the best dark tower book - excellent pace, a gripping page turner.
it could almost be a standalone novel (almost) and has the most unique identity of all seven books.
The Drawing of the Three - Rated
It was inevitable that King wouldn't be able to keep up the dreamlike storytelling style that made "Gunslinger", the first in the Dark Tower series, so great. But of course he never intended to, he wanted to thoroughly open up the world that he had only just begun to describe in the first book.
The "Drawing of the Three" brings together the group of travellers that accompany Roland, the gunslinger, on his quest for the Dark Tower. From Roland's world we peer into others, including our own, and from them come to know a group of expertly realised characters in the form of Eddie, Odetta and Jake, all of which become so very real throughout the series that the books are not simply compulsive, but self-driven to the extent that you're worried they'll carry on without you if you ever put them down.
The opening is brilliant. When the story branches and we come to know the new characters, the "three", it gets even better. And, as King is so well at doing, the different threads come together in a manner that makes this second book so difficult to put down.
If you read the first book and wonder if you want to pick up the second, perhaps unsure of the route King is taking in this genre, or intimidated by the size of the sequels, don't hesitate. Pick up the second. If by the end you don't immediately want to pick up the third book, I'll eat my hat. If I owned one.
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