Wolves of the Calla

In Wolves of the Calla, volume five of Stephen King's epic fantasy western The Dark Tower, coincidence has, as Eddie Dean observes, been cancelled. Everything the gunslinger Roland and his companions encounter has taken on symbolic significance. So when they come to Calla Bryn Sturgis, named after the director of The Magnificent Seven, its clear that King will follow the classic western archetype of a small band of heroes defending peaceable homesteaders. Here, the heroes resist masked raiders who abduct one of each pair of twins (and almost all children are twins), only to return them a month later horribly changed.

Father Callahan from King's Salem's Lot is resident in Calla Bryn Sturgis, and has his own tale of vampires, regulators and the secret highways though alternative Americas. Not coincidentally, the evil Glass Black 13 is hidden in his church. Meanwhile Susannah is again sporting a secondary personality, this time Mia, mother to the inhuman child that Susannah does not know she is carrying, while Roland realises their quest has become a race against the arthritis which will soon leave him crippled.

In this enormously ambitious book, King continues to weave together his back catalogue with the pop culture and literature of America itself, noting in his introduction that if you haven't read the previous Dark Tower volumes this isn't the place to begin. It is, though, a hugely entertaining adventure, rich in allusion; a passing aside to Thomas Wolfe might easily be dismissed, yet his title You Can't Go Home Again, encapsulates this entire spellbinding odyssey as well as five words ever will. --Gary S Dalkin

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Good but long. - Rated
Having been turned to the Dark Tower series about a year ago with no former Stephen King experience, I was immediately absorbed by the sheer immersiveness of that first book that is 'The Gunslinger'. The next two books which followed were almost as good, expanding Roland's world to epic proportions and adding some interesting characters to the mix.

If you hated book 4, I doubt you will like this. The story is extremely similar to Wizard's - Roland's ka-tet arrives at a new town/must save townsfolk/spend weeks and weeks preparing/plot exposition for said threat for about 5 minutes of (admittedly good) action. The Tower itself is almost non-existent in the story as it was in Wizard also. Also like Wizard, this book is looooong!

The story also resumes the plot-point of the 'rose' in New York, and it seems whenever this is dealt with the story suddenly feels unbelievable, despite the efforts to craft a realistic threat and means of getting to-and-from New York - maybe because the reasons for saving a random plot of land being bought by a mysterious corporation has not been built up as well as it could have been in previous books.

Despite all that, the book is good. Because King has a knack for crafting good characters and situations seemingly out of nothing. Roland and Jake are written better and seem to have grown more than Susanna and Eddie, with Susanna getting alarmingly little page-space despite her seemingly pivotal predicament. The new character of Father Callahan has waaay too much page time and backstory which goes on and on. It kind of makes some sense towards the end of the book, but so many chapters dedicated to the guy is a bit excessive. Also, vampires? I mean c'mon. If I wanted to read Salem's Lot I'd read Salem's Lot.

Overall though (and having still not read the last two books) I would say that this is the weakest in the series so far but still a great ride.

Good, but not great - Rated
If you've got this far into the series then my guess is in you're in for the long haul. I found this book a real chore until the last 200 pages, which had me thinking of how good the series had been. It moves the story forward, eventually, but you do get the impression Stephen could have done with an editor to chop a good 2-300 pages out of the book to liven up the pace and stop you from nodding off mid page.

The greatest so far - Rated
This is without a doubt my favourite of the first five and the last two will have quite a challenge equalling it. For what is possibly the longest of the books (hard to say seeing as it changes size as well as length) it really does its size justice. Where I consider the great length of Wizard and Glass to be a downfall as it dragged on, there was not a page wasted in this and I had to put it down deliberately so I wouldn't read it all too fast!

Wolves of The Calla is essentially a side track story that does not develop a great deal in the search for the Tower but is a welcome story. It encompasses the battle against the wolves of Thunderclap who steal the children of the Calla. It also includes an extended story of Susannahs child and the powers that attempt to ensure its birth. Finally it introduces Father Callahan, a priest inexorably linked to the Ka-Tet, who introduces Black Thirteen, the most powerful of Maerlyns Rainbow to the Ka-Tet - If you do not know of Maerlyns Rainbow, you need to go back to the other books and this is not for you yet!

This story is absolutely fantastic. It is a delight to read as it contains many twists and turns it is just very hard to put down. I would definitely advise this, but obviously if you have read the first four then you probably will read it anyway. If you havent, do!

Brilliant - Rated
This book is great i would recommend it to anyone it follows on from wizard and glass really well. This book is so god because it has everything someone wants in an adventure book. Pure class a must getter.

What a disappointment! - Rated
The book, like all Stephen King novels, is an entertaining read. But we expect more than this in the final chapter of the epic Dark Tower saga. In my opinion, the last three books were badly concieved, and meandering - full of mumbo jumbo speak and and obession with the number 19.
Perhaps King just wanted shut of the whole thing, but they are far below par of the high standard set by the others in the series.
Specifically this book, it is tiresome and predictable! That fabulous imagination seen in books like IT is sadly lacking here. I can't say too much without giving the plot away, but the scene with the Red King is faintly ridiculous, the fearsome destroyer of worlds and bane of the tower is nothing more than a mad little gnome in a red cloak, screeching at Roland from his vantage point.
And when you get to the end, as you follow Roland into the tower itself... prepare to be bitterly dissapointed.