This being the third book in this series and coming off the high of the second I was jazzed up to get into this. Now I realize that this book was a bit of a filler as the ka-tet journeys on into the Mid-World madness, but it does a great job of developing each character in their own unique way. The craziness that is shown comes with Jake’s reality in NYC while the Mid-World events play out, but both are tied together so significantly that you still don’t know exactly how. This deepens the bond between both worlds, and also shows how both are much more similar than you think. It also makes the intro of Eddie and Susannah into Mid-World solidified as they become awesome gunslingers in their own right. This is the book where we really start to understand how insane Mid-World is. As they adventure along the path of the beam that must be revealed from Jake in the other world and they find themselves in between two feuding armies, we begin to understand that there are going to be some wild encounters to come. While this book is used as a set up for the next book King does a lot of world and character building that are absolutely necessary to the series progression as it chugs along on Blaine the Mono. This will make you crave what’s to come, but won’t blow your socks off.