The fifth installment in the Dark Tower series is full of cross-references to other King works that I love, further unifying the Stephen King universe, which even in this one novel has an infinite number of connected worlds. It begins by bringing in a familiar character from our world: Father Callahan of ‘Salem’s Lot, who after that fateful encounter with vampires began to walk the hidden roads of America, finally winding up in a rice-growing village in Roland’s world. There Roland and crew meet him and make him a part of their ka-tet. Father Callahan also has another piece of the Wizard’s Glass: the black eye of the Crimson King himself, which our heroes can use to get back to New York to do important things.

There’s a lot going on in this long novel. We learn more of the rose first glimpsed by Jake in The Wastelands (Volume III) and find out what kind of danger it is in. There is news of the Beams and the Breakers, and even the Low Men make an appearance. There is the small matter of Susannah’s demon pregnancy. And there is a spaghetti Western-style plot in which Roland and the others have to save a town from marauding wolves who steal one-half of all the town’s twins (and the kids are mostly twins), only to return them retarded and doomed – “roont,” as the townsfolk of the Calla say.

The cross-references abound, and King even manages to gleefully introduce elements from Marvel comics, Star Wars and the Harry Potter series. But the climactic reference in thrillingly audacious, even for King. I won’t give it away; suffice it to say, you won’t be able to wait to start reading Part 6.

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I wish that Stephen King would stop doing interesting things with Roland because then I could pull out of the series and not care. But there are occasional snippets of him – glimpses of why I love the character, that make the book worth reading overall.

It makes the garbage stand out more though. I read through the whole thing thinking “Sneetches… that word sounds familiar.” And if you think so too, when you’re reading it, there’s a completely unnecessary punch in the nuts coming your way at the end of the book.

I like the idea of the Dark Tower being about a series of worlds crumbling together as things go faster and faster out of control. When it becomes a pastiche of pop culture references (particularly when the author tries to tie all his books together into this overarching story) it just seems cluttered and forced. Ugly.

And man, are there some dumb ideas coming in the next book. But… closure. I must have closure, and add to the millions of people on the internet deliberately doing things that make them complain loudly.