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published 1997; hardback 1997; trade paperback 1997, Plume
Wizard and Glass is the fourth in a series of six or seven books (as of March 1998, books one through four are complete) in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, inspired by Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." Following the excellent The Waste Lands, this book continues King's pattern of making every book in the series better than the previous one. I could hardly believe how good this book was.
The book starts with a wrap-up of the Blaine the Train plot segment from the last book, and ends with a small but amusing Wizard of Oz bit, but the vast majority is a single long flashback to one of Roland's formative experiences.
Past books told us of Susan, Roland's lover of years gone by, now presumably dead. In this one we see how Roland, a gunslinger at 14, is sent away from danger with his friends, Cuthbert and Alain, to a small town on the outskirts of Mid-World. While there, they discover that the town officials have defected to the side of John Farson, "The Good Man," whose armed revolution is gradually destroying the world. Farson is planning to use nearby oil wells and refineries, half-functional relics of an older age, to create gasoline to power tanks, lasers, and other ancient weapons of war. Cut off from support and communications, the three boys find themselves playing an extremely dangerous game with far more experienced players as they attempt to foil the plot.
Meanwhile, Roland has met Susan, a young woman of remarkable beauty, and the two fall in love. Susan, unfortunately, is promised to the Mayor as his whore, and cannot break the contract without dishonor. To the dismay of Roland's friends, he and Susan enter into an illicit affair that endangers the already delicate war game they're playing.
The plot of this book is so rich, detailed, and well-executed that it cannot truly be done justice in a brief summary. There's the witch on the hill, whose life is being sucked away by Farson's pink, all-seeing crystal ball, and whose hatred for Susan begets hatred for Roland, with unimaginably disasterous results for them all. There are the three jaded bounty hunters, who take an early dislike to the three fresh young boys, and swear to end their lives. There's Susan's aunt, who is torn by jealousy of Susan, shame for her role in her brother's death, and her own petty lusts. Minor characters all, but woven together so flawlessly as to make the highly complex plot completely believable. From a lazy style early on, as Roland rides into town and encounters Susan, the book crescendos mercilessly to a thundering roar at the fabulous ending. Those who believe that great literature is in the past have not read King at his best-- this is a novel to be compared with Wuthering Heights and A Tale of Two Cities.
It took King a while to get this book out, but if he never writes another in the series, he has written a masterpiece. Here's hoping that King somehow manages to maintain the upward path of this series, following this book by yet another still better.
Review by Greg Ferrar
Reviewed August 14, 1998
ISBN 0-452-27917-8
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