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FOREWORD

Many of the people holding this book have followed the adventures of Roland and his band--his ka-tet--for years, so Others--and I hope there are many, newcomers and Constant Readers alike--may ask, Can I read and enjoy this story if I haven't read the other Dark Tower books? My answer is yes, if you keep a few things in mind

First, Mid-World lies next to our world, and there are many overlaps In some places there are doorways between the torlds, and sometimes there are thin places, porous places, where the torlds actually le Three of Roland's ka-tet--Eddie, Susannah, and Jake--have been drawn separately from troubled lives in New York into Roland's Mid-World quest Their fourth traveling coolden-eyed creature native to Mid-World Mid-World is very old, and falling to ruin, filled with ic

Second, Roland Deschain of Gilead is a gunslinger--one of a sly lawless world If you think of the gunslingers of Gilead as a strange cohts errant and territorial marshals in the Old West, you'll be close to the h not all, are descended fro, known as Arthur Eld (I told you there were overlaps)

Third, Roland has lived his life under a terrible curse He killed his ainst her will, and certainly against her better judgh it was by mistake, he holds himself accountable, and the unhappy Gabrielle Deschain's death has haunted hi manhood These events are fully narrated in the Dark Tower cycle, but for our purposes here, I think it's all you have to know

For longtime readers, this book should be shelved between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Callawhich makes it, I suppose, Dark Tower 45

As for hted to discover ift to find theht their stories were told

--Stephen King

September 14, 2011

STARKBLAST

1

During the days after they left the Green Palace that wasn't Oz after all--but which was now the tomb of the unpleasant fellow Roland's ka-tet had known as the Tick-Tock Man--the boy Jake began to range farther and farther ahead of Roland, Eddie, and Susannah

"Don't you worry about him?" Susannah asked Roland "Out there on his own?"

"He's got Oy with him," Eddie said, ref

erring to the billy-buets along with nice folks all right, but he's got a mouthful of sharp teeth for those who aren't so nice As that guy Gasher found out to his sorrow"

"Jake also has his father's gun," Roland said "And he kno to use it That he knows very well And he won't leave the Path of the Bea sky was le corridor of clouds moved steadily southeast Toward the land of Thunderclap, if the note left behind for them by the man who styled himself RF had told the truth

Toward the Dark Tower

"But why--" Susannah began, and then her wheelchair hit a buar"

"Sorry," Eddie said "Public Works hasn't been doing anythis stretch of the turnpike lately Must be dealing with budget cuts"

It wasn't a turnpike, but it was a roador had been: two ghostly ruts with an occasional tu they had even passed an abandoned store with a barely readable sign: TOOK'S OUTLAND MERCANTILE They investigated inside for supplies--Jake and Oy had still been with the but dust, ancient cobwebs, and the skeleton of what had been either a large raccoon, a s, or a billy-bumbler Oy had taken a cursory sniff and then pissed on the bones before leaving the store to sit on the hule of a tail curled around hi the air

Roland had seen the buh he had said nothing, he pondered it So them, maybe? He didn't actually believe this, but the bumbler's posture--nose lifted, ears pricked, tail curled--called up some old memory or association that he couldn't quite catch

"Why does Jake want to be on his own?" Susannah asked

"Do you find it worrisome, Susannah of New York?" Roland asked

"Yes, Roland of Gilead, I find it worrisoh, but in her eyes, the old ht sparkled That was the Detta Walker part of her, Roland reckoned It would never be coe woman she had once been still buried in her heart like a chip of ice, she would have been only a handsos below the knees With Detta onboard, she was a person to be reckoned with A dangerous one A gunslinger

"He has plenty of stuff to think about," Eddie said quietly "He's been through a lot Not every kid comes back from the dead And it's like Roland says--if someone tries to face him down, it's the so the wheelchair, armed sweat from his brow, and looked at Roland "Are there someones in this particular suburb of nowhere, Roland? Or have they all moved on?"

"Oh, there are a feot"

He did more than wot; they had been peeked at several ti the Path of the Beahtened wo in a sling fro tentacle that hung from one corner of his mouth Eddie and Susannah had seen none of these people, or sensed the others that Roland felt sure had, froress Eddie and Susannah had a lot to learn

But they had learned at least some of what they would need, it seemed, because Eddie now asked, "Are they the ones Oy keeps scenting up behind us?"

"I don't know" Roland thought of adding that he was sure soe little bu years with no ka-tet, and keeping his own counsel had become a habit One he would have to break, if the tet was to re

"Let'sfor us up ahead"

2

Two hours later, just shy of noon, they breasted a rise and halted, looking down at a wide, slow-ray as pewter beneath the overcast sky On the northwestern bank--their side--was a barnlike building painted a green so bright it seemed to yell into the s painted a sis by thick hawsers was a large raft, easily ninety feet by ninety, painted in alternating stripes of red and yellow A tall wooden pole that looked like a n of a sail Several wicker chairs sat in front of the pole, facing the shore on their side of the river Jake was seated in one of these Next to hireen pants, and longboots On his top half he wore a thin white garht of as a slinku well-stuffed popkins Roland's ht of them

Oy was beyond the raptly down at his own reflection Or perhaps at the reflection of the steel cable that ran overhead, spanning the river

"Is it the Whye?" Susannah asked Roland

"Yar"

Eddie grinned "You say Whye; I say Whye Not?" He raised one hand and waved it over his head "Jake! Hey, Jake! Oy!"