Roland and his band have narrowly escaped the city of Lud and boarded Blaine, a train that will take them to, of all places, Kansas, where the ghost city of Topeka has been depopulated by a superflu and where, alongside Interstate 70, an emerald palace rises enchantingly. Before Roland and the companions of his ka-tet continue along the Path of the Bean, Roland must tell his companions the tale that defines him both as a man and hero, a long-ago romance of witchery and evil, of the beautiful, unforgettable Susan Delgado, of the Big Coffin Hunters and Reah of the Coos. And when his tale is finished, Roland confronts a man who goes by many names, a man who "darkles and tincts" and who holds perhaps the key to the Dark Tower.

"The fourth volume...doesn't advance its heroes' journey...much from where The Waste Lands left them, but at least it gets them out of the fix they were in and primed to get into another....King is the genre fiction writer's genre fiction writer, and the action that is hackneyed here is also...blazing — brightly." Ray Olson, Booklist

"[W]hile this isn't King at his most accomplished, it is King at his most ebullient. He's at his best here...as a storyteller who can set pages on fire....Mixing horror, fantasy both high and low, western icons and pop references, the novel lacks structural rigor and sometimes even sense, but it sweeps readers up in such swells of passion that few may notice, or care." Publishers Weekly

"In Roland's quest tale...the bleak cosmology of self-assurance versus wrongness is as compelling as ever. But seven rambling volumes of bemusedly wry storytelling? This will be The Ring Cycle on top of The Lord of the Rings." Kirkus Reviews

"Wizard and Glass...pulls back on the reins a bit, returning (in some parts) to the ponderous pace of the first volume. But, this time, King's experience and know-how keep this literary pause in the Dark Tower journey much more lively....Don't worry, there's still plenty of action and strangeness....Another solid entry in what has proved to be a compelling series." Dorman T. Shindler, The Denver Post

Stephen King returns to the Dark Tower with the eagerly anticipated fourth volume in his bestselling series. Roland, the last gunslinger, and his band of followers have narrowly escaped one world, and slipped into the next. It is here that Roland tells them a long-ago tale of love and adventure involving a beautiful and quixotic woman named Susan Delgado. With shocking plot twists and driving narrative force, Wizard and Glass brings readers to the midpoint of the series — and leaves them waiting eagerly for the concluding volumes of The Dark Tower.

Beginning with a short story appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1978, the publication of Stephen King's epic work of fantasy--what he considers to be a single long novel and his magnum opus--has spanned a quarter of a century. Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, The Dark Tower series is King's most visionary feat of storytelling, a magical mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror that may well be his crowning achievement. In November 2003, the fifth installment, Wolves of the Calla, will be published under the imprint of Donald M. Grant, with distribution and major promotion provided by Scribner. Song of Susannah, Book VI, and The Dark Tower, Book VII, will follow under the same arrangement in 2004. With these last three volumes finally on the horizon, readers--countless King readers who have yet to delve into The Dark Tower and a multitude of new and old fantasy fans--can now look forward to reading the series straight through to its stunning conclusion. Viking's elegant reissue of the first four books ensures that for the first time The Dark Tower will be widely available in hardcover editions for this eager readership.

Stephen King has written more than forty books and two hundred short stories. He has won the World Fantasy Award, several Bram Stoker awards, and the O. Henry Award for his story "The Man in the Black Suit."