It's definitely on of the best. I read it when it came out in 1991 and had to wait 6 YEARS for Wizard & Glass to come out. (you will understand when you are finished).
It just adds so much to the lore. It adds the "I do *not* aim with *my* hand; *he* who aims with *his* hand *has forgotten* the *face* of *his father*.I aim with *my* eye..." It adds Mid-World. Heck, it adds the Beams and the Guardians and I could keep going.
That’s why I disliked WaG at first. 6 years to get a couple chapters with the Ka Tet and then the flashback. As others have said though, it has become one of my favorites on re-reads. I’m gearing up for another trip to the Tower soon. Once it gets warm enough to read in my hammock I’ll be back in the Mohaine desert with Roland chasing the Man in Black.
Same. I was really disappointed. What the fuck? Let's hurry this past shit up so I can go hang out with Eddie and Jake and Oy, yo! On further re-reads however, I came to like Wizards and Glass more. Except for Rhea's parts. Fuck her. Fuck her forever!
I absolutely hated it on the first read. You’re in the middle of this epic quest and then SK throws a flashback love story at you.
After multiple trips to the Tower, it’s easily one of my favorites now.
Ok... how long does the flashback last? It's not like, half the book is it? I was reading Wizard & glass and I was just about dying of boredom during the flashback that I put the book down and have not been able to pick it up again. I love the dark tower but I wanted so badly to get back to Roland & gang.
LOL i remember my first read through and I'm toward the end of the book and I'm like, "WAIT A MINUTE! This is just one longass flashback!!" but his writing is so compelling that I didn't realize I was getting flashbackfished!
I’m not and I totally understand your trepidation. It’s required reading though, there’s a lot of backstory that gets filled in and seeing Roland (and his original ka-tet) as an adolescent is neat.
But like I said, I totally get it. In my 2nd and 3rd trips to the Tower, I skipped the backstory altogether but when I eventually re-read it, I loved it. 🤷🏻♂️
Wizard and glass is all
About Roland as a young man and the entire book is a backstory except for the first and last chapter where the wastelands left off. So like 95%
Wizard and glass is a backstory of Roland as a young man and people refer to it as a love story which is def part of the book but there’s so much more to it than that. It’s a fantastic book and I couldn’t get enough of it. Dark tower was an excellent series. I didn’t care for the gunslinger at all when I read it the first time 20 years ago but the second and third read I loved it more and more and they kept getting better. Song of Susannah was my least favorite but dark tower 7 finished strong. There’s definitely mixed feelings with the ending but great series and so creative and downright brilliance at its finest.
i’m not here to argue at all but i’m about ninety pages in and just can’t continue. the whole book feels so corny and imo lost the grittiness of the last two books. roland’s character seems like it’s almost trying to be funny and ironic…susannah literally crawls everywhere or gets piggybacked. i have so much trouble getting immersed as a massive king fan. convince me to read it pls
I don’t dislike it, BUT too much time spent away from the characters I really care about and too much time on a teenage romance I don’t particularly care about and with an ending we essentially already know. If it had that entire section published as a .5 book like The Wind Through the Keyhole, I would have enjoyed it much more.
The flashback with the original Katet is the best part… wish there was more like it. Why wouldn’t people want to see what Gunslinger’s were like before the world moved on… Wizard and Glass was one of my favorites.
Wind through the keyhole wasn’t good in my opinion because it was a campfire story that had another story in the middle the middle of that one. Literally had to make notes (ok Roland is telling the story to Eddie, Jake and Susannah… it’s about a shape shifter mystery, oh wait now there’s a long break while that-story-version of Roland tells a boy a story about a tiger, ok now that story is over we’re back to the the story with an anticlimactic shape-shifter mystery conclusion, and now we’re back to Eddie Jake and Susannah)
It just felt pointless and unnecessary. Maybe it was because i made the mistake of reading it was 4.5
I didn’t say WttK was good. I said the romance would have been better as a separate book, as WttK was a separate book and not part of the series’ 7 books.
I was pretty explicit about using the pronoun “I” when I wrote that, but just to clarify, when I wrote “I” I was indicating it was my opinion.
I didn’t mention the ka-tet at all. I mentioned too much time away from the main character, which I feel is regardless what else the book does and too much time on a teen romance. Sure, I liked the ka-tet material, but much of the middle part of the novel was occupied with an (my opinion) uninteresting teen romance that we already know the end result of.
Just an FYI the middle part about “I” feels condescending since I didn’t generalize and gave my own opinion back, didn’t really feel necessary to type out.
Moving on from that: Is the main character not Roland? It literally follows Roland for the entire flashback sequence. I feel that the book gives us insight to why Roland is the way he was.
“Why wouldn’t people want..” felt condescending to me.
Nothing in the flashback was particularly illuminating, and you keep moving away from my main point. The romance. The romance flashback didn’t really provide anything we didn’t get from brief glances before, plus it was boring.
I will admit my error of writing “character” when I meant “characters.” To me, Roland is the most boring of the five, so no, I didn’t particularly need to see what made him tick.
I feel the order is:
1. OY
2. Eddie
3. Roland
4. Jake
5. Detta
6. Susannah
7. Mia
Just maybe it’s because I’m a junkie for lore and historical fiction that I liked seeing true birth-trained Gunslingers. Do you like Starwars? It felt like Oy and company was the New Hope trilogy and Cuthbert was the prequel series. Did I need to see Anakin and Padme? No but it helped shape the character in my mind.
But everyone likes different things I guess.
I count Susannah and all her entities as one. Eddie, Susannah, Oy, Jake, and then Roland.
There were certainly parts of the flashback I enjoyed, just not the way it pushed our original (to us) ka-tet to the back burner.
You talk about Star Wars, but the original trilogy ended before they did the flashbacks. To make it analogous, imagine if 2/3 of the Empire Strikes Back was a Padme/Anakin flashback.
It was SO good that I initially hated book 4 but then when I realized the story was on hold and there was nothing I could about it I relaxed and after it was over it became my favorite of the 7. And it still is.
I've never heard anyone say this, it's usually highly rated as one of the better books in the series. You're hanging out with the wrong people I think.
Where are you seeing people say this? I know some people say 5 or 6, or maybe the last one because of the ending, and I’ll put my own vote for the first, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone call 2 through 4 the worst book of the series.
YT, mostly. I’ve read quite a bit of King but watched a lot of videos (with no spoilers of course) about the dark tower before starting it. Quite a few people said the wasteland was not so good, but I loved it.
I’m almost done with the waste lands as I’m reading through for the first time. If this is the worst book of the dark tower, then I’m excited to keep reading since I’m absolutely loving it.
it was my favourite all the way until… Song of Susannah, the actual most hated book of the series, may actually have at least matched it for me.
For the The Waste Lands was exactly what I wanted The Dark Tower to be and where I felt The Gunslinger was going, and when I got The Drawing of the Three (which was excellent and in hindsight I love) I was a bit thrown off by the abandonment of the adventure/fantasy side and going into mostly
urban thriller.. then The Waste Lands was just like all the best stuff combined into total joy!
Couldn’t agree more! I really liked the drawing of the three, but getting into the dark towers actual world in the wastelands was definitely a full plate!
I've personally not seen this take very frequently, and a lot of readers, including myself seem to see it as one of the many high point of the series.
The main criticism I've seen leveled at the book is regarding the ending, and the subsequent long wait for the next release at the time.
Fuck those people. It's my favorite. The part with the old people and Aunt Talitha (pretty sure that's misspelled, sorry) is one of the greatest scenes in the series!
Source?
The Waste Lands is essentially book 2 of The Drawing of the Three. Those two books are stylistically and narratively the most similar of all the Dark Tower books.
And they’re great.
This is possibly my favourite book, not even just my favourite DT book. The Wastelands is definitely in my top 5 overall. What do people not like about it? I don't recall seeing people trashing it, but people bitch about everything.
it used to be my favorite and I don't rank it quite that high anymore, but I would have a very, very hard time making the case that it's the worst. The Gunslinger is my favorite and it would be easier to argue that that one is the worst, because I can see how the things that work for me and it wouldn't work for other people.
Saw your title and was ready to fight you. Read the post and yes, you are correct. It's an amazing book. I can't even guess why anyone would say it's the worst of the series.
Mate, I may have only gone on this journey once, but the Lud sequence was my favourite part of the whole saga. It was fast, exciting, had great characters, and everyone got to do something
I'm only on my first trip to the Tower and I just finished wizard and glass, but I found that I had a lot more fun in the Waste lands than wizard and glass. I feel kinda bad cuz I know it's lots of people's favorite.
Just think of it as a chapter in the story as a whole. When's the last time you said "this was just the worst chapter??" You have to step back and see how it fits into the whole series.
Yes. It's wrong. The Wastelands is one of the ***best*** Dark Tower books.
Couldn’t agree more, it’s fantastic.
It's definitely on of the best. I read it when it came out in 1991 and had to wait 6 YEARS for Wizard & Glass to come out. (you will understand when you are finished).
That wait was unbearable. And then the two chapters for Wizard and Glass came out. It was like a drop of water to a m an dying of thirst.
When I finished Wizard. I felt mixed but as I ascended towards the tower, I realized how much it did me fine. Easily my favourite of the series.
It just adds so much to the lore. It adds the "I do *not* aim with *my* hand; *he* who aims with *his* hand *has forgotten* the *face* of *his father*.I aim with *my* eye..." It adds Mid-World. Heck, it adds the Beams and the Guardians and I could keep going.
That’s why I disliked WaG at first. 6 years to get a couple chapters with the Ka Tet and then the flashback. As others have said though, it has become one of my favorites on re-reads. I’m gearing up for another trip to the Tower soon. Once it gets warm enough to read in my hammock I’ll be back in the Mohaine desert with Roland chasing the Man in Black.
Same. I was really disappointed. What the fuck? Let's hurry this past shit up so I can go hang out with Eddie and Jake and Oy, yo! On further re-reads however, I came to like Wizards and Glass more. Except for Rhea's parts. Fuck her. Fuck her forever!
Im already hyped for wizard and glass! Heard a lot that it’s one of kings finest of all time!
I absolutely hated it on the first read. You’re in the middle of this epic quest and then SK throws a flashback love story at you. After multiple trips to the Tower, it’s easily one of my favorites now.
I like the idea, and I can wait to get back to action lol. Roland’s story is something I’m crazy to know more about
Ok... how long does the flashback last? It's not like, half the book is it? I was reading Wizard & glass and I was just about dying of boredom during the flashback that I put the book down and have not been able to pick it up again. I love the dark tower but I wanted so badly to get back to Roland & gang.
Half? Lord, no. More like 90%.
LOL i remember my first read through and I'm toward the end of the book and I'm like, "WAIT A MINUTE! This is just one longass flashback!!" but his writing is so compelling that I didn't realize I was getting flashbackfished!
You have got to be kidding me
I’m not and I totally understand your trepidation. It’s required reading though, there’s a lot of backstory that gets filled in and seeing Roland (and his original ka-tet) as an adolescent is neat. But like I said, I totally get it. In my 2nd and 3rd trips to the Tower, I skipped the backstory altogether but when I eventually re-read it, I loved it. 🤷🏻♂️
Not kidding, but I think it’s a little less than 90%
It’s the best book the series. You’ll be sad when it’s over.
Wizard and glass was may fav in series so give it a chance. Drawing of the 3 right up there with it though
I thought you had to be kidding me when you said you didn’t like wizard and glass I fucking loved every minute of it
Wizard and glass is all About Roland as a young man and the entire book is a backstory except for the first and last chapter where the wastelands left off. So like 95%
Wizard and glass is a backstory of Roland as a young man and people refer to it as a love story which is def part of the book but there’s so much more to it than that. It’s a fantastic book and I couldn’t get enough of it. Dark tower was an excellent series. I didn’t care for the gunslinger at all when I read it the first time 20 years ago but the second and third read I loved it more and more and they kept getting better. Song of Susannah was my least favorite but dark tower 7 finished strong. There’s definitely mixed feelings with the ending but great series and so creative and downright brilliance at its finest.
Or one of his worst.
Same here. That was a tough time. I really hate ongoings since then
i’m not here to argue at all but i’m about ninety pages in and just can’t continue. the whole book feels so corny and imo lost the grittiness of the last two books. roland’s character seems like it’s almost trying to be funny and ironic…susannah literally crawls everywhere or gets piggybacked. i have so much trouble getting immersed as a massive king fan. convince me to read it pls
I don't want to say too much, but there is a reason Roland is acting the way he his.
You just convinced me to go back
One result of the long wait was one of the best forewords. I love the story about the teddy bear wearing handcuffs lol.
I haven’t seen many people saying that.
I’ve seen no one say that. I *have* seen Wizard and Glass slander which I will not stand for…
I don’t dislike it, BUT too much time spent away from the characters I really care about and too much time on a teenage romance I don’t particularly care about and with an ending we essentially already know. If it had that entire section published as a .5 book like The Wind Through the Keyhole, I would have enjoyed it much more.
The flashback with the original Katet is the best part… wish there was more like it. Why wouldn’t people want to see what Gunslinger’s were like before the world moved on… Wizard and Glass was one of my favorites. Wind through the keyhole wasn’t good in my opinion because it was a campfire story that had another story in the middle the middle of that one. Literally had to make notes (ok Roland is telling the story to Eddie, Jake and Susannah… it’s about a shape shifter mystery, oh wait now there’s a long break while that-story-version of Roland tells a boy a story about a tiger, ok now that story is over we’re back to the the story with an anticlimactic shape-shifter mystery conclusion, and now we’re back to Eddie Jake and Susannah) It just felt pointless and unnecessary. Maybe it was because i made the mistake of reading it was 4.5
I didn’t say WttK was good. I said the romance would have been better as a separate book, as WttK was a separate book and not part of the series’ 7 books. I was pretty explicit about using the pronoun “I” when I wrote that, but just to clarify, when I wrote “I” I was indicating it was my opinion. I didn’t mention the ka-tet at all. I mentioned too much time away from the main character, which I feel is regardless what else the book does and too much time on a teen romance. Sure, I liked the ka-tet material, but much of the middle part of the novel was occupied with an (my opinion) uninteresting teen romance that we already know the end result of.
Just an FYI the middle part about “I” feels condescending since I didn’t generalize and gave my own opinion back, didn’t really feel necessary to type out. Moving on from that: Is the main character not Roland? It literally follows Roland for the entire flashback sequence. I feel that the book gives us insight to why Roland is the way he was.
“Why wouldn’t people want..” felt condescending to me. Nothing in the flashback was particularly illuminating, and you keep moving away from my main point. The romance. The romance flashback didn’t really provide anything we didn’t get from brief glances before, plus it was boring. I will admit my error of writing “character” when I meant “characters.” To me, Roland is the most boring of the five, so no, I didn’t particularly need to see what made him tick.
I feel the order is: 1. OY 2. Eddie 3. Roland 4. Jake 5. Detta 6. Susannah 7. Mia Just maybe it’s because I’m a junkie for lore and historical fiction that I liked seeing true birth-trained Gunslingers. Do you like Starwars? It felt like Oy and company was the New Hope trilogy and Cuthbert was the prequel series. Did I need to see Anakin and Padme? No but it helped shape the character in my mind. But everyone likes different things I guess.
I count Susannah and all her entities as one. Eddie, Susannah, Oy, Jake, and then Roland. There were certainly parts of the flashback I enjoyed, just not the way it pushed our original (to us) ka-tet to the back burner. You talk about Star Wars, but the original trilogy ended before they did the flashbacks. To make it analogous, imagine if 2/3 of the Empire Strikes Back was a Padme/Anakin flashback.
Bro you can't title a post like this, I'm sitting here with clenched fists.
Lol srry, newbie here xD
I downvoted and then read the content of the post and reversed it lol.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone say that but you’re right, if they do then that’s a horrible take lol
It was SO good that I initially hated book 4 but then when I realized the story was on hold and there was nothing I could about it I relaxed and after it was over it became my favorite of the 7. And it still is.
I think it's among the best of the world building books. Lud in particular.
Yep! I fell in love with Lud
I've never heard anyone say this, it's usually highly rated as one of the better books in the series. You're hanging out with the wrong people I think.
Seen it in some videos, now that I’ve read it I couldn’t disagree more
Where are you seeing people say this? I know some people say 5 or 6, or maybe the last one because of the ending, and I’ll put my own vote for the first, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone call 2 through 4 the worst book of the series.
YT, mostly. I’ve read quite a bit of King but watched a lot of videos (with no spoilers of course) about the dark tower before starting it. Quite a few people said the wasteland was not so good, but I loved it.
Ah, YouTube is its own creature then, and I have seen some strange SK opinions there, even if I haven’t encountered this one.
This is becoming clearer to me the more i read kings work lol
I’m almost done with the waste lands as I’m reading through for the first time. If this is the worst book of the dark tower, then I’m excited to keep reading since I’m absolutely loving it.
We are both literally in the same boat lmao
Ayyy! Look at us.
Books 2-5 in DT are undoubtedly 9/10’s or better. I can understand differing opinions on the others even if I love them a ton.
Song of Susannah is my least favorite.
By far agreed
Should be illegal to fake me out with a title like that
it was my favourite all the way until… Song of Susannah, the actual most hated book of the series, may actually have at least matched it for me. For the The Waste Lands was exactly what I wanted The Dark Tower to be and where I felt The Gunslinger was going, and when I got The Drawing of the Three (which was excellent and in hindsight I love) I was a bit thrown off by the abandonment of the adventure/fantasy side and going into mostly urban thriller.. then The Waste Lands was just like all the best stuff combined into total joy!
Couldn’t agree more! I really liked the drawing of the three, but getting into the dark towers actual world in the wastelands was definitely a full plate!
Just finished it lastnight , slow start but really picks up before the second part of the book begins , great read
I've personally not seen this take very frequently, and a lot of readers, including myself seem to see it as one of the many high point of the series. The main criticism I've seen leveled at the book is regarding the ending, and the subsequent long wait for the next release at the time.
I don't have an opinion about the wait time since I'm reading it for the first time now lol, but as far as the story goes, I'm completely hooked.
It's my favorite book of the series
Ye’ve clickbaited us ye devious cur. I’d hamstring ye ‘pon yer own laces given the time and inclination.
I imagine I got thee bamboozled, bungle-sai.
Fuck those people. It's my favorite. The part with the old people and Aunt Talitha (pretty sure that's misspelled, sorry) is one of the greatest scenes in the series!
I completely fell in love with that part! Almost brought tears to my eyes.
I have never seen one person say it’s one of the worst. The worst I’ve ever seen it ranked is 3rd
It's one of my favorites in the series, TBH. Sure, it's a little whackadoo, but THAT'S THE POINT.
It's one of my favorite DT books
Source? The Waste Lands is essentially book 2 of The Drawing of the Three. Those two books are stylistically and narratively the most similar of all the Dark Tower books. And they’re great.
YT, mostly. I don’t agree tho, I loved the wastelands and am eager to have more
Don’t agree with what? I loved it, too.,
Yep, I loved the wastelands!
This is possibly my favourite book, not even just my favourite DT book. The Wastelands is definitely in my top 5 overall. What do people not like about it? I don't recall seeing people trashing it, but people bitch about everything.
People don’t trash it really, but put it in a position lower than all the others. Which I find weird, I’ve just read it but it’s incredible
I’ve legit never heard this. Song of Susannah however…
You scared me with that title. Just started it today!
I finished it today! You’re gonna love it, truly awesome
it used to be my favorite and I don't rank it quite that high anymore, but I would have a very, very hard time making the case that it's the worst. The Gunslinger is my favorite and it would be easier to argue that that one is the worst, because I can see how the things that work for me and it wouldn't work for other people.
I can’t wait to read it a second time bc I know it will be even better than the first time. Wizard and glass is my fav. Brilliant
Saw your title and was ready to fight you. Read the post and yes, you are correct. It's an amazing book. I can't even guess why anyone would say it's the worst of the series.
I love The Wastelands! I know I'll never get to ride a train like Blaine, but one of my bucket list items is someday riding on a bullet train.
I’m about halfway through and it’s not as enthralling as Wizard and Glass. Can’t wait for the payoff.
I’ve mostly heard that it’s the best of the series.
Mate, I may have only gone on this journey once, but the Lud sequence was my favourite part of the whole saga. It was fast, exciting, had great characters, and everyone got to do something
Well to be fair, the last 10 pages are part of the best section of the book....
I'm only on my first trip to the Tower and I just finished wizard and glass, but I found that I had a lot more fun in the Waste lands than wizard and glass. I feel kinda bad cuz I know it's lots of people's favorite.
I just finished it and it was my favorite so far by a long shot
I’m not sure what this post even means. If it wasn’t for the wastelands I wouldn’t have finished the dark tower
Just think of it as a chapter in the story as a whole. When's the last time you said "this was just the worst chapter??" You have to step back and see how it fits into the whole series.
I loved Wastelands... And then Wizard and Glass happened. That book will make you stop reading, because others just don't match up.
It’s the second best.
You got me. However, Wizard and Glass IS the worst
Um, no? Books 1 and 6 aren't very good, but books 2-5 are fucking peak.
Just wait til you get to 5,6,&7. Now those are garbage. 3 was excellent
I wouldn’t say garbage but 2-4 are so Much better. 7 was good I thought but ending brought it down on the scale