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. Movies 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 teen homies 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).

We're back sliding

This book slows the pace down a lot. King's 4th Dark Tower volume "Wizards and Glass" has Roland telling the story of when he and his former partners went to a town to investigate corruption and rebellion in Roland's father's kingdom. There he falls in love with a youg woman, and then, finaly toward the middle, things begin spirling out of control. The novel takes it cue from the movie "Shane", Shakspearian tragadies (like "Hamlet"), and more specificly "The Wizard of Oz", which gets very wierd. The romance was more of a distraction, and it was a big part of the novel. The link to "The Stand" becomes more solid in this one. This volume is good, but mostly only as a bridge to the next book.

A Disappointing Continuation

Although Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series is by far the most gripping and suspenseful set of books I have ever had the joy of reading, Wizard and Glass was, in my opinion, a poor addition to the series. Not only is King's grasp of human emotion desperately melodramatic, but the ungodly amount of cliche was practically unbearable.

I struggled to finish the story only for the small fraction of pages that dealt with the storyline of our small band of heroes. That was as excellent as the previous books. The flashback to Roland's past, however, was horrible, and I hated every word of it.

I would still recommend the series to anyone who loves any genre, even those who do not like King's work, as they are, as I aforementioned, outstanding. This book, however, is not up to par with the rest of them.

Amazing

First I am reviewing the paperback novel, but let me begin.
Wizard and Glass at first I thought was boring, but after getting through the first 300 pages, then things started to pick up. Wizard and Glass starts off where we left off in Roland's world with his ka-tet on the suidice train named Blaine.
But to stop the train from crashing at the end of the line at 800 miles an hour, Blaine loves riddles. So Roland and his ka-tet, they then devise a treaty of sort with Blaine: if Blaine cannot solve Roland's and his ka-tet's riddles, Blaine will not kill them, if they lose, then they die with Blaine.
So they go for it, but he has cracked every riddle Roland, Jake, and Susannah can come up with, but Eddie is quiet. Eddie is not quiet at all, he is always the big talker in the ka-tet.
So just when you think that they are going to die, Eddie then comes to the plate with his riddle he learned from his brother in 1978 or 79 I cant remember, and he saves their lives.
So blaine stops, and they get off the train. Now once they are off, they find themselves in Kansas, and they are close to the end world, and closer to the Tower.
The thing is, Jake finds a newspaper dating back to the 1978 novel 'The Stand' about how Kansas has been struck by a super flu called 'Captain Trips'.
Roland and his ka-tet find skeletons in cars that are jammed on the urnpike, just like when Larry Underwood had to go through when he went into the Lincoln tunnel in 'The Stand'.
Roland then decides it is time to tell his ka-tet a early tale of love and adventure, and they knew that it was going to be long, but it is something Roland has been facing for a long time.
Roland then tells the tale of his love Susan, and the story of his fellow gunslingers. Now they find out that this man named Jonas (It's Randall Flagg.) knows what to do with the Citgo oil fields and plans to take over the world, but Roland and his Ka-Tet get set up for a murder they didnt commit. The murder of the Mayor, which is supposed to be Susan's husbands, but she is only there to just bear his child.
Eventually Roland and Susan fall in love, and so we continue.
Now with the oil fields, they put a firecracker in one of the anicent pipes and BOOM! the whole field blows like a HUGE bonfire.
Now comes to the race to fight Jonas and Eldred with the Wizard's Window, which can see just about anything that it wants to, but the ball wants to work when it wants to.
I am going to stop because the ending is amazing, so if you want to see what happens, then read the novel.