The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (urspr publ 1997; utgåvan 2016)

Date approximate ( )

I'm in love with this series and these characters. This one has such a huge chunk about Roland's past that I started to feel a little drifty. It seemed like it was getting off topic, but I should have known better. The author connected it all and showed why it was important. Also, it made me feel more deeply for Roland, knowing everything he's been through. I hope Eddie and Susannah do not have to make sacrifices like that. Also I'm so worried for Jake and Oy. This author has made such an elaborate world and hooked me so hard. I'm emotionally connected to everyone, and I never have any idea which direction the story is going.
( )

Very disappointed with this one. I read the first three books back-to-back in the matter of a month, which is pretty much a record for me since I'm not one to finish books that fast. This one took me two and a half months to slog through. The flashback that takes up a major part of this volume is just way too overbloated and bland. King could've summed it up in 200 pages tops, but takes up around 400 pages with it. The romance aspect of the flashback is actually done rather well. I felt for Roland and Susan and their plight. But the rest of the flashback is filled up with so much unnecessary filler that it makes reading this volume a horrible chore. In short I loved the beginning and ending of this one, but could've done without most of the middle. I'm looking forward to the real story picking back up again in the next installment, and hopefully King's writing won't go astray again.

2ND READ: This was an easier and more enjoyable read the second time, hence the addition of one extra star. It is, however, the book that made me put down the series for six years and not pick it back up again until now. It's long-winded and could easily have been a much slimmer volume. This backstory is a lot to ask of a reader in the middle of a quest. It should've been written as a standalone prequel that can be read or not as the reader chooses. ( )

It's a fantasy book, not quite like any other fantasy book. Or if it's a science fiction, not quite like any other science fiction. Either way it feels like the authors playground more than a well planned book, and the author himself admits as much in the foreword and afterword, so it's no deep insight from my side. Whether the book is enjoyable or not probably depends a lot on the expectations of the reader. For me the story telling was too slow and the events too predictable. Maybe I've just read too much and recognise too many patterns. Maybe I and Stephen King think the same.
( )

My appreciation for this book has grown since I first read it. After [b:The Gunslinger|43615|The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1375776480s/43615.jpg|46575], I think this is my favorite book in the series.

Most of the story is told in flashback to the days immediately after Roland first became a gunslinger, when he and two companions – Cuthbert and Alain, of whom we've heard mention of in the books before now, but without any detail – are sent to a small town far from the city of Gilead where Roland's father and the other gunslingers are trying desperately to keep their land from falling to the Good Man, John Farson, and his increasingly powerful army. As such, it is basically a western-romance-mystery with a fairly tightly woven plot (despite its length) and plenty of insight into the development of Roland's character, complete with the impetus for his pursuit of the serially eponymous Dark Tower and the tortured memories of those he has left in the wake of his pursuit.

I'm also happy because the first part of the book fairly quickly resolves one of the most annoying elements of the entire series for me (at least, to this point), Blaine "the Pain" Monorail. I mean, it's a serviceable device for getting Roland and his ka-tet much further along the Path of the Beam than they otherwise would, but man, I just hate that stupid contraption. And Little Blaine was the most annoying aspect of it all.

At any rate, I remembered liking this story from my first read through years ago, but this time around I was a little surprised at how much I liked it. If you can make it through [b:The Waste Lands|34084|The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389762449s/34084.jpg|1810634], which is my least favorite of the Dark Tower books (up to this point), don't stop. I promise Wizard and Glass is definitely worth the effort. ( )