Wizard and Glass: 4 (The Dark Tower) - Hardcover

King, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670032573 ISBN 13: 9780670032570

Publisher: Viking Pr, 2003

Synopsis

Roland and his companions venture on a new journey into the Gunslinger's past, during which Roland unfolds a tale revealing the secrets of his youth, including the tragic loss of his first love. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

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.

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Pr
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0670032573
• ISBN 13: 9780670032570
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 704