422 pages
English language
Published Sept. 10, 2003 by Viking.
Part III of an epic saga. Roland and his companions, Eddie and Susannah Dean, find the Path of the Beam that will lead them to the Dark Tower. Along the way, Roland adds two new members to his ka-tet (a group united for a specific purpose). In the decaying city of Lud, they encounter new dangers, including a sentient train that has gone insane.
Much more to this story than the others, building on the world that has been established. And a lot more happens.
I've read far beyond not compelled to review which I really should, it's just good for the sake of being good. The Waste Lands where we follow the Beam, the city of Lud, and Blaine the Pain. There was a lot of diversity here, snapshots of time gone wonky, people losing their minds--Lord of the Flies comes to mind and a Mono who controls them all with failed dipolar circuitry.
What a wicked web is weaved and who doesn't smell Gasher through his run? If the mad hatter was truly mad and lived during these times, maybe he would have been the tiktok man?
If you want a vivisection of a city in squalor, it's people gone to ash and our trio+bumbler through this arc and onto the most insane ending you should read this.
The series gets better and better. The pacing of this book is amazing, it feels like so many stories and the drip-like revelations about roland and his world give it a lot of depth.
