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Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4)

Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4)

List Price: $18.95
Your Price: $12.89
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Gets Better
Review: There's no question that this is the best of the Dark Tower series so far. King takes this already captivating, altogether beautiful and mysterious world and gives it a heart and soul. Incredible suspense, profoundly epic plot sequences and one of the most heart-breaking endings I have ever read put this one near the top of my favorites list. Don't miss this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HEYOOOOO!
Review: This was the first book I EVER READ FROM King. and I was astounded! What a love for words...What a story to tell and what a way to imagine it...I read it because I had broken my leg...I had to spend time besides sleeping and watching TV. and this book was the only one in my reach...I remember being regretful.Reading a lousy horror chap's book? God, how wrong I was...I never thought King might be so passionate. The story flows like nothing else..simply pulls you in...period. Pity for Suzan and Roland...how they are similar to many Suzans and Rolands in the past, in present and in future! Bravo, King, you've created another addict.. you deserve your crown very righteously and you who dislike him go and eat your fingers! Now I am on full way to the first book Gunslinger and King's back catalogue. I heartily recommend to anyone who has never read a King. You will not regret. He did not only make me a fun of him but the entire horror genre (Of course I've found no one that tops him so far)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply awesome
Review: Stephen King's 4th novel of the Dark Tower series attempts to shed light on much of Roland's past and succeeds admirably. Wizard and Glass show us Roland's transformation from boy to man and the weight of the Dark Tower on his soul. We are shown Roland's two companions, Cuthbert and Alain, in amazing detail and complexity.

In many ways this flashback is more intriguing than the rest of the story, because the reader can see the journey between where Roland started and where he will ultimately end up.

Overall, the book is fantastic (although some extraneous detail could be trimmed to help the book flow better). I still think The Drawing of the Three was the best in this series with Wizard and Glass a very close second.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW
Review: Blaine the killing machine drives the train at speeds that ultimately means death to the passengers unless Roland and his companions, (Jake, Eddie, Susannah, and Oy) can find a way to defeat the seemingly invincible computer that thrives on riddles and battles of wits. Roland and cohorts appear to have done the impossible in a verbal gunfight with Blaine.

Following that High Noon debate, Roland explains to his quartet of followers how he once loved Susan Delgado. When they reach ravaged 1986 Topeka, (yes we're in Kansas this time), the city and much of the country lies in ruin from a biblical proportion disease that left few standing. As Roland continues his story with that of his teacher Cort, they wonder if the nearby lighthouse in King's Castle Rock film logo is the Beam to and from the Dark Tower.

The fourth volume in Stephen King's Dark Tower series is exciting in several ways especially the tie in to the Stand. However, the story line seems looser than the taut previous three tales as if Mr. King used this novel as a pivotal point to send beams of plots into future books. Still, this plot displays Mr. King at his multitalented best by the ease he crosses and blends genres into a strong fantasy mix that will please fans, especially those interested in Roland.

Harriet Klausner

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Overly long...and for what purpose?
Review: It pains me to say it, having followed Roland's quest for the Dark Tower since 1988, but....Wizard and Glass is WAY too long for its own good.

DT:W&G opens up with Roland and his entourage riding along with Blaine the Suicidal Monorail, partaking in the telling of riddles in exchange for their lives. They manage to outwit Blaine just before reaching a bitter and messy end, arriving at their destination of Topeka, Kansas, in our world. Or rather, in the world of "Captain Trips".

After rummaging around the city, Roland tells his followers a long and drawn-out tale of love, death, crystal balls (the titular "glass"), and blowing up stuff to look tough.

I've always felt that King never gave us enough backstory on Roland. He would constantly refer back to his friends, Alain, Cuthbert, etc..., and with a very brief exception (during Roland's "coming of age" battle with Cort), you never got to meet them. Ergo, you never felt Roland's regret at having lost his closest friends. But here, in DT:W&G, you get ALOT of them. 547 pages of them, to be precise. You also get a rather heavy love story, as well. Lots of heavy petting and outdoor sex. By the end of it, I was glad that all of Roland's buddies were dead. For 547 pages, I felt King fumbling the ball. This portion of the book could easily have been trimmed by about 200 pages. Yes, you get alot of information on how Mid-World relates to our world, how the breaking of the Beams is causing the many alternate dimensions to melt together. Too much wordage, not enough plot.

Once the big flashback is over, its back with to the ka-tet and everything is peachy again.

I love this series, but I hope to heck and back that King manages to avoid more "backstory" like this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A bit of a musing
Review: A year ago, even two years ago when it came out, I would agree with a lot of the people here giving one or two stars. I could not grasp Wizard and Glass. I loved the Dark Tower series, I adored Roland and consider him the height of what a real man is suppose to be (My kind of hero, Clint Eastwood kind of western hero). But this book made me stop and I tossed it aside. I figured this was to be the last of the Dark Tower books because Stephen King didn't seem to want to go any further (though he loved to tie in his other novels).

A few months back I heard the rumors then saw the truth, SK was indeed finishing the series over the next year and a half. I knew that I had to read Wizard and Glass because I knew that the clues and the tales though of his youth were important to understand the next three finishing novels (Wolves to the Dark Tower book).

Something happened along the way in my life over the past two years. I grew up in some respect (I'm 31 now). I gained a better impression toward my beliefs in God, my views toward the universe, etc. I'm not living a dreamer's life, not in any way...but still...I know I changed...

And it is within that change that I was able to and able to read Wizard and Glass. Its a hard book to read, a lot of things are disturbing a lot of things are mysterious...but. Its like a key. A key that will fit a particular lock in you (in me and anyone who tries to read it) but only at the right time in your life. Like the Dark Tower itself, it spins a web around you, drawing you closer...the more you have grown up and the more that you've changed in life (at least in my perspective) the more you are able to understand what King was talking about and trying to describe to you the reader.

I hate to say this, because I could not have said it a year or two ago (even though I got the limited edition hard back I just could not read it past the start of the story which introduces the witch and Susan). I love the book. I can't put it down. In two nights I have read up to page 300.

I will tell you truly. It is a great door that leads you from the past quest of Roland (up to the end of the riding of the train) to the end quest (starting with the Wolves of Calla and going unto the book entitled The Dark Tower).

I am amazed by the series. This series is one of the best series in western literature. And yes, I have a history degree and enough classes in literature theories and creative writing to say that with a straight face. Because it is true. The Dark Tower series and The Lord of the Ring series are the two greatest series from the 20th/21st century. In my mind and in my heart there is no question about that. What both series do to my soul to my imagination, to my wonderlust and fantasies that whisper into the mind in those murky mornings when I dream...I just can't describe...

I know that you will probably hate the ending of this novel (I once tried to read just the ending but I couldn't help but get flustered by it). It will NOT answer any questions toward the present situation of Roland and his friends. But, but trust me, if you look at the story of Roland, you see how he had changed....a young man who had everything stripped away from him....Father...Mother...First True love...all because of the cancer that eats away at the Dark Tower...and one day, if I know how Stephen King works, all and everything will be held accountable for what happened to Roland and his world. And I believe that in SK's words, Roland and his friends (those that survive the next two books) will make a stand. And what a stand that will be...

I am willing to place all my bets on it...the End will be the finest ending for a writer's life in writing. I know that just like the Stand and It, the final pages of the Dark Tower novel (we all know its really one big novel anyway) will make me cry out of shere passion that the work awakens in my heart.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best DT book so far
Review: Of the four DT books out so far, this was definitely the best, because not only was it a story about an adventure, it was a love story as well.

Can't wait for DT 5: Wolves of Calla!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fairly avid reader but huge fan
Review: I have read most of Stephen King, and I think he is a master. Everyone else who sits behind a editing desk can go lick a tiger phalouss.

Just so you know, I know how to spell the word. There's ways to get past this.

But I will also say, I know an intellectual superior when I see them, and I have.

But I have been warned by my fictional teacher. Don't judge a book by it's tiny phallused critics. She also said don't think a book is great b/c it suits you.

I don't want to write a long review, so I would just like to say that I think King is the fkkkkkkking King and I will hail him as such. But I actually respect the people who think otherwise. In fact, I don't get to hear enough of that.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Weakest of series but still good
Review: This book was the weakest of the series but was still good. I think devoting an entire novel to Roland's past hurt the overall story a bit because they did not advance the quest far in this novel. I think while the story was good, Roland's mysterious past was one of the driving forces behind the series's success. I would have prefered if the story was spread out over the 2nd,3rd & 4th books. Overall the book was good and should be read by both King devotees and fans of the series.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Annoying at first, but redeems itself with the end
Review: At first I was yanked into this story. I was so anxious to find out exactly what connection it was going to have with The Stand, that I could already see a small portion of. And then, Roland began to tell his story.

Aside from one scene (the confrontation in the bar)I found Roland's tale from the past to be extremely slow and hard to fight my way through. It took me months to get from around page 100 to 500.

Yet, after that I got throught the rest in one night. The climax of Roland's story and the whole novel was wonderful. And something happened to me in this story that had not yet happened in any of the other Dark Tower books: I began to care about the characters. For the longest time, I found the story intriguing, but did not feel for the characters. However, after this novel, I not only began to care for Roland, but I now care for all of them, and it was amazing how quickly and strongly King was able to do it. I would prefer to give this book 3 1/2 stars, but because fo this, I could not go down to 3 no matter how I looked at it.

My favorite of all of the Dark Tower books is The Drawing of the Three, but if it weren't for the length of those middle 400 pages, Wizard and Glass would have beaten it by a long shot. If you started to read this, and don't think you can get through. Don't give up until you've reached the last 200 pages.


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