Dark Tower 4: Wizard and Glass - Stephen King

What astounds me about Stephen King's epic work 'The Dark Tower' is the intrigue it emits. Written in seven parts and spanning just over 20 years from the publication of the first part (The Gunslinger) to the seventh and final part (The Dark Tower), each part steadily chronicles the voyage and quest of Roland of Gilead, presumably the last gunslinger, and his various and changing companions as he edges nearer and nearer to the Tower itself. What he will do when he gets there, not even he knows. It is his 'ka', his destiny, and he must follow it. The first three installments served us very well in establishing Roland as a character, and then introducing us to ...  Read the complete review

Roland and his ka-tet finally reach Topeka with their lives. I won’t tell you how they beat Blaine the pain, as that would spoil it, but suffice it to say they survive, Blaine doesn’t and they reach their destination. Or do they? After climbing out of the ruined train, just one more casualty of this dying world, they discover that they appear to be in Kansas, America. But who’s ‘when’? Time is strange in Roland’s world. Time and distance can no longer be relied upon as the whole infinite number of universes and the Dark Tower, which governs them, is crumbling and decaying at an alarming rate. At some point during the train ride, time ...  Read the complete review

I enjoyed the The Gunslinger. I loved The Drawing of Three. I found The Waste Lands slightly disappointing, but by no means bad. Wizards and Glass, though? This put the nail in the coffin for me, for the Dark Tower series but also for Stephen King as an author. Wizards and Glass begins where The Waste Lands finished off, with the whole Blaine the Mono scenario. I found the conclusion to this strand of the story utterly ridiculous, but this is not the main complaint, nor is the irrelevant details which followed this scene. I ask all of you who bear some sort of fondness to long-running TV shows or films to perhaps recall those little flashbacks that intrude ...  Read the complete review

Wizard and Glass was an amazing experience to read. I had waited years after the conclusion of Book three in King's Dark Tower series (entitled 'The Waste Lands') to see what would happen after the incredible cliffhanger. I had read on the internet that the fourth volume was mostly concerned with a romance story from the past of the main character - Roland, the gunslinger. I wasn't keen on the idea of this; I just wanted a conclusion. Boy, did I get the wrong idea. I should have learned by now that King can write anything, and I would enjoy it. The romance in this book is heartbreaking. Very few King books can affect me for awhile after I finish ...  Read the complete review

Currently the most recent of the Dark Tower (the fifth book is expected at the end of 2001), 'Wizard and Glass' continues the narrative of Roland and his group as they leave behind the city and enter the Blasted Lands. However this is mainly briefly covered in between long visits to a time about fifteen or twenty years before, when Roland was a young man. Roland and his friends, Cuthbert and Alain, are on a secret mission to uncover the machinations of men who are opposed to the government of which their fathers are members. Disguised as commoners, they under constant threat of discovery, but this doesn't stop young Roland falling in love with local girl ...  Read the complete review