Wizard and Glass - The Dark Tower IV *****
First Line: ASK ME A RIDDLE,' Blaine invited.
About the Book
Wizard and Glass, the fourth episode in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, is a Western love story. It begins with 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. Roland and two teen homies must rescue his first love from the dirty old drooling mayor of a 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. It is a long read, almost 800 pages -- but few will deny it's a page-turner. It was GREAT!!
