Wizard and Glass is a history, then.
But it is also very much a Western. In truth, it is only when reading this fourth volume that one comes to realize that all of Roland’s stories are westerns. The slow mutants or Blaine the Mono or robot bears or demons and sorcerers might throw one off the track of the sagebrush genre, but in the end, they really are all classic western stories, the kind of thing John Ford might have directed if he and King had ever had the opportunity to work together.
While Wizard and Glass is the fourth installment in the series, in so many ways, it is also the real beginning of everything. It is here that we learn more of Roland’s backstory than perhaps we ever hoped King would share. His father, Steven, was a gunslinger, a member of the elite ruling class of the many baronies that made up the Affiliation, which itself had descended over many centuries, so legend had it, from King Arthur himself. Arthur, Maerlyn, Excalibur, all these are known to Roland’s world, though in this reality he was called Arthur Eld.
Marten, having seen that Roland might be a roadblock to the plans he seems to share with the would-be usurper of the Affiliation, John Farson, seduces Roland’s mother and allows the boy to discover them. Marten knows that Roland will try to “graduate” early, to win the title and weapons of a gunslinger. He hopes that Roland will fail and be sent west.
Roland does not fail. He becomes the youngest gunslinger in Gilead’s history.
When confronted by his father, Roland is horrified to learn that his mother’s infidelity has not escaped the man’s attention; he also learns that his father has allowed it to go on because there are greater issues at hand. The barony itself is at stake. In fact, all of the baronies are in jeopardy. A dark time is coming in which Farson will bring war to the land, and Steven Deschain, Roland’s father, wants his son out of danger.
Roland is dispatched, along with Cuthbert and Alain, to the oceanside town of Mejis. It is supposed to be for their safety. Instead, they uncover a plot against the old ways, and in favor of John Farson. Over the course of the conflict that ensues, they find a glass ball with great power, one of the last surviving pieces of Maerlyn’s Rainbow. The great enchanter had once owned a great many of these powerful objects, in all the colors of the rainbow.
It is when the ball is in Roland’s possession—and he in its (for the ball has a horrible hold on those who behold it)—that he has his first real glimpse of the Dark Tower, and the future that awaits him and his ka-tet. Most of it, he forgets. But he knows, from that point on, that there is a sickness at the tower, which is the center and sum of everything. Only by curing that sickness and destroying whatever had tainted it can he right all the things that are going wrong with the world. If he succeeds he can pull the skeins back together, reverse the process by which the world is “moving on.”
In the end, having triumphed over their enemies in Mejis—at the horrible price of Susan Delgado’s life—Roland and his friends moved on, very soon setting about the quest that Roland will pursue for the rest of his life and that the others will follow until they die. But before that search begins, Roland suffers a horrible blow. In a cruel twist of fate—manipulated by magic—he ends up murdering his own mother, a sin for which he can never forgive himself.
Wizard and Glass, as noted, is many things, however. Tragedy is one of them. Western is another. But it is also a love story. The romance and passion of Roland’s relationship with Susan is related so powerfully that their rightness for one another is undeniable.
“Ka like a wind” is a statement that is repeated time and again in this book, and it is ever so accurate. King’s romantic relationships—such as that between Ben and Susan in ’Salem’s Lot (1975) and between Fran and Stu in The Stand (1978)—are always sweet, and natural and real. But never so real as here, never so intense and undeniable as within these pages.
Finally, then, with the sacrifice of Susan, the murder of his mother, and his vision of the future, we truly begin to see the heart of Roland the gunslinger, Roland of Gilead, who had once, in the village of Tull, slaughtered the entire populace and seemed so inhumanly cold.
We see, also, that in order to be more than a cold-hearted killer, to be human, Roland must surround himself with friends, with ka-tet, with those doomed to join him on his quest. There are previous comparisons, but now we see, truly, why Eddie Dean, with his sharp wit and hot temper, reminds Roland so much of Cuthbert; and why Susannah, with her gentle smile belying the cold steel mind within, recalls Alain.
Then there’s the boy, Jake, who appears, even more than the others, destined for an ending of unspeakable pain and horror.
There is so much contained in this one narrative, and well it should be, given that it offers so much, and establishes the foundations of the chronicle that will bring King’s multiverse together. When Roland’s ka-tet pass through a “thinny,” a place where the barrier between parallel worlds is thin, they wind up in the world of The Stand.
It is not the world Jake or Eddie or Susannah come from, but because the world is moving on, because the Tower is being slowly corrupted, the barriers between worlds are thinning even further. Which means that the superflu, Captain Trips, can begin to make its way through those barriers.
King’s worlds—his universes—are colliding.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the presence here of Randall Flagg. His identity was hinted at in The Waste Lands (1991). Here, all pretense is dropped. Flagg, it appears, has been Roland’s enemy all along. Not only is Flagg also Marten, the enchanter, but he is Maerlyn as well. He is Walter, the man in black, and he is Flagg.
“All hail the Crimson King,” says some of the graffiti in the world where people are torn between Mother Abagail and Randall Flagg. And we are only beginning to learn that the creature we know as Flagg and Marten and Walter and so many other names is perhaps the Crimson King’s most loyal and powerful servant.
In Insomnia (1994), we are told by a small boy that Roland is also a king, and that he will come into final conflict with the Crimson King. This seems to be inevitable now, for Roland is, after all, the last descendant of King Arthur.
In the end, of course, Roland and his ka-tet are back on the path of the Beam, back on the road west, heading for the Dark Tower. King tells us that they will come to a dark land called Thunderclap, where other threads, other stories, other universes may intertwine.
The world moves on again.
The final conflict is yet to come.
WIZARD AND GLASS: PRIMARY SUBJECTS
ROLAND DESCHAIN: The gunslinger has now completed the gathering of his new ka-tet, a band of raw gunslingers drawn from other worlds who join him for the final leg of his quest. Roland, we have learned, is the son of the last Lord of Gilead, a descendant of Arthur Eld, an ancient king who united the baronies as an Affiliation.
As a teenager, soon after becoming a gunslinger, Roland was sent by his father to the barony of Mejis, where he met and fell in love with Susan Delgado. In Mejis, he and his friends foiled a plot by the locals to aid the efforts of John Farson to destroy the Affiliation. It is also there that he came into contact with the powerful glass ball that is part of Maerlyn’s Rainbow. That sorcerous object gave him glimpses of the future, starting him on his quest for the Dark Tower.
Many years later, with his new ka-tet, Roland begins to learn just how serious the threat of the Dark Tower’s corruption is, not merely to his world, but to all worlds. He finally meets Flagg face to face, unaware at this time that Flagg has always been his enemy, only under other guises.
EDDIE DEAN: Eddie is the member of the ka-tet who figures out how to destroy Blaine the Mono, saving all of their lives just in time. He is drawn out of another time and place to become part of Roland’s quest. At first it is against his will. Now, though, Roland’s quest has become Eddie’s.
SUSANNAH DEAN: Like her husband, Eddie, Susannah is drawn from another time and place to become part of Roland’s quest. She has since taken up the search as her own. Susannah holds a d
ark secret from her husband that only Roland knows—she is pregnant, and her offspring might be Eddie’s, or it might be that of a demon that raped her.
JAKE CHAMBERS: Once, Roland let Jake die. Later, he saved the boy before that death ever occurred. This created a time paradox that nearly drove them both mad. However, Jake is now an integral part of the ka-tet.
OY: One of a breed of creatures called billy-bumblers, Oy becomes part of the group by sheer accident. Later, he saves Jake’s life, and possibly Roland’s as well. It has become clear, thanks in part to the actions of Flagg, that Oy is an important part of this ka-tet as well.
BLAINE: An insane monorail train that runs from Roland’s world and into another dimension where a plague called Captain Trips has decimated the population. It has a fondness for riddles. Eddie eventually drives it deeper into madness, resulting in its destruction.
LITTLE BLAINE: The “sane,” smaller voice of the monorail; another personality of its artificial intelligence.
STEVEN DESCHAIN: The son of Henry the Tall, Steven is descended from Arthur Eld himself. He is rightful Lord of the Barony of Gilead at the time of its destruction and his death. The details of those dark times are still unclear.
CUTHBERT ALLGOOD: One of Roland’s closest friends; they are together in Mejis when Roland first learns of the Dark Tower, and the danger to all things posed by its deterioration. Cuthbert later joins Roland on his quest, but dies before completing it.
ALAIN JOHNS: One of Roland’s closest friends; they are together in Mejis when Roland first hears of the Dark Tower, and the danger to all things posed by its deterioration. Alain later joins Roland on his mission, but dies before completing it.
SUSAN DELGADO: A young girl living in the village of Hambry in the barony of Mejis, Susan falls in love with Roland, though she has been promised to the mayor of Hambry, Hart Thorin. She breaks that promise by becoming Roland’s lover. In the end, thanks in great part to the hideous actions of her cruel aunt, Cordelia Delgado, Susan is burned to death by the townspeople for her actions, both real and imagined.
RHEA: A witch who lives on the outskirts of Hambry, Rhea is the keeper of one of the pieces of Maerlyn’s Rainbow for a time. Despite her magic, it corrupts her, sucking the life out of her. Rhea does not die then, however, and the circumstances of her death have yet to be revealed. After the events in Hambry, she uses her magic to manipulate Roland into murdering his own mother. He sees her again, but those events have yet to be revealed.
ELDRED JONAS: The leader of a trio of hired guns called the Big Coffin Hunters, Eldred Jonas once dreamed of being a gunslinger. He failed the final test, however, and like all those who did, was sent west, excommunicated, in a sense, from the Affiliation. Though he is eventually killed by Roland of Gilead, it is interesting to note that, according to his associates, Jonas bragged of having traveled to other worlds through “special doors.”
SHEEMIE:A slow boy who lives in Hambry, he is a friend to Roland and Susan and the others, part of their ka-tet. They are later parted, but Roland will meet him again.
JOHN FARSON: A mysterious figure, often referred to but never seen. He leads the revolt against the Affiliation. However, it will be revealed that Farson is also Walter/Marten/Flagg/Legion.
WALTER: At first, Walter appears to be a servant of John Farson’s. Walter first crosses paths with Roland (or nearly does) in Hambry. Later, of course, it is Walter whom Roland pursues across the desert. Walter seemingly dies on the mountain after giving Roland prescient visions. Over the course of this saga, it is revealed that Walter, Farson, Flagg, and Marten are all one and the same.
MAERLYN’S RAINBOW: It is said that Maerlyn has thirteen objects of power, one for each of the Twelve Guardians of the Portals, and one for the nexus point of the Beams that connect those, the nexus point, of course, being the Dark Tower. These objects are glass balls, most of which have apparently been destroyed. By looking into one of them, however, Roland is given a vision of the Dark Tower, and of the future.
WIZARD AND GLASS: TRIVIA
• Oatley, the town where Clay Reynolds and Coral Thorin meet their eventual end, shares the same name as a town in The Talisman, where Jack Sawyer is essentially held prisoner by the owner of the local bar.
• As a way of thanking his Constant Readers for purchasing the novels Desperation and The Regulators, a small (59-page) excerpt from a yet-to-be-completed Wizard and Glass was included as a complementary gift at the time of the publication of the two books in 1996. The miniature paperback is now a collector’s item.
• In the 1998 novella The Little Sisters of Eluria, part of the saga of The Dark Tower, King establishes that the witch, Rhea, has sisters, one of whom is likely Rhiannon, who is mentioned in The Eyes of the Dragon (1987), which also takes place in the same plane of reality as Roland’s story.
5
THE DARK TOWER V: WOLVES OF THE CALLA
(2003)
Stephen King’s Constant Readers were able to rejoin Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy on their journey to the Dark Tower when, on November 4, 2003, Donald M. Grant and Scribner jointly published the fifth installment of King’s epic Dark Tower series, Wolves of the Calla, complete with twelve full-color illustrations by noted comic book/fantasy artist Bernie Wrightson.
The six-year period between installments had been an eventful one for King, seeing him switch publishers, experiment with e-commerce, and, most importantly, survive a terrible accident in which he was struck by a van and nearly killed. King’s accident gave him a greater sense of urgency about completing his epic. Deciding to see the series straight through until its conclusion, he finished first drafts of the last three volumes over a period of roughly a year, from August of 2001 through the end of October 2002.
King also decided to substantially revise the first Dark Tower book, The Gunslinger, to bring it more in line with the series as it had developed over the years in terms of concepts, characters, and themes. By the time King had finished reworking the book, he had made subtle changes on nearly every page, added three scenes, and excised false starts that failed to develop meaningfully in subsequent books.
Sporting a new preface, the revised Gunslinger was released in June 2003. In addition to that book, Viking released new hardcover editions of The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, and Wizard and Glass, all featuring new introductions from King. They also featured more uniform jackets, featuring a stylized keyhole on the top spine of each volume. The last three volumes of the series also sported these new designs.
It was in the new Gunslinger and in Wolves of the Calla that King also introduced subtitles to the series. The Gunslinger was now subtitled “Resumption”; The Drawing of the Three “Renewal”; The Waste Lands “Redemption”; and Wizard and Glass “Regard.” Drawing inspiration from the John Sturges classic The Magnificent Seven, Wolves of the Calla was aptly subtitled “Resistance.”
Readers can almost feel King rounding a metaphorical corner in Wolves, gathering speed as he heads toward the long-awaited conclusion of this massive epic. After three decades, the end was finally in sight. As Wolves commences, Roland and his ka-tet are still on the path of the beam. Their quest has led them to Calla Bryn Sturgis, an agricultural town beyond the forests of Mid-World and in the shadow of the ominous dark city of Thunderclap. As they approach the city, they are met by a group of desperate townspeople who beg them for help against a foe so implacable that many in the town have long since given up hope. Among this delegation is a familiar face from King’s canon, the unfortunate Father Donald Callahan, former resident of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine.
The townsfolk of the Calla fear an army of beings they refer to as wolves, which attack from Thunderclap once each generation to abduct their children. Not just any children, mind you, but one half of each pair of the twins who live there in surprising numbers. Months after their abduction, the victims are returned to the village, robbed of some vital spark, doomed to grow into slow-witted, short-lived giants. Having seen signs
that the wolves’ next invasion is imminent, the people of the Calla beseech the gunslingers to help them.
Bound by their code, the gunslingers have no choice but to cast their lot with the villagers. What follows is a period of preparation and soul-searching, as hidden depths and hideous duplicity are discovered within the group. The day the wolves reappear, they find a newly defiant population willing to do battle to protect their progeny, even if that entails the ultimate destruction of the entire village.
Always a powerful storyteller, King really hits his stride in Wolves, which, as he acknowledges in an Author’s Note, is essentially a Western draped in the clothing of the fantastic. King works the tropes like a master, delivering a gripping and satisfying tale, simultaneously positioning his characters for the final battle to come. Along the way, he pays homage to several diverse works of fiction, among them The Lord of the Rings, and the movies The Magnificent Seven and 2001: A Space Odyssey, further strengthening the links between this and past works.
WOLVES OF THE CALLA: PRIMARY SUBJECTS
ROLAND: The last gunslinger in Mid-World, Roland Deschain has assembled a ka-tet consisting of Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, and Oy, a doglike creature known as a billy-bumbler. Traveling the Way of the Beam toward the Dark Tower, the quintet are asked by the people of Calla Bryn Sturgis to assist them in fending off an invading army. Bound by the code of his kind, the gunslinger agrees to help them.
The Complete Stephen King Universe Page 5
