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The Man in Black is
dead, and Roland is about to be hurled into
20th-century America, occupying the mind of
a man running cocaine on the New
York/Bermuda shuttle. A brilliant work of
dark fantasy inspired by Browning's romantic
poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower
Came". Like The Gunslinger, The Drawing of
the Three is a brilliant work of dark
fantasy, inspired by Browning's romantic
poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower
Came." |
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AudioFile - Ruth P. Ludwig
In a re-issued collection of the first three
books of King's fantasy saga, Frank Muller revisits the
world of Roland of Gilead, Jake Chambers, and Eddie and
Susanna Dean. King himself originally recorded the three
books as he wrote them over a period of ten years. Muller
recorded book four, Wizard and Glass, in 1997. The series
centers around Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger to walk
the earth since the world "moved on." Roland travels in
search of the dark tower, a mysterious, never-seen entity he
believes holds the key to the world's having moved on. In a
series that provides 36 hours of listening to the same voice
(with no special effects), one expects a lapse in interest.
But Muller, the master of narration, pulls out all the stops
here. He makes characters unmistakable through dialogue and
timing. In fast-paced conversation, dreams or breakneck
bursts of action, he moves effortlessly among dozens of
people. Narrative passages flow with equal grace and
fluidity. Muller uses tricks, such as dragging out words and
phrases, singing when the characters sing, and contriving
animal and mechanical voices. Even his Foreword and
Afterword sound like Stephen King . . . with one exception:
The author would never pronounce his home city "Bang-er,"
rather than the "Bang-gore" of a native Mainer. R.P.L.
ŠAudioFile, Portland, Maine |
