So the main reason why this gets four stars is that it is too freaking long. I love the King, but this needed to either be edited back, or broken out into two parts. The other reason why I gave this four stars is that the stupid speaking demon thing pops up again and yes I still loathe that whole thing and what it means for our Susannah Dean. I think the ka-tet grew stronger together in this story and you can see now for all of them, there is nothing else but the Tower.

So "Wizard and Glass" finds out band of gunslingers (and Oy) on Blaine the train and trying to figure out how to out-riddle the crazy train before he crashes and takes all of them with them. No spoilers, but I loved how King ended this whole thing and how our Eddie steps up and shows how good he really is. 

From there though we have Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy realize that they are no longer on the Path of the Beam and seem to be in a Kansas that is familiar to Constant Readers (The Stand) but not to them. This is one of many Easter Eggs that King drops in his Dark Tower series that he does not follow up on in the end. Yeah, can't wait to get to the last book because I will have the biggest epic rant ever in my review about this. I also didn't really like the idea of Marten who we heard about, being the one and same big bad we heard about now only in "The Stand" but also in "The Eyes of the Dragon" and some may remember that characters from that book which I wish that King would revisit one day. 

So one of the reasons why this was and still is one of my favorite "Dark Tower" books is that we get to see Roland as a young man who was in love. Your heart breaks for him since we readers already know that the story he has to tell his ka-tet isn't going to be a happily ever after. I felt like King did a good job of letting us see that Roland does love his friends now and loved his friends before, but was stuck with impossible choices.

Eddie is the next character that King did a great job developing I thought. Susannah and Jake are here, but to me, they were not as developed as Roland and Eddie.

And from there we also focus the most on Susan (Roland's first and only love) and his first ka-tet, Alain, and Cuthbert. After Roland gets his guns and is told to leave the kingdom so that he doesn't end up killed, the three friends go to the Barony of Mejis. While there we get to see how good the three friends really were in their youth. I can see why Roland misses them still. And Susan kicked all kinds of ass and I feel sad that we don't get to see her in later books in this series. 

So the writing was very good. King does a great job with building everything up, but have to say yes the flow was up and down and the book was too long. This bad boy is 1,041 pages (kindle version) and I stopped paying attention to the percentage marks since it was making me a little loopy that I would read for an hour and I only read around 3 pages (exaggerating, but not by much). 

The setting of the book is of course in a different setting than the ka-tet is used to. They are off the Path of the Beam in a Kansas that is familiar, but not familiar and realize that not all of them come from the same world. I think it was implied before, but now it's really said out loud. And then of course we have most of the book focusing on Roland after he is given his guns and forced to go to Mejis. 

The ending makes me happy because we know that our ka-tet is not going to stop and for all of them, the Tower is their focus. 

Time to get back into the world of my ka-tet. We last left our ka-tet on a train that is hell-bent on killing them.

There's a reason why I am re-reading the Dark Tower series. It's hands down one of my favorites though the last few books break my heart because IMHO King needed to reign himself in a lot. Let's not talk about the world's most copped out ending ever that still has fans mad to this day. 

So far through my re-read I am up to book #4, hope to knock a few more of these out for this year's bingo.

I think the reason why this is still my favorite is that you have this group of people who end up doing what they can to put the world they know of it and other worlds to right. They love each other, are willing to die for each other, and in the end they will all do what they can to get to the Tower. King plays with a lot of fantasy elements inspired from King Arthur, grimm's fairy tales, and of course his own works. There are a lot of Easter eggs for King's Constant Readers which also makes this series fun. 

I do not aim with my hand. He who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye.

I do not shoot with my hand. He who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind.

I do not kill with my gun. He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.

Thankee sai.

I have to say that it was great to re-read this and see the ka-tet all together again. I have issues with some of the upcoming books and heaven knows I will forever be irked by Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower as standalones. That said, this book helps set up the latter books as well as foreshadows what will become of some of the ka-tet I think. The main reason why I didn't give this five stars was that I still loathe that whole story-line with Susannah and the demon. I just cannot with it and it made zero sense besides King doing it to set up things later. Bah. Also I think that King too often split the cast of characters in these works and this is one of the first examples of this. The whole thing with the Ageless Stranger and Quick didn't work either. I had call backs to The Stand in my head and just rolled my eyes. 

"The Waste Lands" is the third book in the Dark Tower series following Roland, the last gunslinger. Until he draws Eddie and Susannah (now husband and wife) from different times in New York. The three of them start to work as a cohesive little group even though Roland feels wrong. Due to his actions in the last book, he saved "The Boy" otherwise known as Jake. Roland is slowly starting to lose his mind and it seems that Eddie and Jake are somehow dreaming of each other and of the Tower. 

Roland is starting to care again. After so many hundreds of years alone at this point he has Eddie and Susannah. He is training them in the ways of the gunslinger and is focused on his quest to get to the Tower. It seems so natural when that becomes their quest as well. In a world that has moved on it's interesting to see how the three of them work together and how them becoming more of a ka-tet affects things.

We transitioned from this group to Jake back in New York. Jake has memories of dying, or Roland, and dying again. When Roland changed the past it didn't just leave him in two, but Jake as well. I loved Jake the best in this series. His heart, his love, his loyalty to Roland, Oy, and the others was great. It was nice to remember all of that re-reading this.

Eddie is still a smartass, but softer, as well as deadlier too. He and Susannah fit and I recall being shocked at the time that King was pushing for an interracial marriage in his works. I think it was the first time I had read one in any type of major book at the time. 

The characters they meet have significance, but you need to read the whole series to see why. 

I thought the writing was good and the flow was too. Nothing felt awkward at all. King did a great job of setting this up and ending it as he did with our ka-tet ready to riddle for their lives. 

The sun goes down on our ka-tet for now.