Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4)

Rating:
Summary: An absoulte must read!
Review: King has outdone himself this time. He has given us a deeper look into Roland's past. We've been shown the human side of Roland. This is a very imagitive & powerful story. I can't wait for Part V.

Rating:
Summary: SO FAR,SOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!
Review: I finally got the long awaited 4th installment of the Gunslinger series. I am only about halfway through the book and I have to say "BRAVO!!" Yes, it is a little slower in the middle,but....it gives a chance to get to know someone we all love.Being a Stphen King fan for 16or17 years,some of my favorite books are The Stand, IT, The Tommyknockers,and the Dark Tower series.All which have in-depth flashbacks. I want to let Mr. King know KEEP UP THE FANTASTIC WRITING!!!! I'LL KEEP READING!!! And who knows?!? Maybe my 2 year old son will become as big of a fan as I am!!!!!(He will if I have anything to do with it!!!!!!)

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have ever had the pleasure to read!
Review: When I found out that the majority of W&G was to be a love story, I groaned. This was NOT the Stephen King I knew. But upon finishing, I couldn't believe it had to end, so unfairly at that. The story of Susan and Roland was one of the most touchingly tragic things I've ever read, fiction or not. I can only hope that King won't let this be the end of Susan because like Jake says: "there are other worlds than these." A brilliant book. I can't wait for number five!

Rating:
Summary: Yes, the flashback is worth it
Review: I can not understand that some of you so called "Dark Tower fans" can say that the entire flashback sequence was stupid - it was King's most beautiful writing of his career, and as a teen - it was right on with the feelings of teenage love and angst. So anyone that is considering buying this book, if you want to be submerged into an amazing world and fall in love and love to hate charachters, buy this book. If you haven't read the first three, read them first so it all means more to you. Even the parts where they are all in *****************SPOILERS************* Topeka and the palace place with Flagg ***********END SPOILERS are beautiful, funny and scary. This is King's best book ever and one of the best books ever written!!! BUY THIS BOOK NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Worth the Looooong Wait
Review: I have read almost all of King's published works and the Dark Tower Series is one of his best. I particularly like the way King goes into the background of the characters and the way they develop. It's like watching a child grow and change. I think this series has something for almost everyone: science fiction, horror, western flavor and humor. I think it also has some environmental sprinklings as far as his description of the future after some unnamed man-made disaster.

Rating:
Summary: Written just to appease fans' need for next installment?
Review: WARNING: This review contains minor spoiler information. I drank up the first two Dark Tower novels in four days of non-stop reading. The wait for The Wasteland was INTERMINABLE. When it finally came out I happlily scarfed it down in a weekend and sat and waited and waited and sat and hoped and longed for Book IV. Unfortunately, King took a semi-cop-out on this book. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Roland's history -- and the journey with Blaine was great -- I was frustrated by the total lack of any real progress of the party towards the Dark Tower. Also, this was the first book since Tommyknockers that I was actually able to put down each night. The reading simply didn't flow like it normally does. There was an awful lot of things that were set down that really didn't need to be. Although I never get tired of reading King, this book probably could have easily been 125 pages shorter without anything having been lost. The future? Given SK's absence of aversion for killing off main characters, it wouldn't surprise me a bit (although it would certainly piss me off to no end) if we find him bidding Roland a fond farewell in Book V. Actually, I fully anticipated that it was going to take place in Book IV -- didn't foresee the history lesson -- so now the agonizing wait will have to continue until the next installment is released.... Overall: Decent book, not his best.

Rating:
Summary: The story continue (sort-of).
Review: I'm a BIG fan of the Dark Tower series, and have been since I accidentally fell upon Dark Tower II. I loved it and went back to read Dark Tower I, and Dark Tower III. What gripped me from the beginning was the uniqueness of the entire story-line and the entire fact that they were making progress (although slowly). I'm only about 1/2 way through the book so far, but I am a little disappointed that the entire book (so far) is a flash back. I've been hooked by the entire environment created by King, but the flashback has been a little bit of a disappointment. However, the book is great reading (hence the rating of an 8)!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant in the opening and closing 150 pages - dry middle
Review: People drawn into the weird brilliance of the first three Dark Tower books will be impressed with the first 170 or so pages of Wizards and Glass. It has all the brilliants twists and suspense and bizarre connections with Earth (and all his old books)that has made this series one of the finest works. But in the middle, King tries to enter a realm he has no business attempting - the teeny-bopper romance. Literally hundreds of pages of Oh-we-can't-do-this oh-I'll-wait-for-you-forever etc,etc. Just sleep with her and get it over with because we all know it is going to happen! And we all know it has to be doomed, because Roland isn't with her in the the present. The pace is all wrong,and the writing is severely forced, and it becomes a 500+ page disappointment. The last hundred pages shows King on familiar ground - the weird, the twisted, the unromantic. Western genre combines with sci-fi, combines with children's literature, combines with old King literature. Plus it was funny. It is a good mix. It makes one wish King had focused here, and maybe cut out 200 or so pages of the teenage angst. While the very ending was good, it was not superb. It was a touch confusing, and it left a few big points from the Wastelands left to be resolved (Is Susannah really pregnant?)- though not nearly as bad of a cliffhanger as the Wastelands' ending. All in all it was a pretty good book, but I'll bet money that the next book in the series will be a lot better.

Rating:
Summary: Not the gripping tale we were led to expect!
Review: Sadly, we have to break off in the middle of the good stuff (Jake, Eddie, Susannah, Roland, Oy) to run screaming into Roland's history. Not the thing to do. I cared for the tale and the danger, the creatively weird stuff King uses so well in his other tales, and the intriguing crossover to The Stand, but the love story was rather uninspired. Still it's worth it for the conclusion of the Big and Little Blaine episode and the illustrations, and the tension of wondering what'll happen next. One thing King does well is keep us hanging on, wondering just what strange new world will open up for them. Not his best, but far from his worst.

Rating:
Summary: It`s really good.
Review: This book was great. The ending? Forget about it. I thought Lord of the Rings was the greatest epic of all time but King is really making a run at it. I look at my collection of the four of them and I can`t believe theres two or three more to come. Maybe the next one will be put a little quicker this time.I think maybe this was the hardest tale to tell and the rest will be easier for him. As the series has progressed there have been a few incontanutities, but they are small ones and King finds ways of covering them. One burning question though. Were Martin and Walter both Flagg in different guise? In W&G Walter fit the same discription as was given for Flagg in The Wastelands. At the end of W&G Roland knew Flagg as Martin. Flagg remembered Roland from"the wreck of Gilead". Walter didn`t seem like he was Flagg in when and the gunslinger held palaver at the golgotha in the first novel. I have more questions than ever now, but also more insights into Roland`s past and his character. King`s Jupiter! This one was great, I can`t wait for the next. J Hudson