Paperback, 672 pages
English language
Published Nov. 2, 1997 by Plume.
At last, Stephen King returns to the Dark Tower with the eagerly anticipated fourth volume in his bestselling series. Roland, The Last Gunslinger, and his band of followers have narrowly escaped one world, and slipped into the next. It is here that Roland tells them a long-ago tale of love and adventure involving a beautiful and quixotic woman named Susan Delgado. With shocking plot twists and a driving narrative force, Wizard and Glass is the book readers have been waiting for.
And the Tower is closer...
--back cover
I appreciated this foray into Roland’s backstory even though it was slower and less adventurous than previous books in the series. Not my favorite by far but certainly an important piece of the Dark Tower puzzle.
An incredible love story which feels so out of place when it starts and so right when it ends. This story improves the series for me. There is a scene where the witch fiddles with Susan's genitalia that is disgusting and feels unnecessarily male-focused but King does a great job with young romance and doesn't shirk from the sex, which comes across as informed and (shockingly) in good taste. I love the characters and the story in the framework of the larger story.
