The shortest novel in the series and the most openly metafictional, including passages from King's diary and culminating in a direct encounter between Roland's ka-tet and King himself. Nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2005. Reception was mixed - some readers found the metafictional strand exhilarating, others found it self-indulgent and disruptive to the narrative momentum. Published just months after Wolves of the Calla, it functioned primarily as a bridge to the final volume, and most readers treated it as such. The Daily Express called it "magic," while others felt it was the weakest entry in the later sequence.

Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel