Wizard and Glass, the fourth episode in King's white-hot Dark Tower series, is a sci-fi/fantasy novel that contains a post-apocalyptic Western love story twice as long. It begins with the series' star, world-weary Roland, and his world-hopping posse (an ex-junkie, a child, a plucky woman in a wheelchair, and a talking dog-like pet named Oy the Bumbler) trapped aboard a runaway train. The train is a psychotic multiple personality that intends to commit suicide with them at 800 m.p.h.--unless Roland and pals can outwit it in a riddling contest.

It's a great race, for the mind and pulse. Movies should be this good. Then comes a 567-page flashback about Roland at age 14. It's a well-marbled but meaty tale. Roland and two teen homies must rescue his first love from the dirty old drooling mayor of a post-apocalyptic cowboy town, thwart a civil war by blowing up oil tanks, and seize an all-seeing crystal ball from Rhea, a vampire witch. The love scenes are startlingly prominent and earthier than most romance novels (they kiss until blood trickles from her lip).

After an epic battle ending in a box canyon to end all box canyons, we're back with grizzled, grown-up Roland and the train-wreck survivors in a parallel world: Kansas in 1986, after a plague. The finale is a weird fantasy takeoff on The Wizard of Oz. Some readers will feel that the latest novel in King's most ambitious series has too many pages--almost 800--but few will deny it's a page-turner. http://bookstorecommunity.com/wizard-and-gla…k-tower-book-4/

All Summer Long

Three friends meet at a 25th high school reunion. In different ways, each is unhappy with his present life. "Summer," mourns Ben, a TV journalist of modest fame, "used to be the best part of our lives, and now it's not." A month later, all three have left families and jobs behind to set off on one final summer of cruising. They crisscross the country without connection or purpose, stopping wherever they land. Unexpected love interests for each of them and a personal crisis apiece add spice to their otherwise bland adventure. The penultimate stop is Las Vegas, where they contrive to sleep in Elvis's suite. Riddled with cliches, this marshmallow of a book trivializes such truly serious matters as the midlife adjustments that men make, the importance of friends and memories, and the value of male bonding.