false 31203109 1024148 942573 0142800406 9780142800409 3 <![CDATA[Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179654482m/942573.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179654482s/942573.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/942573.Wizard_and_Glass 3.81 16 Wizard and Glass, the fourth episode in King's white-hot Dark Tower series, is a sci-fi/fantasy novel that contains a post-apocalyptic Western love story twice as long. It begins with the series' star, world-weary Roland, and his world-hopping posse (an ex-junkie, a child, a plucky woman in a wheelchair, and a talking dog-like pet named Oy the Bumbler) trapped aboard a runaway train. The train is a psychotic multiple personality that intends to commit suicide with them at 800 m.p.h.--unless Roland and pals can outwit it in a riddling contest.

It's a great race, for the mind and pulse. Movies should be this good. Then comes a 567-page flashback about Roland at age 14. It's a well-marbled but meaty tale. Roland and two teen homies must rescue his first love from the dirty old drooling mayor of a post-apocalyptic cowboy town, thwart a civil war by blowing up oil tanks, and seize an all-seeing crystal ball from Rhea, a vampire witch. The love scenes are startlingly prominent and earthier than most romance novels (they kiss until blood trickles from her lip).

After an epic battle ending in a box canyon to end all box canyons, we're back with grizzled, grown-up Roland and the train-wreck survivors in a parallel world: Kansas in 1986, after a plague. The finale is a weird fantasy takeoff on The Wizard of Oz Some readers will feel that the latest novel in King's most ambitious series has too many pages--almost 800--but few will deny it's a page-turner.

]]> 3389 3.75 738168 33139 40573 3.66 547 66 1997 0 0 false Tue Apr 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 21:45:56 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 21:45:56 -0700 2008