stephen king: drawing of the three

what happens when you mix a fist full of dollars with... okay, i don't know. ursula le guin, maybe. well, you get stephen king's dark tower series.

just finished king's the drawing of the three, the second of 7(?). the first is the gunslinger. and damn, i have to hand him my hat: king knows how to tell a story. he makes it a page turner with just enough suspense, but not too much that it feels contrived (like dan brown's da vinci code and george r.r. martin's song of fire and ice series can).

that this is king's first, and perhaps dearest story is obvious: the story is lovingly rendered. i'm not a fan of his horror (i read "it" a while ago; the book did nothing for my innate distrust of clowns) but had read another of his fantasy novels, the eyes of the dragon, many many years ago. few have ever heard of it, but it certainly captured my imagination, enough to want to read the dark tower series.

king moves fluidly between his characters' point of views, never once leaving the reader with vertigo, proving (and giving me hope) that the damn "rules" that almost every book on writing warn you against breaking should, in fact, be broken.

the other thing i've noticed about the first two dark tower series and eyes of the dragon, is how everything falls into place with a near audible click. he's sown his seeds early in the book and by the end of it, he's cashing it all in, leaving just enough to keep the reader going. there's a feeling of completeness that satisfies, especially when we must contend with a world that seems to throw stuff at us with no meaning and no warning. it's nice to believe that things happen for a reason, that there is "ka" (gunslinger-speech for something like destiny). in other words, he wields not only the power of a good story teller, but also the power of a good story. hard to do both, i'm rapidly realizing.

all in all, very cool. i'm a bit nervous about the other 5 books. three books is about all i can take in a series. but for now, this reader is sold, lock, stock, and smoking barrel.