My appreciation for this book has grown since I first read it. After [b:The Gunslinger|43615|The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1375776480s/43615.jpg|46575], I think this is my favorite book in the series.

Most of the story is told in flashback to the days immediately after Roland first became a gunslinger, when he and two companions – Cuthbert and Alain, of whom we've heard mention of in the books before now, but without any detail – are sent to a small town far from the city of Gilead where Roland's father and the other gunslingers are trying desperately to keep their land from falling to the Good Man, John Farson, and his increasingly powerful army. As such, it is basically a western-romance-mystery with a fairly tightly woven plot (despite its length) and plenty of insight into the development of Roland's character, complete with the impetus for his pursuit of the serially eponymous Dark Tower and the tortured memories of those he has left in the wake of his pursuit.

I'm also happy because the first part of the book fairly quickly resolves one of the most annoying elements of the entire series for me (at least, to this point), Blaine "the Pain" Monorail. I mean, it's a serviceable device for getting Roland and his ka-tet much further along the Path of the Beam than they otherwise would, but man, I just hate that stupid contraption. And Little Blaine was the most annoying aspect of it all.

At any rate, I remembered liking this story from my first read through years ago, but this time around I was a little surprised at how much I liked it. If you can make it through [b:The Waste Lands|34084|The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389762449s/34084.jpg|1810634], which is my least favorite of the Dark Tower books (up to this point), don't stop. I promise Wizard and Glass is definitely worth the effort.