Read: The Waste Lands–“Bridge and City,” parts 1-15

At first I was upset that I had to skip a day of this series, because that kind of lessens the integrity of the blogathon concept. Then I realized that the day I ended up skipping was unlucky Day 13, and it became clear that this was ka.

This was a pretty crackerjack section. Dig this killer opening sentence:

They came upon the downed airplane three days later.

Better yet, the airplane turns out to be a Nazi fighter, the swastika covered up by a picture of a fist gripping a lightning bolt. And it was piloted, back in the day, by an outlaw warlord the size of Andre the Giant. But besides just being a giant-cyborg-bear bit of coolness, it sparks a conversation between the characters that casts Roland’s world in a different light. Up until now I’d been assuming that this is our world in the distant future, but Eddie speculates that the plane could have literally flown right into this world from our own, during its World War II heyday, via a portal similar to the ones that he, Susannah, and Jake used. I don’t think that explains all the recognizable technology present in Roland’s world, but maybe things really aren’t just as simple as my ancient-ruin theory.

The centerpiece of the early part of this section is the group’s long conversation about riddles. Clearly this is going to be important later in the book, but even though this was maybe telegraphing that, it was interesting and entertaining enough in itself to merit the page space. If you’ve ever read The Hobbit, this read like an explanation of why Bilbo and Gollum took it all so seriously down there in the cave.

Next up is more world-building, or world-explaining, via some clumsy mutated white bees and their fucked-up hive. Once upon a time there was a nuclear apocalypse, and everything you see in Roland-world is what made it through the other side. The ancient-ruin theory makes a comeback.

Then there’s the passage of the bridge. This might have been the weakest point of this section, actually. I found King’s descriptions of the construction of the roads leading to the bridge and of the bridge itself difficult to follow and visualize; in this regard, Tolkien he ain’t. Also, there was pretty much a one-to-one correspondence between Eddie, his fear of heights, and Jake with Larry Underwood, his claustrophobia, and Rita Blakemoor. Been there, done that. However, having Jake fall in an attempt to save his animal companion sharpened things up a bit. I’m obviously a sucker for animals in peril, so there’s that, but the addition of the detail of Oy holding on for dear life by biting the shit out of Jake’s hand was vivid enough to shake me from the stupor induced by the Stand-induced déjà vu.

Finally there’s the syphilitic pirate guy with a grenade who pwns the whole gang. This made me happy for a variety of reasons, not least being that a syphilitic pirate guy with a grenade pwned the whole gang. That doesn’t happen nearly often enough in fiction these days. It also brings up happy associations with The Road Warrior and Escape from New York. King’s invented patois for the pirate is vivid and convincing and fun rather than jarring to read, a whole lot more so than your average sci-fi/fantasy made-up dialect. (Bruce Baugh mentioned this as well, and he’s right. Be warned, though, that that post is a little too spoilery for my tastes in terms of events in the revised Gunslinger that apparently become important by The Dark Tower itself.) But my favorite aspect was how he shows up right after the big climax of the attempt to cross the bridge, with virtually no respite between the heart-pounding stuff. Having them turn back around to keep going and see a crazy urban warrior with a hand grenade was pretty much the last thing I expected.

I have a feeling that the book could get very good from this point forward, as our heroes navigate the ruined city of Lud. I expect some evocative post-apocalyptic landscapes, ragged bands of bloodthirsty outlaws, endless dystopian warfare between two sides who no longer remember what they’re fighting about, striking and entertaining anachronisms like ZZ Top records used as a weapon of war, heroic pets, evil anthropomorphized trains, and other genre-tastic delights. Here’s hoping.

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