The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower II by Stephen King

Here we go... The first installment in this series came with a slight apology from Stephen King. Something along the lines of... "this could have turned out better in spots, but stick around for book II. Trust me." I trusted him and I'm glad I did. Roland the Gunslinger is no longer wandering the desert wastelands. This time he's wandering the deserted shoreline. But within minutes, he's attacked by giant talking lobsters. Not scary, you say? How about lobsters that chop off many of his vital organs and have creepy screechy voices? See? Roland leaves his first encounter with the "lobstrosities" wounded and in dire need of disinfectant. In his delirium, he stumbles across the first of three doors, and begins to learn more about his destiny. Each doorway leads to another "when" on our Earth. His first stop is heroin junkie Eddie Dean. Or rather, inside Eddie's head. After helping Eddie sneak through customs with a large score of drugs, Roland helps him straighten out enough to survive a gun battle with Balazar the drug kingpin. Eddie is drawn back into Roland's world and must help him to survive. They find a second door leading to Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker, two women sharing the same body in Civil Rights era America. A battle ensues to save Odetta's soul while keeping the trio alive. The third and final door is a desperate last stand for Roland. It's his only hope of saving Eddie and Odetta. King adds a great plot twist to balance the cosmos (at least temporarily... there are five more books to go...)

At this point, the Dark Tower shows great promise as a blend of sci-fi, horror, fantasy, and suspense. Not unlike the TV series "Lost" (which may be why I'm liking this so far...)