Read: Wizard and Glass–Arguement, “Prologue: Blaine,” “Riddles” chapters 1-3
Once again, a boatload of valuable information makes its debut not in the story, but in the “Arguement” (or “fancy-pants word for Introduction”) that precedes it. For example:
* The third person referred to by “the Drawing of the Three” is not one of Odetta’s alternate personalities, Susannah or Detta, as previously suggested, but Jake, who is only the third because Roland refused to draw Jack Mort.
* Walter, the man in black, possessed Jack Mort to make him kill Jake.
* Walter is only “half-human.”
That’s an awful lot of fudging of previously established facts for an intro. The fudging continues in the Prologue, “Blaine,” which is actually just the final chapter of The Waste Lands reprinted with slightly tweaked dialogue. I must admit I find this tendency to retcon previous books in the series on the fly worrying. Perhaps it’s meant to evoke the way reality itself is breaking down within Roland’s world, or maybe it’s just cheating.
Anyway, I enjoyed the resolution of Blaine’s riddle game. How could I not when riddles from The Hobbit actually showed up in a scene this heavily indebted to that one? Additional Tokienisms were invoked by the Falls of the Hounds, which read like a cross between the Argonath with a canine makeover and those sphinxes who guard the Southern Oracle in The Neverending Story.
One more thing: At least I don’t have to worry about the illustrations spoiling the book anymore, since it’s impossible to figure out what Dave McKean’s illos are supposed to represent anyway.