The story of Roland, The Last Gunslinger, was so compelling and disorientating and baffling that I absolutely had to move right on ahead to the second part of the series. 
 My main complaint about The Gunslinger was that it was a little slow. That, and the story was neatly compartmentalized into sections - Tull, Jake, Man in Black. At the beginning of each section I was thrilled; by the end I was getting a little tired. 
 The Drawing of the Three has a very similar outline - this time the three acts are linked to the predictions made for Roland in the first novel - The Prisoner, The Lady of the Shadows, and Death. The difference this time (for me) was that the pacing was much better. Plus, I am more interested in the story and in Roland himself now, so I was much more compelled to continue reading. My own desperation for answers has now become mirrored by Roland's determination to get to the Dark Tower - I would put money on King recognizing this. 
 The new characters are interesting and layered - I barreled through The Prisoner: aka Eddie's act, which I found exciting and funny and really quite unlike anything I'd read before. The Lady of the Shadows slowed me down quite a bit, simply because she was such a vile and unlikeable character I honestly didn't want to read about her. Then the final Act, focusing on the character named as Death, was so wonderfully full of jeopardy and tension and insane scenarios that I read it in a night. 
 Still, we are no closer to any answers or explanations. Damn you, King. If you don't tell me what the hell the Dark Tower is soon...