This is not my favorite book of the series by a long shot, and yet, it's such an intriguing book that even as a not-favorite, I still love every minute of reading it. So much happens in this book, we learn so much and get to know the characters so much more, that it doesn't feel like a middle-of-a-series book at all, but rather a part of the whole, which is exactly what it is. The Dark Tower series isn't a series really, but one enormous story that encompasses much more than can be conveyed in 7 books + outliers and connected novels. It's an entire universe, and what we see is just a small part of it.

This book finally combines all of the ka-tet: Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy. They have to go through quite a bit of trouble to get together (like the hillbilly instructions to a supposedly really awesome woods party some guy gave you after he drank a 5th of moonshine... "Past wur tha ol' redd truk usta B afor Hugh-Bob kict it n cut a yoowee at dem rabid dogs n den a raht nexta the big barn'n the left'rd side..." If you can figure it out, that's half the battle. Getting there is the other half. And our poor ka-tet don't even have half-cracked directions like that to go by.

My favorite thing about Waste Lands is Roland, and the sides of him that show themselves for the first time (to us anyway) here. I love Roland the diplomat, Roland the polite society master, Roland the father-figure, Roland the insult-hurler, Roland the unsure. It's the first time that we really see him as a person, one who has a past and didn't just pop into existence as this inevitable rolling stone. The little bits of his past, and the doubts and the fears that he has in this book make me love him more than ever.

I really enjoy Eddie and Susannah's deepening relationship, and their sort of foster family formed with Jake and Oy. Roland is a little outside this, but a part of it because he brought them all together. It does make me sad that he's separate... but that's Ka.

I also really like how The Waste Lands introduce cross-over between worlds WITHOUT doors. I love this concept, and there's so much it can mean. What ARE the waste lands? Are they similar to the Blasted Lands from The Talisman? Who was Quick? Mysteries, mysteries. I've read all of these several times, but I have no idea... I love thinking about it though. These books are amazing for being able to draw me in and keep me there until the very end.