by Stephen King
First published 2016
Roland Deschain saved Jake Chambers from death, and now both of them are paying for it. The last gunslinger carries two sets of memories that contradict each other, and Jake, still alive in his own world, feels the same fracture pulling at his mind. The paradox is getting worse. Meanwhile, Eddie Dean has left heroin behind, and Odetta Holmes's warring personalities have fused into Susannah Dean, a gunslinger in her own right. The tet is stronger than it has ever been, but Roland knows it will break apart unless they pull Jake through into Mid-World. Once they do, the Path of the Beam leads them into the ruined city of Lud, a place of decay, violence, and old machines still grinding away at nothing. Gasher and the Tick-Tock Man wait there. So does Blaine the Mono, a psychotic train with a taste for riddles and a willingness to die. Roland has kept his companions alive through sheer will and hard experience. Whether that is enough is another question entirely.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, fantasy, horror, dark-fantasy, epic-fantasy
Vibes: apocalyptic, dark, gritty, intense, surreal, suspenseful
Tropes: chosen-one, forced-proximity, found-family, paradox
Setting: Mid-World, Lud, Path of the Beam
609 pages · Paperback · Scribner
Content warnings: death, drug-use, violence