A bit late to the party, but I finished reading this book recently, and I adored it, too. Stephen King can spend the rest of his life writing tales of Mid-World and Roland, and I’d be perfectly happy to read all of them. 
Working on the audiobook of this now (Disc 8 of 10) and am really enjoying it - tho I wasn’t too thrilled with King’s narration to start with. (and he still can’t do character voices worth beans!)
The story within a story within a story is entrancing, tho I agree it doesn’t really sound like Roland is telling it. I love learning more about MidWorld, especially before it moved on.
Wizard and Glass was my favorite book of the series, so I will have to take a look - thanks! I haven’t read them in years, though, so I may need to go back and reread them.
Almost finished with the book. I’ll finish sometime today. But one thing I want to comment on that seemed really interesting to me. Daria the GPS was accessing satellites! Now, I get that this story in a story in a story is more a fairy tale, but I still take it as truth and it raises an interesting issue.
I always took Roland’s journey through the world as fluid. Time was fluid, space was fluid, and distance was fluid. Things were breaking down and nothing worked quite like you’d expect.
But now I know there were satellites in orbit and a dedicated GPS available which means the world was whole and constant. Or, was, maybe. So the question I have to ask is what the heck took Roland so long to get to The Dark Tower?
Putting aside the ending to the series with its spoilers, it seems like Roland has been on his journey for decades and it doesn’t take nearly that long to travel anywhere on foot in this world.
So what gives?
Well IIRC Blaine mentions that the distance and time to make his run has changed but the AI is compensating. Is that right? It’s been a little while.
I would think that they gave all the satellites AI as well. Heck, if simple consumer electronics have AI and robots with positronic brains are not uncommon then it’s not unthinkable that there would be satellites up there still functioning and recalculating their maps as needed.
</fanwank>
It’s been awhile for me too. But Blaine was kinda insane so anything he said would have to be taken with a grain of salt.
Also, strange that Roland, when retelling the story wouldn’t have noted the “RF/MB” signature on the end of the note the Covenant Man wrote to Tim. I get it was more of a wink from King to the reader, but still…