Wizard and Glass is #4 in Stephen King's eight-volume The Dark Tower series. It is a dark fantasy set in Earth’s future, where physical and metaphysical laws are significantly altered. There is some collective memory of the old world, and characters describe the present state as a world that has “moved on.” There are portals between Roland’s world and the old world.
Roland Deschain is a Gunslinger, not so much a description as a title or profession: a knightly order trained in personal combat to be defenders of justice. Roland is the last of the gunslingers. He is on a quest to find the Dark Tower, and once finding it presumably to set something right that has somehow gone wrong in the world that moved on.
Thus far, the exact purpose of gaining the Dark Tower is not precisely clear, but it does begin to come into focus in volume #4.
In volume #1, The Gunslinger, Roland was alone. In volume #2, The Drawing of the Three, he picks up two companions from 20th-century America: Eddie, a former drug addict, and Susannah, a former schizophrenic and double-leg amputee. Eddie and Susanah become Roland’s companions and gunslingers in training. In volume #3, The Waste Lands, the three risk great peril to add one more to their group, a boy named Jake, also from the 20th century. It is unclear if Jake will become a gunslinger. Roland loves him like a son, but nothing…NOTHING…is more important than finding the Dark Tower.
Wizard and Glass is more of a flashback than anything else. Roland’s companions question him about his past, his family, how he became a Gunslinger, a lost love he occasionally refers to, and the origins of his quest for the Dark Tower. Most of this volume is the four sitting around the campfire as Roland recounts his past. I can imagine that during the original publication, readers were clamoring for Roland’s backstory. This is it.
I didn’t have to wait for the next volume to be published, but I was just as anxious about this missing segment. It is riveting and tragic – my favorite in the series thus far.
After Roland finishes his story, he releases his four companions from their part in his quest, even though he knows they are critical to success. The retelling of his tale sharply highlights his sacrifice, and Roland will no longer risk everything and everyone for the Dark Tower.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
There is little humor in this story, but occasional comic relief. Roland is typically stoic and even severe. He espouses a mystic notion of ka: something like fate, but when his companions use ka in argument against him, Roland's only response is “kaka”.
…the three of them stared at him, mouths open.
Roland of Gilead had made a joke.
In the world that has moved on, there are vestiges of former things though sometimes a bit confused: some ancient songs are remembered, Hey Jude, for instance; Punch and Judy shows are played now as Pinch and Jilly; derelict vehicles and buildings bear meaningless words such as Chevrolet or Citgo; people remember Arthurian legend; and there are memories of the ancient religion and Jesus, relegated to legend himself.
On a personal note, I felt it was time to address this treatment of Christ. As a Christian, I considered abandoning this series for this near blasphemy, but after prayerful consideration, I don’t feel that is necessary. I am not inclined to defend that decision here. I only felt compelled to profess that Jesus Christ is not a legend and never will be, no matter how the world may move on.
Peace
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