The Drawing of the Three (43 page)

This completes the second of six or seven books which make up a long tale called
The Dark Tower.
The third,
The Waste Lands
, details half of the quest of Roland, Eddie, and Susannah to reach the Tower; the fourth,
Wizard and Glass
, tells of an enchantment and a seduction but mostly of those things which befell Roland before his readers first met him upon the trail of the man in black.

My surprise at the acceptance of the first volume of this work, which is not at all like the stories for which I am best known, is exceeded only by my gratitude to those who have read it and liked it. This work seems to be my own Tower, you know; these people haunt me, Roland most of all. Do I really know what that Tower is, and what awaits Roland there (should he reach it, and you must prepare yourself for the very real possibility that he will not be the one to do so)? Yes . . . and no. All I know is that the tale has called to me again and again over a period of seventeen years. This longer second volume still leaves many questions unanswered and the story’s climax far in the future, but I feel that it is a much more complete volume than the first.

And the Tower is closer.

—S
TEPHEN
K
ING

December 1st, 1986