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Amazon.co.uk Review
Wizard and Glass, the fourth episode in King's white-hot Dark Tower series, is a sci-fi/fantasy novel that contains a post-apocalyptic Western love story twice as long. It begins with the series' star, world-weary Roland, and his world-hopping posse (an ex-junkie, a child, a plucky woman in a wheelchair, and a talking dog-like pet named Oy the Bumbler) trapped aboard a runaway train. The train is a psychotic multiple personality that intends to commit suicide with them at 800 m.p.h.--unless Roland and pals can outwit it in a riddling contest. It's a great race, for the mind and pulse. Films should be this good. Then comes a 567- page flashback about Roland at age 14. It's a well-marbled but meaty tale. Roland and two teenage friends must rescue his first love from the dirty old drooling mayor of a post-apocalyptic cowboy town, thwart a civil war by blowing up oil tanks, and seize an all-seeing crystal ball from Rhea, a vampire witch. The love scenes are startlingly prominent and earthier than most romance novels (they kiss until blood trickles from her lip).
After an epic battle ending in a box canyon to end all box canyons, we're back with grizzled, grown-up Roland and the train-wreck survivors in a parallel world: Kansas in 1986, after a plague. The finale is a weird fantasy takeoff on The Wizard of Oz Some readers will feel that the latest novel in King's most ambitious series has too many pages--almost 800--but few will deny it's a page-turner. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'King at his most ebullient. He's at his best here - as a resourceful explorer of humanity's shadow side, as a storyteller who can set pages on fire' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
'King's most personal, most engaging work' SUNDAY EXPRESS
'Grim, funny and superbly energetic, it's King at his best' MAIL ON SUNDAY
'King's most personal, most engaging work' SUNDAY EXPRESS
'Grim, funny and superbly energetic, it's King at his best' MAIL ON SUNDAY
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First Sentence
The town of Candleton was a poisoned and irradiated ruin, but not dead; after all the centuries it still twitched with tenebrous lifetrundling beetles the size of turtles, birds that looked like small, misshapen dragonlets, a few stumbling robots that passed in and out of the rotten buildings like stainless steel zombies, their joints squalling, their nuclear eyes flickering. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The town of Candleton was a poisoned and irradiated ruin, but not dead; after all the centuries it still twitched with tenebrous lifetrundling beetles the size of turtles, birds that looked like small, misshapen dragonlets, a few stumbling robots that passed in and out of the rotten buildings like stainless steel zombies, their joints squalling, their nuclear eyes flickering. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a recent review said, this really is the pinnacle of the series. Unlike that person and many others, I wouldn't quite say it's downhill from here as personally I loved the way the series ended. But then that's another book, another day and another review.
Wizard and Glass is mostly set in the past, telling a story of Roland's days before his quest. After the cliff-hanger is resolved, Roland decides it's about time he told them more about the beginnings of his quest and as the day ends, time slows as he's able to tell his whole story in one "night". Once the tale is told they have an interesting confrontation with the Man in Black and then head off again along the beam. What's amazing about this book however is the tale in between. The rest are really book-ends. At the start, the conflict had to be resolved and at the end we had to be brought back onto their quest, back to the present.
Some people criticise spending a whole book in the past, but then, by now don't they care a lot about Roland? I certainly did and I wanted to know more about him. I admit I felt daunted by the prospect of such a long tale, but when it contains the best storytelling in the series that soon fades. This has drama, emotion, character development and an intriguing plot. It's a fully resolved and extremely well-told tale. The ending brought tears to my eyes, and any tale that can do that can't be anything but well-told.
We also get to find out a bit more about Alain and Cuthbert, which is really important in understanding who Roland is. And we get to see Roland, more or less at his best. The plan of three gunslingers being carried out with skill and precision, though not perfectly, for nothing ever goes perfectly.
My own words aren't really adequate to describe how good this book is, so I'll leave it there, just adding that if you're thinking of reading these books then you're in for a treat when you get to the start of Wizard and Glass.
Wizard and Glass is mostly set in the past, telling a story of Roland's days before his quest. After the cliff-hanger is resolved, Roland decides it's about time he told them more about the beginnings of his quest and as the day ends, time slows as he's able to tell his whole story in one "night". Once the tale is told they have an interesting confrontation with the Man in Black and then head off again along the beam. What's amazing about this book however is the tale in between. The rest are really book-ends. At the start, the conflict had to be resolved and at the end we had to be brought back onto their quest, back to the present.
Some people criticise spending a whole book in the past, but then, by now don't they care a lot about Roland? I certainly did and I wanted to know more about him. I admit I felt daunted by the prospect of such a long tale, but when it contains the best storytelling in the series that soon fades. This has drama, emotion, character development and an intriguing plot. It's a fully resolved and extremely well-told tale. The ending brought tears to my eyes, and any tale that can do that can't be anything but well-told.
We also get to find out a bit more about Alain and Cuthbert, which is really important in understanding who Roland is. And we get to see Roland, more or less at his best. The plan of three gunslingers being carried out with skill and precision, though not perfectly, for nothing ever goes perfectly.
My own words aren't really adequate to describe how good this book is, so I'll leave it there, just adding that if you're thinking of reading these books then you're in for a treat when you get to the start of Wizard and Glass.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
King's foray into magic culminates for now in unrefined, unadulterated beauty. Further along their way to Dark Tower, Roland and his companions encounter their hardest trials and tests so far. King gives us some history here and shows how their all destinies were inexorably linked and rushing towards this time. In a book that far surpasses five stars or anything I can say, King writes with pathos, sorrow, unparalleled style and a palpable love of the characters he has created. You can feel it, because you love them too. Wizard and Glass is the most magical story so far in the story and also the last for now. But its not an end - its only the very beginning. You will not be able to stand the fact that there is as yet no sequel to this, and that there might never be. One thing is for sure though: Roland, Eddie and Suzanne will always be in your memory and your mind just waiting to finish, with their creator, their story. Marvellous.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are a fan of the previous three books then the anticipation for this installment must have been eagarly anticipated. I found this book exceptional, eventhough the journey to the tower does not advance that much (as critics of the book have clearly stated!), the story of Susan and Roland is beatifully told and in addition it expands on chracters mentioned previously, including my personal favorite Cuthbert. The ending is both tragic and quite surprising not to mention moving, i didn't think King could pull off a love story but he proved me wrong in a big way. The good news for Dark tower fans is that the next three installments will be out in fairly quick sucession which will make a change from the gaps between the previous books.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hile! Hile! To me gunslingers! To me! Let's taken them down! No...
For me this battle cry from Roland really sums it up and gives shivers down my spine! To see how the three young gunslingers fare with their first real attack is quite astonishing... Read more
Published 3 months ago by L. Whisker
I confess I cheated
I have ploughed through the first three books and am hooked on the slow but fascinating quest for the tower. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. Lancaster
Bit slushy
The fourth instalment of the dark tower series. Firstly, this book at 840 pages long is about 300 pages too much. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Bridgey
Uncharacteristically BORING.....zzz
I have just finished the whole Dark Tower series, which was a complete masterpiece, and the final page of the final book made the whole thing worthwhile. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Frostycat
To the edges and back
Still young and wet behind the ears the newly made Gunslinger, Roland Deschain, is sent out from Gilead along with his two closest friends to the sea coast barony of Mejis by... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Vakarian
Grinded everything to a screeching halt
I more or less flew through the first three books. Sure, there were a few weak points and places where the pacing went downhill, but nothing I couldn't get over. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Eva Therese
Not good.
This book was in the beginning indeed promising, and rather exciting.
It is also quite interesting to get the story of Roland and Susannah. Read more
It is also quite interesting to get the story of Roland and Susannah. Read more
Published on 22 April 2010 by Vibeke Semstad
Wizard and Glass
Book was in excellent condition, this was a hardback replacement for a somewhat worn paperback
Published on 22 July 2009 by Thomas Harold
This one makes all of them so far worth the effort
The first three books in this saga have been very much about setting a scene, and a set of prime characters - all the more necessary because of the idiosyncracies of the world in... Read more
Published on 4 July 2009 by R. PEMBERTON
Best Dark Tower so far...
I really enjoyed the Dark Tower Vol 1: Gunslinger because I was quickly immersed in the idea of a western/fantasy crossover. Read more
Published on 22 April 2009 by Moondog
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