|
I won't hesitate or order anything from Amazon. Pleased with the book, the conditon in was in, and the amount of time in which it was received.
Wizard and Glass read as if its plot is over-bloated with flavor. That being stated, Wizard and Glass has not put me off finishing the Tower books. Finally finished Wizard and Glass, I certainly did. And I do not mean the actual number of pages, which stopped at 668 in my edition. My least favorite is the first, of course, for its unstructured immaturity. Take the newer edition of The Stand. And the transcribing of interesting & fascinating events does not cease.
So far, this is not my favorite of the series. I felt like he was trying far too hard (which he's admitted to; Stephen King will admit all faults, which also makes him a fun guy in interviews and that jazz).
Now, I am not the one to quibble of the length of a King book. That is what Wizard and Glass is too me.
Oh my goodness, this book was long. Have you ever had a meal that was painstakingly prepared with all of the china pulled out from the cover only to have it far too pungent and rich with flavor.
I just think I am going to take a small break. Until the last 150 pages, very little actually happened--what kept being read by me were just events leading up to a climax.very lengthily explained events at that.
It flows.
There is a flashback to when Roland was 14 but it lasts about 570 pages. If yiou like the flashback, great, you'll love this book.
And the Wizard of Oz world in the last 80 pages was brilliant idea. If not, it can be easily skipped.
I wasn't sure how many stars to give this book because while I really enjoyed the first 100 pages or so, with the escape from Blaine the Train and the last 80 pages are so were excellent, too. Overall, a good entry in the series.
Looking forward to the next in the series. I found the flashback really boring and actually skipped over most of it.
And it really isnt neccessary to the plot either.
Violence, lots of sex and sexual situations, some language. Roland, then fourteen years old but already a Gunslinger, travels with two friends to Mejis (an outer Barony) for safety after the events with his mother and the wizard Marten in book 1, but instead finds a plot against his father and the rest of the government. Next door, maybe." Included are direct references to Abagail "the old woman from the dreams," Flagg "the dark man.in the west", and on a newspaper as the Ka-tet moves through a deserted Topeka, KS "'Captain Trips' Superflu Rages Unchecked." Also entertain, even if a little overused, are the Wizard of Oz references from books end (which I won't go too far into and risk spoiling for those of you who haven't already read the novel. The novel begins with an "Argument" explaining what has happened in the first three books, and then presents a prologue which is just a verbatim representation of the final chapter of book 3.
As of the writing of this review, I've only read the first four Dark Tower books, and this, the fourth, is by far the weakest entry. Not for kids (but how many Stephen King books are)., but recommended for hardcore King fans and genre buffs. Overall, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass is a weak entry into an already weak series, but it does have a number of good moments. In the edition I own, the story spends 520 pages on an extended flashback dealing with romance, intrigue, and lots of underage sex.
Next we are presented with Roland's Ka-tet (one of many King invented words in the series which may confuse at first but are actually fairly self-evident and after only a little reading are easy to follow) in a life or death riddle competition with insane train Blaine (way too many words that rhyme there).By far the best parts of the novel, are the illusions to King's earlier novel the Stand, which Eddie concludes is "A story close to this one. But how many Sci-Fi/Fantasy Futuristic Western/Arthurian Epic Romance genre buffs can there be. This flashback, the main part of the story, primarily deals with Susan, who was briefly mentioned in the Gunslinger, and a mystical item called the Wizard's Rainbow (actually a collection of 13 mystical items, but only one weights heavy on the story). More interesting is the framing story, only about a hundred and sixty pages in my edition, following the sequence of the series, but even that has its low points.
Then, finally, it has an excerpt from the fifth book. The protagonists defy surface stereotypes but with a stereotypical absence of emotional complexity. But, neither are the 666 pages in the middle. Without Suz, Eddie and Jake (I won't say Oy because I like Oy's silent streak), I could enjoy this book.
Characters engage in absurdly colloquial and slang-filled conversations that strike me as trite, predictable and rarely entertaining. Hardly. I tried to approach this series with an open mind but after reading Wizard and Glass I think I've endured enough to write a negative review. Book five is sitting on my desk and I wonder whether I'll ever read it. For instance, Suzanne is in a wheel chair but instead of adding complexity to the story, she transforms into a no-legged Rambo resembling "an alligator" and takes transparent cheesiness to new heights. I cannot understand the appeal of throwing random solutions at random problems, and repeat.However, Roland's story about his childhood contained very few of the above problems.
Necessary. Nevertheless, this series as a whole fails to recommend itself from a fantasy, leisure reading, literary or any other perspective. As a final note, I have never seen another author spend so many pages commenting on his own book. On top of that, Wizard and Glass has a Preface consisting of the final chapter of the third book and an Afterward à propos of nothing. Additionally, the plot lacks any underlying coherency. Every book in this series has the SAME 28 page introduction and a separate Argument summarizing the earlier books. King's writing poses the biggest problem.
Throw pop culture in a blender and this is what comes out. Further, the characters repeatedly intuit bizarre ways of progressing for no other reason than because they're supposed to. King's obsession and repeated reference to, on the one hand, tired pop culture, and on the other hand, obscure highbrow art is disorienting when thrown haphazardly together. Roland and company move between apparently randomly generated monsters as if trapped in some twisted obstacle course.
|
