by Bev Vincent
They emerge into a version of Topeka, Kansas, that is different from the one known to the New Yorkers. They see unfamiliar automobile models, soft drink brands and sports franchises. A superflu has decimated the population of America. They find a newspaper dated 1986, a year before Roland drew Eddie from New York, so they can’t be in his Earth, but perhaps in a universe that is next door. They also find Gage Park, which has a train that must have inspired Beryl Evans to write Charlie the Choo-Choo.
They’re no longer on the Path of the Beam. Equipped with a new, light, high-tech wheelchair found in the train station parking lot to replace the one Susannah abandoned in Lud, they head east on Interstate 70, where they encounter a thinny, a place where the fabric of existence is almost entirely worn away. It emits a sound that disturbs the ka-tet on a fundamental level. It also brings back a flood of memories for Roland, who first encountered a thinny shortly after he passed his test of manhood in Gilead. Thinnies have been increasing in number since the Dark Tower began its decline. Blaine may have passed through one to get them into this version of America.
In the distance, they see a shimmering green palace that seems to be floating above the lanes of the interstate. Roland knows it means trouble for them. As they draw near, he feels compelled to tell them the story of what happened after his father confronted him the day he beat Cort and won his guns, though the story is going to be difficult for him to face. To reach the Tower, he needs a whole heart and must put the past to rest as much as possible. Finally, he summons the courage to do so and, over the course of a night that seems to last far longer than a handful of hours, he tells his story.
Though young Roland is now a gunslinger, he is no match for the sly Marten. Certain that the wizard will try to kill Roland, Steven Deschain sends his son east to the Barony of Mejis on the Clean Sea, a place that resembles the American Southwest or Mexico both in geography and in lingo. Roland chooses two friends to join him, Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns. Their cover story is that they’re counting things that the Affiliation might need in a battle with John Farson. As a subtext, they are to imply that this is a punishment for rowdy teenage behavior. Little does Steven Deschain know that he is sending three fourteen-year-olds to a place where Farson has corrupted most of the town’s politicians and landowners. Mejis has oil, which Farson needs to run the machinery of the Great Old Ones he discovered in the West. He plans to get this equipment running and lure the Affiliation forces into an ambush.
Before they even officially check into Mejis, Roland meets a beautiful girl two years his senior and soon falls in love with her. Susan Delgado’s position is delicate, though. Her father used to be in charge of the Barony’s horses, but he stood up against the other landowners and was murdered to keep him quiet. Susan thinks his death was an accident but, regardless of the cause, the outcome is the same: she has no parents and is at risk of becoming destitute and homeless after their papers of ownership go missing.
Susan’s greedy spinster aunt, Cordelia Delgado, coerces her into accepting an arrangement with the mayor, Hart Thorin, whereby she will become his “gilly.” According to the old laws, if a man’s wife cannot bear an heir, he can take a woman on the side to serve this purpose. Susan rationalizes that she can still get married once she has given Thorin a son. Thorin is more interested in bedding a beautiful young woman than in fathering an heir, but Susan doesn’t realize this until it’s too late. Not until after the deal is finalized and she can’t turn back does she consider the effect of this arrangement on Thorin’s wife, Olive.
Meeting Roland—traveling under the alias Will Dearborn—complicates her situation. She is attracted to him, too, but she can’t go back on her word. She feels bound to honor the memory of her father. The book’s subtitle, “Regard,” comes from a look Susan gives Roland at the reception party at Thorin’s mansion. It’s all he needs for encouragement, even though he is furious when he discovers what she has agreed to do. He empathizes with Olive Thorin, who reminds him of his alienated mother.
The temptation of young love is strong, and the two eventually begin a torrid romance loosely modeled on Romeo and Juliet. They keep their affair secret from everyone except Alain and Cuthbert, who are dismayed by the way Roland is distracted. The boys (the locals dub them the Affiliation Brats) know that something is amiss in Mejis. The locals are too ready to declare their undying loyalty for the Affiliation when even Roland knows that the Affiliation is coming apart. The Outer Baronies don’t see much benefit from the taxes they pay to Gilead. It is left to Alain and Cuthbert to keep up the pretense of counting things while they try to get to the bottom of whatever is going on, a daunting task for boys so young, even prospective gunslingers.
Cuthbert is especially vexed with his friend, comparing him to wet ammunition that might not fire when needed. He’s jealous that Roland is always first at everything: first to get his guns, first to fall in love. He tries to browbeat Roland into waking up and conveying their findings to Gilead, but Roland ignores him.
Three mercenary “regulators” called the Big Coffin Hunters, led by failed gunslinger Eldred Jonas, are in Mejis on Farson’s behalf. Farson needs horses, of which Mejis has many, and oil. Jonas, who was sent west after losing to Cort’s father, is savvy and skilled, but he underestimates the Affiliation Brats, even after they prove their mettle in a confrontation at the local saloon (where the piano player is Sheb, whom Roland will encounter in Tull) involving a mentally challenged boy named Sheemie. Jonas worries that the “Little Coffin Hunters” have been sent to disrupt their plans, but he thinks that keeping them out of the way while they complete their mission is sufficient.
Thus begins a game of Castles that lasts the rest of the summer. In Castles, each player begins with an army hidden behind a hillock, which prevents him from seeing how his opponent is arranging his men. The crucial point in the game comes when one player emerges from behind the hillock, leaving him vulnerable and exposed if he hasn’t planned wisely. Roland and his ka-tet and the Big Coffin Hunters are all aware that the other side is up to something, but neither group wants to show its hand too early. Jonas tries to provoke the boys by vandalizing their living quarters. Cuthbert thinks Roland isn’t playing the game at all, which leads to a showdown between the two boys and an awakening for Roland, who believed that his falling in love had nothing to do with the game they were playing. That it would somehow lift him above ka.
Jonas and his henchmen make the first major move, framing Roland, Cuthbert and Alain for the murders of the mayor and his chancellor. With the boys out of the way, Jonas gets ready to deliver the oil to Farson. He doesn’t count on the resourcefulness and strength of Susan Delgado, who, with the help of slow-witted but faithful Sheemie, frees Roland and the others from jail. Susan and Sheemie become full-fledged members of the ka-tet, and Susan becomes a de facto gunslinger after being forced to use Roland’s guns during the breakout.
Now that Jonas’s intentions are exposed, the game of Castles turns deadly. The ka-tet destroys the oil field, thus cutting off Farson’s source, and attacks the convoy, killing many corrupt local ranchers and scattering the rest. Then they attack and destroy the tankers. They lead the rest of Farson’s men into the thinny to their deaths. This will be a major setback to Farson’s plans—though ultimately it only delays his victory over the Affiliation.
The wild card in Mejis is a pink glass ball that is part of Maerlyn’s Rainbow. Farson uses this glass to monitor the Affiliation’s movements. It has allowed him to launch surprise attacks and to avoid capture. There is danger associated with using the glass, though, so he sends it away when he doesn’t need it. The Big Coffin Hunters assign it to a local witch named Rhea Dubativo, who uses it to spy on the people of Mejis. She knows about Susan’s affair with Roland and is enraged when Susan thwarts her plan to play a prank on Mayor Thorin. Roland also attracts her ire when he warns her to stay out of their business and kills her pet snake.
Rhea becomes addicted to the orb and to the idea of ge
tting back at Susan. When the Big Coffin Hunters take the orb away from her to return it to Farson, Susan—who is pregnant with Roland’s child and a captive in the mayor’s mansion—is the only person available for her to get back at, so she exposes Susan’s infidelity and raises the townspeople against her during the Reaping Night festivities, a time when, historically, a person was burned in ritual sacrifice to appease the gods and seek blessings for their crops. After the terrible losses the town suffered, the people are ready for blood, and Susan pays the price.
Roland learns of her fate through the Wizard’s Glass, which he took from Jonas during the battle. The glass shows him many things, most of them hurtful. It reveals how foolish he was, exposing his teenage bravado as stupidity. This explains how he is able to tell parts of the story that happened when he wasn’t present to Eddie, Jake and Susannah. The glass misled him into thinking Susan was safe after she was captured by Jonas.
From it, Roland also learns about the Dark Tower and its peril. By the time he returns from his journey inside the glass, he has adopted the quest to find the Tower and save it as his mission in life. While he had once believed he could live a quiet family life with Susan after Farson was defeated, he now realizes he will have to sacrifice any happiness in his life for this cause. He also understands why the gunslingers of Gilead are ignoring the imminent threat to the Affiliation: none of it matters if the Tower falls. He inherits their fatal flaw, sacrificing all short-term concerns in the name of the long-term goal of saving reality. Even if Susan hadn’t been killed in Mejis, he wouldn’t have stayed with her.
Roland ends his story with the boys’ return to Gilead, where they are feted as heroes. Alain and Cuthbert are elevated to gunslingers based on their performance against Farson’s troops. Roland doesn’t immediately tell his father that he has the Wizard’s Glass, though. It reveals a murder plot against his father, which he thwarts, though he doesn’t provide details to his new ka-tet before they reach the Green Palace.
Eddie, Jake and Susannah tell Roland the story of The Wizard of Oz after they find red shoes tailored to their individual needs. The Green Palace may be their way back home—which to the New Yorkers now means Mid-World, not Manhattan.
Inside the building, over which the Crimson King’s standard flies, they discover the Tick-Tock Man, who is playing the part of the wizard from the Baum novel, and a real wizard, whom Roland recognizes as Marten Broadcloak from Gilead but who is now calling himself Randall Flagg. Flagg has the pink Wizard’s Glass. He tries to convince Roland to give up his quest with promises of an easier life and warns Roland’s followers that everyone he has ever loved has been killed, including all the members of his original ka-tet.
After Flagg flees from the palace, Roland picks up the Wizard’s Glass and uses it to show his friends the end of his story. The conspiracy against his father involved his mother, Gabrielle, who was Marten’s lover, a fact Steven Deschain has known for years. While Roland was in Mejis, Gabrielle was at a woman’s retreat in Debaria. Upon her return, she was to beg Steven for forgiveness and take him into bed, where she would kill him with a poisoned knife provided by Marten. After intercepting the knife, Roland thinks he can convince his mother to see the error of her ways and swear off the affair. However, Gabrielle stole the pink Wizard’s Glass from Steven as a consolation prize for her lover. When Roland visits her chambers, the glass shows him a false vision. He thinks the person sneaking up on him from behind is the witch, Rhea, carrying a poison snake, when it is really his mother bearing the belt she made for him as a peace offering while in Debaria.
Roland kills his mother with his father’s guns, a sin that he carries with him all his life. He blames himself for Susan’s death, and now he has this burden to bear as well. He needed to show this part of the story to his new followers so they would understand what kind of man was leading them. It is a crucial point in their relationship. He has brought them into his world against their will and infected them with his passion for the Tower. They need to know what being a part of his team means. He offers them the chance to cry off the quest, but it is now their quest, too.
When they leave the Green Palace, they find themselves back in Mid-World on the Path of the Beam. They continue toward the Dark Tower with a new sense of understanding and commitment.
The train trip across Mid-World carried the ka-tet farther in several hours than Roland has covered in his entire life. After that, though, the forward momentum of Roland’s quest screeches to a halt for hundreds of pages, which frustrated some fans of the series. However, Wizard and Glass, coming as it does at the midpoint of the series, is crucial for a number of reasons. It explains how Roland learned of the Tower’s plight and when he made it his quest, and it reveals how the wide-eyed and innocent boy seen in flashbacks in The Gunslinger becomes the hardened loner who has spent his life in search of the Tower. Since meeting up with the New Yorkers, Roland has learned to love again. Readers come away with a richer understanding of the man and, perhaps, much more sympathy for him.
By the time King finished Wizard and Glass, he knew how the series would end. In the book’s afterword, he outlines the general shape of the final three books. He intended to start work on the fifth book the following year and carry through to the end because he wanted to finish before he died—a concern shared by the series’ fans—or became senile.
Fate intervened in a number of ways. The following year King switched publishers, signing a contract for three books that didn’t allow much room for work on the series. However, the Dark Tower was clearly still on his mind. He wrote “The Little Sisters of Eluria” in response to a request for a Dark Tower novella from Robert Silverberg and the short story “Everything’s Eventual,” which would later reveal itself as a Dark Tower story. His second book for Scribner, Hearts in Atlantis, contained the novella “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” which introduced the concept of Breakers working on behalf of the Crimson King.
On July 19, 1999, King was struck by a van and almost killed. The Dark Tower was in grave peril. The accident significantly changed King’s life, but it also provided inspiration for his writing and became an important plot element in the finale of the Dark Tower series.
Characters (in order of mention): Roland Deschain, Blaine the Mono, Eddie Dean, Jake Chambers, Susannah Dean, Oy, Henry Dean, Aunt Talitha, Elmer Chambers, Cort, the Manni, the doorkeeper, Scheherazade, Cuthbert Allgood, Jimmie Polino, Skipper Brannigan, Tommy Fredericks, John Parelli, Georgie Pratt, Csaba Drabnik, Frank Duganelli, Larry McCain, Marten/Walter, Big Coffin Hunters, Eldred Jonas, Clay Reynolds, Roy Depape, Rhea Dubativo, Susan Delgado, Beryl Evans, Omaha, John Corcoran, Luster, Winston, Jeeves, Maud, Spanker, Gasher, Ronald Reagan, Lord Perth, Walkin’ Dude, Crimson King, Engineer Bob, Gabrielle Deschain, Steven Deschain, John Farson, Old People, Hart Thorin, Cordelia Delgado, Pat Delgado, Kimba Rimer, Will Dearborn, Stanley Ruiz, Mrs. Beech, Richard Stockworth, Arthur Heath, Hax, Barons, Alain Johns, Barkie Callahan, Arthur Eld, Pettie the Trotter, Coral Thorin, Sheb McCurdy, Sheemie, Deborah, Herk Avery, Dave Hollis, James Reed, Piet Ravenhead, Lucas Rivers, Francis Lengyll, John Croydon, Hank Wertner, Hash Renfrew, Judy Hollis, Olive Thorin, Jake White, John Haverty, Countess Jillian of Up’ard Killian, Gert Moggins, Dolores Sheemer, George Latigo, George Riggins, Affiliation Brats, Little Coffin Hunters, Garbers, Jolene, Miguel Torres, Brian Hookey, Jamie McCann, Maria Tomas, Conchetta, Laslo Rimer, Vannay, Amy, Millicent Ortega, Frank Claypool, Sylvia Pittston, Old Pa, Flagg, Fardo, Robert, Francesca, Robert Allgood, Christopher Johns, Hiram Quint, Alvarez, Todd Bridger, Theresa Maria Dolores O’Shyven, Rufus Hookey, Soony, the Turtle, Total Hogs, Rodney Hendricks, Raines, Misha Alvarez, John Farson’s nephew, Mother Abigail, Dorothy Gale, Tick-Tock Man, Andrew Quick, Jamie DeCurry, Megan Chambers.
Places: Candleton; Rilea; Falls of the Hounds; River Crossing; Topeka, Kansas; Lud; Hambry; Mejis; Tom and Gerry’s Artistic Deli; Cradle of Lud; Gage Park; Clements; Dutch Hill; Gilead; River Send; New Canaan; Eyebolt Canyon; Cöos Hill; In
ner Baronies; Outer Arc; Western Drop; Seafront (Mayor’s House); Travellers’ Rest; Clean Sea; Citgo; Hemphill; Pennilton; Northern Baronies; West’rd Baronies; Great Hall of Gilead; Desoy; Garlan; Cressia; Indrie; Southwest Edge; Bar K Ranch; Old Quarter; Rocking B Ranch; Millbank; Rocking H Ranch; Ritzy; Vi Castis Mountains; Wind; Hattigans; Tepachi; Barony Sea Road; Bad Grass; Hanging Rock; Hookey’s Stable and Fancy Livery; Town Lookout; Onnie’s Ford; Green Heart; Seven-Mile Orchard; Shavéd Mountains; Craven’s Undertaking Parlor; Glencove; Pass o’ the River; Dis; Bayview Hotel; Thunderclap; the Dark Tower; Lake Saroni; Il Bosque; Debaria; Oakley; Nebraska; Las Vegas; Piper School; Green Palace; Kashamin.
Things: Threaded stock, DEP3, slo-trans engines, Demon Moon, Riddle-De-Dum!, Watch Me, hile, dinh, khef, ka, Barony Class, hand-scan spectrum magnifier, graf, Wide Earth, Full Earth, ka-mai, astin, Path of the Beam, thinny, shake-loop, saligs, Charlie the Choo-Choo, Topeka Capital-Journal, docker’s clutch, Captain Trips, superflu, fottergraf, Takuro Spirit, Kansas City Monarchs, Boing Boing Burger, I-70, gunslinger burritos, cozening, LaMerk Foundry, gunna, wot, ka-tel, fuzer, Kissing Moon, glam, Musty, Ermot, High Speech, Maerlyn’s grapefruit, Wizard’s Rainbow, cully, werewolves, Great Road, trig, Fair-Night, Rusher, sai, the Affiliation, wheels, sparklights, Grand Featherex, Reap Morn, rook’s skull, Buckskin, Glue Boy, Castles, the Romp, Chancellors’ Patience, gilly, iced tea, earth-gas, Honda, Glowing Day, firedims, Dance of Easterling, Excalibur, sheevin, camel bucket, Satan’s First Law of Malignity, clouts, Peddler’s Moon, Pylon, pettibone, bumblers, Ocean Foam, ken/kennit, oxen, Vi Castis Company, Sanday, corvette, Huntress Moon, wolf, fash, Reaping Bonfire, Reaping Day Fair, parey, mingo, sharproot, heliograph, jewels of Eld, Year’s End Fair, water-stool, stuffy-guys, Caprichoso, Homilies and Meditations, carvers, the touch, Casa Fuerte, the White, Maerlyn’s Rainbow, Black Thirteen, an-tet, charyou tree, cotton-gillies, Conversational, coozey, Horsemen’s Association, drogue, Zoltan, The Wizard of Oz, Nozz-A-La.
