Stephen King Saga: The Waste Lands

I remember picking this book up in my early teens, when I was in the midst of my Stephen King fandom, with no knowledge of The Dark Tower series. I knew this book was part of a series, but my teenage confidence led me to believe that I could read this one and then, if I liked it, I could backtrack and read the others.

Nope. It didn’t take me long to abandon it in favor of lighter fare, like Needful Things or something.

Fast-forward about 15 or 16 years and here we are. I’ve now read the volumes in the series in the proper order, and I’m much better prepared to take on this interesting journey into Mid-World. Jake, who appeared in The Gunslinger, returns to the ka-tet, as does a billy-bumbler named Oy. Roland and his motley crew must travel through some questionable areas and get past a few disturbing characters to get closer to the Dark Tower. We also meet Blaine, arguably one of the greatest villains in locomotive form ever to appear in literature. I truly enjoyed the conversations with Blaine, this left-behind, artificially-intelligent monorail with an evil streak.

I had vivid memories of the illustrations from my prior attempt — Charlie the Choo Choo is pretty darn creepy. I love the train angle because my hometown mascot is a train, although not named Charlie. Also, my daughter has discovered Thomas the Tank Engine and I can’t help but wonder when Thomas and Edward are going to snap and drive a group of screaming children off a cliff.

The appearance of Mir, or Shardik, the giant bear is pretty intense – and mysterious, when our ka-tet discovers that it is a mechanical production from North Central Positronics. The bear is apparently one of the Twelve Guardians, who stand watch at the portals leading in and out of the world. Are the other guardians machines in disguise as well? Hopefully we find out as we continue traveling toward the tower.

I love the idea of people being brought together for a common destiny. It was this quality that I enjoyed most about “Lost” – that a group of random people are meant to be together because each can play a part in accomplishing something. Each person has a reason to be in the group, and they complement each other in some way.

I also love the idea that many tiny coincidences have a greater meaning. I strive to watch out for these coincidences in case my life is really a great mystery or an epic film and I need to connect everything together in order to survive. Because that could happen.

Our heroes travel along the Beam, which connects portals on each side of the world. The Beam is essentially magnetism, gravity in a sense. It binds together space, size, and dimension. Blades of grass curl along the Beam, and if you look closely you can actually see the connection.

I’m excited for the group to reach Topeka – I want to see what Kansas looks like in this other dimension.

Connections:

• “Light out for the territories” – The Talisman
• Cadillac DeVille – is that what wolfs drove in The Talisman?
• “All was well, all was well, and all manner of things were well” – from The Talisman?
• The Mansion? From The Talisman?
• La Merk Foundry
• Is Blaine related to Christine? To those in Maximum Overdrive/Trucks?
• Richard Fannin, aka Randall Flagg, appears to TickTock and references Trashcan Man (are he and Tick Tock twinners?)

Further reading:

• The Wastelands at The Dark Tower Wiki
• Rereading Stephen King: The Waste Lands
• The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
• Shardik by Richard Adams

Lastly, Stephen King always has great music references in his books — but where can you fit ZZ Top into a post-apocalyptic world where people have reverted to public executions in the town square? Why, in the city of Lud, of course.