Wizard and Glass
core novel 1997 The Dark Tower
Record
| First published | 1997 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.27 (227,497 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 896 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781880418383 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
The fourth Dark Tower novel opens immediately after Roland's group survives its encounter with Blaine the Mono, arriving in a plague-ravaged, alternate version of 1980s Topeka, Kansas. While the ka-tet camps near a strange dimensional anomaly, Roland recounts to his companions the story of his youth: his discovery of his mother's affair, his early rise through gunslinger training, and his assignment as a young man to the Barony of Mejis alongside two close friends. In Hambry, the town at the heart of Mejis, the young Roland and his companions investigate signs of a coming invasion while navigating tense relationships with local officials and the threatening presence of a group called the Big Coffin Hunters. A romance that develops during the mission further complicates the trio's bond, offering insight into how Roland's early losses shaped the driven, solitary gunslinger his present-day companions know.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Dark Tower
- Series: The Dark Tower core; position 4 of 8 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Stephen King
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Fantasy Novel (reader poll)), 1998: finalist; 4th place in the 1998 Locus poll.
Notes
- From the series record (The Dark Tower): A dark fantasy/Western/horror/science-fiction blend, admitted as fantasy per critical/marketing consensus, the same transparency pattern applied to Dragonriders of Pern, The Book of the New Sun, and The Locked Tomb. The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) is an interstitial 'Dark Tower IV.5' set between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla -- registered Core (not Expanded) since King himself numbers it as part of the 8-book main sequence, unlike ACOTAR's interstitial novella.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Dark Tower: position 4 of 8: previous The Waste Lands (1991) · next Wolves of the Calla (2003)
- Internal chronology, within The Dark Tower: position 4 of 8: previous The Waste Lands (1991) · next The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012)
Sources
- Wikipedia - The Dark Tower (series)
- StephenKing.com - The Dark Tower
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_and_Glass
- sfadb - Stephen King Awards
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