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The Dark Tower #5
Wolfsmond
Gäbe es einen Preis für das am sehnsüchtigsten erwartete Buch des Jahres, Wolfsmond würde mit deutlichem Vorsprung gewinnen. Über ein halbes Jahrzehnt ist vergangen, seit mit Glas der vierte und bisher letzte Band der Saga um den Dunklen Turm erschienen war, und langsam wurden Zweifel laut, ob Stephen King sein Opus Magnum überhaupt zu Ende schreiben würde. Nur wenige Wochen nach dem Original liegt jetzt die deutsche Ausgabe von The Wolves of the Calla vor, und -- um es vorwegzunehmen -- das Warten hat sich gelohnt.
Roland, Jake, Susannah und Eddie setzen ihre Reise fort und gelangen nach Calla Bryn Sturgis, einer Stadt, die regelmäßig von einem schrecklichen Schicksal heimgesucht wird: Ungefähr alle 20 Jahre fallen grauenhafte Wolfswesen über die Bürger her und rauben zahlreiche ihrer Kinder. Wenn diese Kinder Wochen später zurückkehren, sind sie nur noch eine leere Hülle. Roland und seine Gefährten sollen helfen, denn der nächste Angriff der Wölfe steht kurz bevor.
Unterstützt werden sie dabei von Pater Callahan, einer Figur, die King-Lesern aus Brennen muss Salem bekannt ist. Callahan verfügt über nicht ungefährliche Mittel und Wege, die Grenze zwischen den Welten zu überwinden. Das erweist sich alsbald als ausgesprochen nützlich, denn im New York des Jahres 1976 wächst eine Rose, bei der es sich um den Turm selbst handeln könnte.
Wolfsmond ist ein mit enormer erzählerischer Kraft geschriebenes Buch. King vertieft sowohl die Mythologie der Serie, wie auch die Charakterzeichnung der Protagonisten. Etwas aufdringlich sind vielleicht die zahlreichen Popkultur-Bezüge und das allmähliche Verwischen der Grenzen zwischen Roman und Wirklichkeit. Insgesamt schmälert dies das Lesevergnügen jedoch nur marginal.
Die beiden abschließenden Bände des Dunklen Turms, The Song of Susannah und The Dark Tower, sollen innerhalb der nächsten Jahre erscheinen. Vorher wird ein abschließendes Urteil nicht möglich sein, aber schon jetzt zeichnet sich ab, dass Stephen King eines der großen Meisterwerke der fantastischen Literatur geschaffen hat. Steigen Sie mit Schwarz ein und genießen Sie die Reise. --Felix Darwin
850 pages, Hardcover
First published November 4, 2003
5726 people are currently reading
73167 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 6,604 reviews
December 15, 2021
(B+) 76% | Good
Notes: Essentially one long side quest, it's hampered by a plodding back-story but recovers and ends on an interesting twist.
Notes: Essentially one long side quest, it's hampered by a plodding back-story but recovers and ends on an interesting twist.
September 1, 2015
If someone would have told me back in the ‘90s that the way to get Stephen King to finish up the Dark Tower series quickly was to hit him with a minivan, I would have been on my way to Maine to rent a Dodge Caravan before you could say, "Bango Skank was here."
I confess this not to do more complaining about the long suffering years waiting on some advancement in the Dark Tower books, but to illustrate how utterly obsessed and frustrated I was with this goddamn series. Then King nearly came to the clearing at the end of the path but instead recovered and cranked out three books like they came off an assembly line to finish the whole thing. Before that, I had pretty much given up hope on ever getting another book, never mind seeing an end to it, and King wasn’t doing much to make me change my mind with no news about him even working on another DT book.
And then came the minivan.
Ka works in mysterious ways….
Wolves of the Calla had a lot of things to accomplish. It needed to get the story rolling again after years of it laying fallow. It needed to set up the end run of the series. It needed to be a satisfying book aside from moving the overall arc forward. And most importantly, it needed to answer the burning question all Dark Tower fans had: Whatever happened to Father Callahan from ‘Salem’s Lot? Oh, wait. I had never asked that question. Oh, well. I found out anyhow and it turned out to be a pretty good part of the story.
Roland and his crew have been moving along the path of the Beam towards the Tower, but they seem to have been in a kind of timeless funk. (One of the things I love about the series is that the decay of the Tower has caused both time and space in Roland’s world to become soft and drift. It’s also a nice metaphor for the limbo that characters are in between books.) Just before entering the nastiness of End-World, they find Calla Bryn Sturgis, a farming town with a big problem.
Almost all the children born in the Calla are twins. Every twenty years or so, dozens of creatures the townsfolk call Wolves come on horseback and steal one from each set of twins. They take those kids back to Thunderclap, a place the gunslingers have already been warned about, and eventually return them as almost mindless husks who grow to jumbo sizes before dying young. Try to fight or hide your kids, and the Wolves kill everyone who resists instead of just taking half the kids. The Wolves will arrive in a month, but some in the Calla want to fight back this time if the gunslingers will help.
Roland's group has other problems too. They’ve been making dream-like excursions to New York in the 1970s and found that the special rose growing in a vacant lot there is in terrible danger. The rose is a key manifestation of the Tower in that world. Roland is convinced that if the rose is destroyed, the Tower falls in his world, too, and there goes your ballgame for all of existence. They have to find a way to get to New York in person and save the rose from those threatening it by protecting the owner of the lot.
The gunslingers also meet Callahan, a former Catholic priest last seen in the King-verse fighting vampires in ’Salem’s Lot. Callahan has an incredible tale to tell of years spent traveling between worlds and being chased by vampires and other nasty agents of the Crimson King before he wound up in Calla Bryn Sturgis.* Callahan has been hiding an evil object that terrifies him, and he wants Roland to get rid of it by taking it with him when they leave.
*(Anyone reading the series who wants some more info about who was chasing Callahan and other bits that come into play here should check out King’s ‘Low Men in Yellow Coats’ story in his ‘Hearts in Atlantis’ collection.)
If they didn’t have enough on their plate, Susannah’s previous encounter with a demon has left her a little bit pregnant, and her personality is being taken over by the baby’s ‘mother’, Mia. Pregnant women are known for strange food cravings, but let’s just say that Mia’s are even worse than usual.
I love this book partly because it’s the one that got the Dark Tower story back on track and set up everything for the end run to the last book. I also love it just because this is Dark Tower at its best for me. It’s a mash-up of westerns, fantasy, horror and sci-fi. It’s like The Magnificent Seven if Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen had to make multi-dimensional trips and deal with robots and vampires as well as protect the town with their six-guns.
Another thing I like about this one is that Eddie, Susannah and Jake are now full-fledged gunslingers and not just apprentices, and King expands on exactly what a gunslinger is. They’re not just killers, although they do that pretty damn well. They’re also diplomats and protectors of the defenseless. It was fun to see Roland’s manipulative political side come out when dealing with the Calla folk. The pregnancy storyline didn’t do much for me in this, but it becomes a key driver of the plot of the next book.
All in all, this is one of my favorite of the DT books, and it was King’s clear statement that he was done screwing around and ready to finish this mother. Too bad it took him nearly getting killed to get it done.
I confess this not to do more complaining about the long suffering years waiting on some advancement in the Dark Tower books, but to illustrate how utterly obsessed and frustrated I was with this goddamn series. Then King nearly came to the clearing at the end of the path but instead recovered and cranked out three books like they came off an assembly line to finish the whole thing. Before that, I had pretty much given up hope on ever getting another book, never mind seeing an end to it, and King wasn’t doing much to make me change my mind with no news about him even working on another DT book.
And then came the minivan.
Ka works in mysterious ways….
Wolves of the Calla had a lot of things to accomplish. It needed to get the story rolling again after years of it laying fallow. It needed to set up the end run of the series. It needed to be a satisfying book aside from moving the overall arc forward. And most importantly, it needed to answer the burning question all Dark Tower fans had: Whatever happened to Father Callahan from ‘Salem’s Lot? Oh, wait. I had never asked that question. Oh, well. I found out anyhow and it turned out to be a pretty good part of the story.
Roland and his crew have been moving along the path of the Beam towards the Tower, but they seem to have been in a kind of timeless funk. (One of the things I love about the series is that the decay of the Tower has caused both time and space in Roland’s world to become soft and drift. It’s also a nice metaphor for the limbo that characters are in between books.) Just before entering the nastiness of End-World, they find Calla Bryn Sturgis, a farming town with a big problem.
Almost all the children born in the Calla are twins. Every twenty years or so, dozens of creatures the townsfolk call Wolves come on horseback and steal one from each set of twins. They take those kids back to Thunderclap, a place the gunslingers have already been warned about, and eventually return them as almost mindless husks who grow to jumbo sizes before dying young. Try to fight or hide your kids, and the Wolves kill everyone who resists instead of just taking half the kids. The Wolves will arrive in a month, but some in the Calla want to fight back this time if the gunslingers will help.
Roland's group has other problems too. They’ve been making dream-like excursions to New York in the 1970s and found that the special rose growing in a vacant lot there is in terrible danger. The rose is a key manifestation of the Tower in that world. Roland is convinced that if the rose is destroyed, the Tower falls in his world, too, and there goes your ballgame for all of existence. They have to find a way to get to New York in person and save the rose from those threatening it by protecting the owner of the lot.
The gunslingers also meet Callahan, a former Catholic priest last seen in the King-verse fighting vampires in ’Salem’s Lot. Callahan has an incredible tale to tell of years spent traveling between worlds and being chased by vampires and other nasty agents of the Crimson King before he wound up in Calla Bryn Sturgis.* Callahan has been hiding an evil object that terrifies him, and he wants Roland to get rid of it by taking it with him when they leave.
*(Anyone reading the series who wants some more info about who was chasing Callahan and other bits that come into play here should check out King’s ‘Low Men in Yellow Coats’ story in his ‘Hearts in Atlantis’ collection.)
If they didn’t have enough on their plate, Susannah’s previous encounter with a demon has left her a little bit pregnant, and her personality is being taken over by the baby’s ‘mother’, Mia. Pregnant women are known for strange food cravings, but let’s just say that Mia’s are even worse than usual.
I love this book partly because it’s the one that got the Dark Tower story back on track and set up everything for the end run to the last book. I also love it just because this is Dark Tower at its best for me. It’s a mash-up of westerns, fantasy, horror and sci-fi. It’s like The Magnificent Seven if Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen had to make multi-dimensional trips and deal with robots and vampires as well as protect the town with their six-guns.
Another thing I like about this one is that Eddie, Susannah and Jake are now full-fledged gunslingers and not just apprentices, and King expands on exactly what a gunslinger is. They’re not just killers, although they do that pretty damn well. They’re also diplomats and protectors of the defenseless. It was fun to see Roland’s manipulative political side come out when dealing with the Calla folk. The pregnancy storyline didn’t do much for me in this, but it becomes a key driver of the plot of the next book.
All in all, this is one of my favorite of the DT books, and it was King’s clear statement that he was done screwing around and ready to finish this mother. Too bad it took him nearly getting killed to get it done.
March 15, 2011
It is as though Stephen King:
1. Took me out to an arid, deserted sepia-toned no-place
2. Lit a sputtering campfire that quickly faded to embers
3. Handcuffed me
4. Sat me down Indian-style across from him
5. Proceeded to narrate to me in a hoarse, bored drawl over a series of three-to-four weeks the world's longest, most uninteresting story while my head lolled back, my lips grew dry with thirst, and my bum ached
If this book had been written by any writer other than Stephen King, it would never have been published. I firmly believe that an editor, or any discerning eye, never even glanced at this book.
I will say that the only redeeming storyline in this entire book is Don (Pere) Callahan's tale. In it, King writes some surprisingly beautiful prose. Callahan's tale - which is interspersed throughout the main storyline - moves in a pace that a story like this should move - like hurried steps on a Manhattan sidewalk, like a nervous glance backward as though someone might be following you. Because guess what? Someone is following you - me, the reader! And if I'm following your little ka-tet through the boring, desolate redneck wonderland of the Calla for 925 freakin' pages - you better move! However, how much does Callahan's story actually move the plot? Very little. It seems to serve two purposes: to reinforce coincidence as "ka," and as an example of the quality of writing of which King is capable, but which you, reader, are being denied throughout the rest of the narrative.
Besides the sheer grueling pace of this beast, I had a couple of serious problems with this particular book in the Dark Tower Series:
1. Speech Mannerisms: The language of the Calla is annoying. When Roland's ka-tet continue to use these annoying speech mannerisms in their own "palaver" - it comes off as completely ridiculous. Not to mention - exhausting for the reader.
2. Repetition: Certain tropes (Nineteen, for example) are repeated too often. It is bad writing, simply put. While I do not yet understand the "significance" of Nineteen, it has been implied that it is significant. So, so significant. Yawn.
3. Mia: Susannah already has three personalities. Giving her another one is simply a rehashing and reheating of King's own once-interesting characterizations.
So, if the pace is slow, the plot overdrawn, surely in 925 pages there is room for some serious character development, right? Wrong! Besides Jake Chambers doing a little "coming of age," the rest of the characters remain stagnant throughout the narrative - to the point where they seem like thoughtless renditions of themselves. Even Mia - a brand new personality! - is derivative of Susannah's older personalities and is largely uninteresting.
I will also say that I find the subplot of the Callahan's meta-fiction interesting. I find it easy to believe that a quest that traverses time/place/universes, can surely traverse the border between reality and fiction. This development of a fiction-bridging reality could be spectacular if done correctly. Or it could fall off, and go nowhere. I cannot say I have faith for the former.
My enjoyment of Callahan's tale is the only reason I gave this book more than one star.
That said - I won't give up now. Not with thousands of pages of this series already read. I mean, I have to get to that Tower. But, God, God God - I want to give up. God, this Wolves of The Calla book was long. I felt like I was reading it for nineteen years.
1. Took me out to an arid, deserted sepia-toned no-place
2. Lit a sputtering campfire that quickly faded to embers
3. Handcuffed me
4. Sat me down Indian-style across from him
5. Proceeded to narrate to me in a hoarse, bored drawl over a series of three-to-four weeks the world's longest, most uninteresting story while my head lolled back, my lips grew dry with thirst, and my bum ached
If this book had been written by any writer other than Stephen King, it would never have been published. I firmly believe that an editor, or any discerning eye, never even glanced at this book.
I will say that the only redeeming storyline in this entire book is Don (Pere) Callahan's tale. In it, King writes some surprisingly beautiful prose. Callahan's tale - which is interspersed throughout the main storyline - moves in a pace that a story like this should move - like hurried steps on a Manhattan sidewalk, like a nervous glance backward as though someone might be following you. Because guess what? Someone is following you - me, the reader! And if I'm following your little ka-tet through the boring, desolate redneck wonderland of the Calla for 925 freakin' pages - you better move! However, how much does Callahan's story actually move the plot? Very little. It seems to serve two purposes: to reinforce coincidence as "ka," and as an example of the quality of writing of which King is capable, but which you, reader, are being denied throughout the rest of the narrative.
Besides the sheer grueling pace of this beast, I had a couple of serious problems with this particular book in the Dark Tower Series:
1. Speech Mannerisms: The language of the Calla is annoying. When Roland's ka-tet continue to use these annoying speech mannerisms in their own "palaver" - it comes off as completely ridiculous. Not to mention - exhausting for the reader.
2. Repetition: Certain tropes (Nineteen, for example) are repeated too often. It is bad writing, simply put. While I do not yet understand the "significance" of Nineteen, it has been implied that it is significant. So, so significant. Yawn.
3. Mia: Susannah already has three personalities. Giving her another one is simply a rehashing and reheating of King's own once-interesting characterizations.
So, if the pace is slow, the plot overdrawn, surely in 925 pages there is room for some serious character development, right? Wrong! Besides Jake Chambers doing a little "coming of age," the rest of the characters remain stagnant throughout the narrative - to the point where they seem like thoughtless renditions of themselves. Even Mia - a brand new personality! - is derivative of Susannah's older personalities and is largely uninteresting.
I will also say that I find the subplot of the Callahan's meta-fiction interesting. I find it easy to believe that a quest that traverses time/place/universes, can surely traverse the border between reality and fiction. This development of a fiction-bridging reality could be spectacular if done correctly. Or it could fall off, and go nowhere. I cannot say I have faith for the former.
My enjoyment of Callahan's tale is the only reason I gave this book more than one star.
That said - I won't give up now. Not with thousands of pages of this series already read. I mean, I have to get to that Tower. But, God, God God - I want to give up. God, this Wolves of The Calla book was long. I felt like I was reading it for nineteen years.
June 7, 2020
Come, just stroke them, they won´t lacerate you and if, it will be so immediately fatal that you will at least feel no pain, except if bitten by a blue glowing vampire before, that could complicate both the dying and getting all the pop culture references and innuendos.
It´s getting a bit complicated with all the interconnections to the other parts, but King does a great job by using new and established settings, symbols, and artifacts to keep it suspenseful and demanding to read at the same time. There is no of his works or series with a similar emphasis on fusing it all together with as many character lines and mentioned elements, there are works taking place at the same or similar setting or with the same characters such as The Shining or the Mr. Mercedes series, but nothing close to this.
Look forward to one of the creepiest, best demonic possession scenes ever. This scenery, allocated to different parts of the series, is one of the best King has ever written, it won´t ever leave your memory again, even if you wish, scream, and plead for it, it will haunt you until after the grave, each new incarnation, and yes, it may be you who it is. Try to handle that, getting reborn as: see spoiler.
It´s not just that King is referring to his own work, characters, and many are unable to because they deem themselves so over the top.
This part is essential for understanding the whole deeper meaning King integrated into his work and I couldn´t name all the innuendos and especially the interconnectivity floating through this series, but I am not sure if some parts are not just over the top philosophy and glitter or if King was, next to his literary ingenuity, also so clever to add so much second lawyer under the skin of the story.
How I loved this creepy setting, the mutations, some Sci-Fi elements with open questions fermenting in the background, the good oldfashioned , the explanation of the backstory,… it has everything.
And how could I not love an evil megacorp and no, this time I won´t start driveling about how cool it would have been if King would have written more Sci-Fi…oopsie. However, I would have loved to have seen more of this element and plot level, because King has everything else, the standard crew, check, the personified evil and the meta evil, check, but what is kind of missing is the evil mega conglomerate that is once not tinkering with alien technology or invasive alien species, but with the dark side itself.
A stronger focus on this aspect would have made it even more dynamic, but King prefers to show the evil characters, not the evil ideologies, but I imagine an evil parallel universe where he might have written it this way as part of a historic nonfiction book. Because, the saddest thing of this dystopic uchronia, he wouldn´t have been allowed to work in forbidden creative jobs and would have had to work as propaganda indoctrination demagogue black magic somewhat teacher instead. Sigh, if I could just have been in one of his classes, possibly necromancy or mind control by demonic possession, it would have rocked so much…
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
It´s getting a bit complicated with all the interconnections to the other parts, but King does a great job by using new and established settings, symbols, and artifacts to keep it suspenseful and demanding to read at the same time. There is no of his works or series with a similar emphasis on fusing it all together with as many character lines and mentioned elements, there are works taking place at the same or similar setting or with the same characters such as The Shining or the Mr. Mercedes series, but nothing close to this.
Look forward to one of the creepiest, best demonic possession scenes ever. This scenery, allocated to different parts of the series, is one of the best King has ever written, it won´t ever leave your memory again, even if you wish, scream, and plead for it, it will haunt you until after the grave, each new incarnation, and yes, it may be you who it is. Try to handle that, getting reborn as: see spoiler.
It´s not just that King is referring to his own work, characters, and many are unable to because they deem themselves so over the top.
This part is essential for understanding the whole deeper meaning King integrated into his work and I couldn´t name all the innuendos and especially the interconnectivity floating through this series, but I am not sure if some parts are not just over the top philosophy and glitter or if King was, next to his literary ingenuity, also so clever to add so much second lawyer under the skin of the story.
How I loved this creepy setting, the mutations, some Sci-Fi elements with open questions fermenting in the background, the good oldfashioned , the explanation of the backstory,… it has everything.
And how could I not love an evil megacorp and no, this time I won´t start driveling about how cool it would have been if King would have written more Sci-Fi…oopsie. However, I would have loved to have seen more of this element and plot level, because King has everything else, the standard crew, check, the personified evil and the meta evil, check, but what is kind of missing is the evil mega conglomerate that is once not tinkering with alien technology or invasive alien species, but with the dark side itself.
A stronger focus on this aspect would have made it even more dynamic, but King prefers to show the evil characters, not the evil ideologies, but I imagine an evil parallel universe where he might have written it this way as part of a historic nonfiction book. Because, the saddest thing of this dystopic uchronia, he wouldn´t have been allowed to work in forbidden creative jobs and would have had to work as propaganda indoctrination demagogue black magic somewhat teacher instead. Sigh, if I could just have been in one of his classes, possibly necromancy or mind control by demonic possession, it would have rocked so much…
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
January 30, 2025
5-stars yet again...
....to the surprise of absolutely no one.
Earlier:
Yes, it is just over 900-pages.
Yes, I have over 1,200 other books on my TBR.
Yes, I am reading it again.
Original:
All hail the King!
Full review to come...stay tuned!!!
10/14/20: Completely forgot that I never wrote a full review for this masterpiece.
Perhaps a project for the weekend...
....to the surprise of absolutely no one.
Earlier:
Yes, it is just over 900-pages.
Yes, I have over 1,200 other books on my TBR.
Yes, I am reading it again.
Original:
All hail the King!
Full review to come...stay tuned!!!
10/14/20: Completely forgot that I never wrote a full review for this masterpiece.
Perhaps a project for the weekend...
December 4, 2021
“If," Roland said. "An old teacher of mine used to call it the only word a thousand letters long.”
― Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla
Come-come-commala back to the world of The Dark Tower, do I beg. On the path, our Ka-tet come across Calla Bryn Sturgis, one of a surprising, but limited number of thriving Western (as in Wild West) like communities in this area. An area under siege by Wolves; every 20 odd years the Wolves visit a Calla, did I say visit? I meant raid, a raid of their most precious bounty. Can the Gunslingers help them help themselves?.
How did this book make me feel
This is a third read of this book, a book that I had always considered as the start of the decline of the series; having just completed it on this third occasion, I can concur that it's not as good as the previous books in the series. I feel the build up to the final act, was way too long and could have been shorter, but the pay-off was pretty good. I did care about each and every character across realities; and enjoyed the realistic, but not that interesting, characterisations of some of the Ka-tet's allies. I also now fear/realise that the referencing and crossovers with King's and other creators' 20th century works will age this series, so what looks good now, won't so much in the future. The world building however continues to be superb, contextual and believable. Onwards! 8 out of 12
2020 read
― Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla
Come-come-commala back to the world of The Dark Tower, do I beg. On the path, our Ka-tet come across Calla Bryn Sturgis, one of a surprising, but limited number of thriving Western (as in Wild West) like communities in this area. An area under siege by Wolves; every 20 odd years the Wolves visit a Calla, did I say visit? I meant raid, a raid of their most precious bounty. Can the Gunslingers help them help themselves?.
How did this book make me feel
This is a third read of this book, a book that I had always considered as the start of the decline of the series; having just completed it on this third occasion, I can concur that it's not as good as the previous books in the series. I feel the build up to the final act, was way too long and could have been shorter, but the pay-off was pretty good. I did care about each and every character across realities; and enjoyed the realistic, but not that interesting, characterisations of some of the Ka-tet's allies. I also now fear/realise that the referencing and crossovers with King's and other creators' 20th century works will age this series, so what looks good now, won't so much in the future. The world building however continues to be superb, contextual and believable. Onwards! 8 out of 12
2020 read
November 7, 2025
“The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla” by Stephen King will go down as one of my favorite books of the series. It’s just a baby’s eyelash below my favorite of the series so far, “The Gunslinger,” as it was one hell of an epic read.
Before I dive into my review, these are the trigger warnings I found while reading…
- Domestic abuse
- Kidnapping
- Abortion
- Racism
- Homophobic slurs
- Rape
- Violence against animals
- Cancer
- Suicide
If any of these trigger you, please do not read this novel. Moving along, I’ve been on this Dark Tower journey since 2024. It’s a 17-book journey with a plethora of pre-reading material to get the most out of this book series. I did a ton of research and even asked my local librarians to find the best path, and if any of my fellow Constant Readers are interested in going on this journey, here is my list below…
The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
‘Salem’s Lot
The Talisman
Black House
Everything's Eventual (The Little Sisters of Eluria)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
Charlie the Choo-Choo
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
This is another classic slow-burning novel that was so rewarding, it blew me away. It undoubtedly takes a while to get to the good stuff, but when it does, it grabs you and shakes you to your core. Don’t worry, I wouldn't spoil anything for those who haven't read this yet, but this has the biggest reveal and plot twist I’ve encountered in this series so far. Even in general, this one blew my mind. I was stunned, and now I see why those I asked about the best way to read The Dark Tower series advised reading it in the order above. The Easter eggs I found while reading were a lot of fun to discover.
I loved the continued story of Roland and his ka-tet. It feels like all those Final Fantasy video games I used to love, as you genuinely feel connected to the characters in your party throughout their adventures. It reads just like that here with Roland, Eddie, Susannah, and the new characters you encounter along the way.
Even though this novel wasn’t as scary as I would have wanted, the suspense, tension, and action-packed fighting scenes were brilliantly written. King went above and beyond here to make up for his usual horror when writing. For Halloween 2025, I took a nice, long weekend just to enjoy the holiday and make a big dent in this novel. It was such a genuine page-turner that I was up late every night, binge-reading, because it was that intense from the 50% mark onward.
The ending was such a wild ride, I was left in utter shock. King put on a writing clinic with a climactic rush that left me wanting more. I was surprised by how it ended, but it all made sense in the grand scheme of things. I have just two more books to go, and I can only imagine what awaits me with how this ended. I’m anxious to start the next novel in this series as I’m almost done conquering The Dark Tower once and for all.
I give “The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla” by Stephen King a 5/5 for being another surreal entry in this series. It continues this incredible story with Roland and company, featuring some of the best plot twists and reveals I’ve ever read. If you’re a huge fan of King’s earlier work, this will blow your mind when you realize what transpires with the story and characters.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, after hanging out with some wolves, it’s time to hear Susannah’s singing voice.
Before I dive into my review, these are the trigger warnings I found while reading…
- Domestic abuse
- Kidnapping
- Abortion
- Racism
- Homophobic slurs
- Rape
- Violence against animals
- Cancer
- Suicide
If any of these trigger you, please do not read this novel. Moving along, I’ve been on this Dark Tower journey since 2024. It’s a 17-book journey with a plethora of pre-reading material to get the most out of this book series. I did a ton of research and even asked my local librarians to find the best path, and if any of my fellow Constant Readers are interested in going on this journey, here is my list below…
The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
‘Salem’s Lot
The Talisman
Black House
Everything's Eventual (The Little Sisters of Eluria)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
Charlie the Choo-Choo
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
This is another classic slow-burning novel that was so rewarding, it blew me away. It undoubtedly takes a while to get to the good stuff, but when it does, it grabs you and shakes you to your core. Don’t worry, I wouldn't spoil anything for those who haven't read this yet, but this has the biggest reveal and plot twist I’ve encountered in this series so far. Even in general, this one blew my mind. I was stunned, and now I see why those I asked about the best way to read The Dark Tower series advised reading it in the order above. The Easter eggs I found while reading were a lot of fun to discover.
I loved the continued story of Roland and his ka-tet. It feels like all those Final Fantasy video games I used to love, as you genuinely feel connected to the characters in your party throughout their adventures. It reads just like that here with Roland, Eddie, Susannah, and the new characters you encounter along the way.
Even though this novel wasn’t as scary as I would have wanted, the suspense, tension, and action-packed fighting scenes were brilliantly written. King went above and beyond here to make up for his usual horror when writing. For Halloween 2025, I took a nice, long weekend just to enjoy the holiday and make a big dent in this novel. It was such a genuine page-turner that I was up late every night, binge-reading, because it was that intense from the 50% mark onward.
The ending was such a wild ride, I was left in utter shock. King put on a writing clinic with a climactic rush that left me wanting more. I was surprised by how it ended, but it all made sense in the grand scheme of things. I have just two more books to go, and I can only imagine what awaits me with how this ended. I’m anxious to start the next novel in this series as I’m almost done conquering The Dark Tower once and for all.
I give “The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla” by Stephen King a 5/5 for being another surreal entry in this series. It continues this incredible story with Roland and company, featuring some of the best plot twists and reveals I’ve ever read. If you’re a huge fan of King’s earlier work, this will blow your mind when you realize what transpires with the story and characters.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, after hanging out with some wolves, it’s time to hear Susannah’s singing voice.
February 2, 2025
“It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.”
And here we have yet another Great American Novel from Stephen King. Yes, I do realize that *technically* Mid-World of the Dark Tower world is not America, *technically*, but it’s blatantly obvious that’s it the Wild West and the Great American Frontier, not to mention the side venture to 1970s New York (gangs and addiction as a side dish there) and a grim road trip through the 1970s-1980s America (or a few versions of it, anyway) that should be any college literature professors darling.
“No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves.”
In Wolves of the Calla, one of my favorite Dark Tower series books (behind The Waste Lands, on par with The Drawing of the Three) King does exactly what he excels at — the life of the regular small-town folk, not inherently good or bad but with admirable and abhorrent side by side, like in all of us. King is a master of the setting here - small places with ensemble cast that makes you care about people who seem real even if not universally likable (think ’Salem’s Lot or It or Needful Things or 11/22/63).
“Coincidence has been cancelled, honey,” Susannah said. “What we’re living in these days is more like the Charles Dickens version of reality.”
This book goes deep into Stephen King multiverse, with the presence of not just Father Callahan but also the actual books of actual Stephen King in this interconnected web of worlds. Everything serves the wheel of destiny, that blasted “ka” that grinds everyone under its dreaded weight.
I’m not a fan of the idea of anything predestined, anything that turns others into little but marionettes, but I’ll give Sai King a pass here, as long as I can make the “ka=kaka” joke as often as I want.
“At first everything went according to plan and they called it ka. When things began going wrong and the dying started, they called that ka, too. Ka, the gunslinger could have told them, was often the last thing you had to rise above.”
“For the Ka-Tet of Nineteen (or of the Ninety and Nine; Jake had an idea they were really the same), things were tightening up even as the world around them grew old, grew loose, shut down, shed pieces of itself.”
It’s a very King-esque mishmash of fantasy and science fiction, pop culture references and small-town saga with a bonus of a spaghetti western (as far as I recall, it was Clint Eastwood who inspired the idea of Roland Deschain). Sandalwood guns and ranchers and robots and lightsabers and glimpses of ruined technological civilizations from millennia past, the “beg your pardon” and “thankee sai” and New York jokes — you’ve got it all, although the slow measured tension in a frontier town predominates. And this intricate, complex mishmash is addictive, I gotta say — and King knows it, too:
“In our world you got your mystery and suspense stories ... your science fiction stories ... your Westerns … your fairy tales. Get it?”
“Yes,” Roland said. “Do people in your world always want only one story-flavor at a time? Only one taste in their mouths?”
“I guess that’s close enough,” Susannah said.
“Does no one eat stew?” Roland asked.
King is great at buildup and setting the scene, and here in Calla he is still working on it, still maddeningly far from the conclusion of Roland’s arduous journey to the Tower. And I love it. I’m not sure I’m a big fan of where it all leads in the end (although I dare you to come up with a better conclusion to this series than King ultimately does, and maybe the reread will make me love the resolution more) but I’m here for all of it.
4.5 stars (taking off a half-star for that endless Callahan flashback).
———
Buddy read with Fiona.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
June 21, 2019
The 2011 re-read:
Roland and his ka-tet of gunslingers ride into Calla Bryn Sturgis, a town with a problem. Once every generation, a gang of marauders called The Wolves ride out of Thunderclap and steal half of the town's children. The ones that return come back roont, or brain-damaged. Can Roland and the others stop the Wolves before Susan gives birth to the demon in her womb?
It was a long wait between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. Was it worth it? Well, does a horse piss where it pleases?
The main story of Wolves of the Calla is right out of The Magnificent Seven or Seven Samurai. The gunslingers ride into town, prepare the town, and settle the bad guys' hash. The secondary stories, of which there are several, are what make the book. You've got Father Callahan from Jake, Eddie, and Susannah's world and his fearsome burden, Black Thirteen. You've got someone in town helping the Wolves. You've got Roland and his arthritis. You've got Calvin Tower and the vacant lot containing the Rose. And most of all, you have Susannah's disturbing pregnancy.
The gang going todash was one of the more interesting parts of the book and something I'd forgotten about in the years since I read this book the first time. I devoured the book in a day and a half when it first came out so I must not have savored it. There were so many wrinkles to the story that I'd forgotten.
I love how the Man in Black doubled back and met Callahan at the Way Station while Roland and Jake were on in trail in The Gunslinger. In the revised edition of The Gunslinger, Roland contemplates putting his quest on hold for a few years and training Jake so he'd have another Gunslinger with him. Would they have met Callahan if they'd let the Man in Black get away? Tantalizing...
People say that the long flashback in Wizard and Glass fleshed out Roland's personality. I'd say watching Roland interact with the people of Calla Bryn Sturgis in this book went a lot farther in showing what kind of man Roland was before the world moved on.
I can't really say much more for fear of giving too many things away to people who have never read it. If you like the Dark Tower, this one is probably in the top three books of the series.
The 2019 re-read:
I've been meaning to re-read books 5-7 of the Dark Tower for a few years now. When my wife and I found out we were having a chap, I put it on my 2019 reading goals and here we are. My original intention was to read all three before little Miles tears my wife's loins in two but I'm not sure how motivated I am to do that.
The story itself, the ka-tet defending a village from mysterious raiders who steal one of each pair of twins in the village every generation or so, is as compelling now as when I read it hot off the presses. As with the 2011 reread, I'd forgotten quite a bit about this book.
It's probably because this is my third go-round but the things that irk me are a lot more apparent than in previous reads. This book could easily be at least 100 pages shorter. Wolves of the Calla suffers from a case of King Bloat in the middle. There's so much talking when the ka-tet could be going to New York to save the Rose! "I know time flows one and a half times as fast on the New York side of things and Balazar's goons are putting the squeeze on Calvin Tower but let's stay up all night and listen to Pere Callahan's story some more." The Calla-speak gets really painful after a while.
Now that the gripes are out of the way, I still dug this book and The Dark Tower as a whole. The todash concept is great and Stephen King knows how to ratchet up the suspense when he needs to. Parts of it were still surprising, even though I've trod this path twice before. The final battle with the Wolves was some tense shit, even though I knew the ka-tet would survive, I couldn't remember which of the townsfolk died.
While a bit of the shine has worn off this penny, I still enjoyed Wolves of the Call quite a bit. 4 out of 5 stars.
Roland and his ka-tet of gunslingers ride into Calla Bryn Sturgis, a town with a problem. Once every generation, a gang of marauders called The Wolves ride out of Thunderclap and steal half of the town's children. The ones that return come back roont, or brain-damaged. Can Roland and the others stop the Wolves before Susan gives birth to the demon in her womb?
It was a long wait between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. Was it worth it? Well, does a horse piss where it pleases?
The main story of Wolves of the Calla is right out of The Magnificent Seven or Seven Samurai. The gunslingers ride into town, prepare the town, and settle the bad guys' hash. The secondary stories, of which there are several, are what make the book. You've got Father Callahan from Jake, Eddie, and Susannah's world and his fearsome burden, Black Thirteen. You've got someone in town helping the Wolves. You've got Roland and his arthritis. You've got Calvin Tower and the vacant lot containing the Rose. And most of all, you have Susannah's disturbing pregnancy.
The gang going todash was one of the more interesting parts of the book and something I'd forgotten about in the years since I read this book the first time. I devoured the book in a day and a half when it first came out so I must not have savored it. There were so many wrinkles to the story that I'd forgotten.
I love how the Man in Black doubled back and met Callahan at the Way Station while Roland and Jake were on in trail in The Gunslinger. In the revised edition of The Gunslinger, Roland contemplates putting his quest on hold for a few years and training Jake so he'd have another Gunslinger with him. Would they have met Callahan if they'd let the Man in Black get away? Tantalizing...
People say that the long flashback in Wizard and Glass fleshed out Roland's personality. I'd say watching Roland interact with the people of Calla Bryn Sturgis in this book went a lot farther in showing what kind of man Roland was before the world moved on.
I can't really say much more for fear of giving too many things away to people who have never read it. If you like the Dark Tower, this one is probably in the top three books of the series.
The 2019 re-read:
I've been meaning to re-read books 5-7 of the Dark Tower for a few years now. When my wife and I found out we were having a chap, I put it on my 2019 reading goals and here we are. My original intention was to read all three before little Miles tears my wife's loins in two but I'm not sure how motivated I am to do that.
The story itself, the ka-tet defending a village from mysterious raiders who steal one of each pair of twins in the village every generation or so, is as compelling now as when I read it hot off the presses. As with the 2011 reread, I'd forgotten quite a bit about this book.
It's probably because this is my third go-round but the things that irk me are a lot more apparent than in previous reads. This book could easily be at least 100 pages shorter. Wolves of the Calla suffers from a case of King Bloat in the middle. There's so much talking when the ka-tet could be going to New York to save the Rose! "I know time flows one and a half times as fast on the New York side of things and Balazar's goons are putting the squeeze on Calvin Tower but let's stay up all night and listen to Pere Callahan's story some more." The Calla-speak gets really painful after a while.
Now that the gripes are out of the way, I still dug this book and The Dark Tower as a whole. The todash concept is great and Stephen King knows how to ratchet up the suspense when he needs to. Parts of it were still surprising, even though I've trod this path twice before. The final battle with the Wolves was some tense shit, even though I knew the ka-tet would survive, I couldn't remember which of the townsfolk died.
While a bit of the shine has worn off this penny, I still enjoyed Wolves of the Call quite a bit. 4 out of 5 stars.
October 18, 2019
"Now I think that all of us are born with a hole in our hearts, and we go around looking for the person who can fill it. You...Eddie, you fill me up."
The fifth book in the Dark Tower series finds Roland and his ka-tet in Calla Bryn Sturgis, where they must help the residents overcome a formidable enemy.
Even though this book took me what felt like a million years to finish, I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much every page (well... I’m not the biggest fan of the New York plot in this one, I’d rather have just stayed in the Calla!)
King is well-known for his depiction of small towns and bringing all the residents to life, and this one is no different! Lots of new characters to meet, as well as the reintroduction of an old one. I LOVED catching up with this character, quite a lot of time is spent filling in the gaps of his story and I was not complaining in the slightest!
The Dark Tower is such an epic tale where our ka-tet are mostly travelling around and on the move, so I liked just staying still for a while (apart from going todash) and allowing for more character development. Also a huge fan of the story behind the wolves and the roont children - I find it creepily fascinating!
I fangirl so hard over all the little references to pop culture and connections to other King books etc so I was in my element here! I guess not everyone enjoys that kind of stuff, but this gal does! And if you haven’t read the series before, this one ends in a way where you just NEED to know what happens next. But luckily I have so I’m okay waiting to read Song of Susannah - however, not for too long, because the Tower is beckoning...
An underrated DT novel, in my opinion. 5 stars.
The fifth book in the Dark Tower series finds Roland and his ka-tet in Calla Bryn Sturgis, where they must help the residents overcome a formidable enemy.
Even though this book took me what felt like a million years to finish, I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much every page (well... I’m not the biggest fan of the New York plot in this one, I’d rather have just stayed in the Calla!)
King is well-known for his depiction of small towns and bringing all the residents to life, and this one is no different! Lots of new characters to meet, as well as the reintroduction of an old one. I LOVED catching up with this character, quite a lot of time is spent filling in the gaps of his story and I was not complaining in the slightest!
The Dark Tower is such an epic tale where our ka-tet are mostly travelling around and on the move, so I liked just staying still for a while (apart from going todash) and allowing for more character development. Also a huge fan of the story behind the wolves and the roont children - I find it creepily fascinating!
I fangirl so hard over all the little references to pop culture and connections to other King books etc so I was in my element here! I guess not everyone enjoys that kind of stuff, but this gal does! And if you haven’t read the series before, this one ends in a way where you just NEED to know what happens next. But luckily I have so I’m okay waiting to read Song of Susannah - however, not for too long, because the Tower is beckoning...
An underrated DT novel, in my opinion. 5 stars.
July 24, 2021
Calla Bryn Sturgis is a quiet farming town with good simple folken, with almost every birth producing twins. Once a generation, wolves on horseback from Thunderclap strike like lightning, grabbing up and making away with one twin from each pair. They will be returned eventually, but forever changed in a most terrifying way, they are "roont". There is no fighting back, just a dull, resigned acceptance of this practice, it has always been this way. As Roland and his ka-tet continue along the Beam, will they provide aid and succor to the Calla folk and perhaps put an end to this continuing atrocity? Time for palaver is over.
Yer-bugger! This is probably the fifth time I've read this, and it remains safely ensconced in 5 star territory.
Time is but a face on the water.
Yer-bugger! This is probably the fifth time I've read this, and it remains safely ensconced in 5 star territory.
Time is but a face on the water.
August 12, 2023
My favorite of the Dark Tower books, for the power and simplicity of its story. The gunslingers take a break in their quest for the Tower to help a small farming community with a terrible burden: once in every generation, masked riders called Wolves come out of the darkness and steal half the children. The children come back terribly changed and inevitably die young, and for the first time the town looks to fight against the Wolves. Roland and his band lead the defense, and they've never been more compelling. Eddie turns diplomat, Susannah nurses a secret, Roland shows a softer side, and Jake although only twelve wields a gun as skillfully as any of the others. The farmers, terrified but brave, are heart-breaking in their depiction, and fans of King's previous book "Salem's Lot" will note the appearance of a character long thought dead. The final battle against the Wolves will raise the hair on your neck.
March 31, 2016
Commela Come Come!
Our journey has left so many behind. We have been attacked, beaten, and threatened. Yet, we persevere. Onward wayward travelers. Let us continue on our quest to the Dark Tower. Let us travel safely along the Path of the Beam
Our band of crazy MahFahs, led by the craziest MahFah yeh’ve ever encountered- Yours Truly- has seen and done much. I even let Jeff out of his
Back to the review:
Roland and his Tet are on the Path of the Beam in search of the Dark Tower. After surviving the Starkblast and hearing another story from Roland’s past the gang is ready to move forward. But they’re being watched by the folken of the Calla. Which Calla? Calla Bryn Sturgis.
As much as Roland’s Tet would love to take a different route, Roland explains to them why they can’t. The duty of the gunslinger is to stand for those who cannot. Stand and be true, aye. He says true. What they find in the Calla is horrifying. Wolves come on horseback once every 26 years to take one from every set of twins. In our world that might not be so bad- but in the Calla twins are as common as Canadian pennies in a handful of change.
What’s worse than that? The wolves send them back once they’re done with them and that twin is forever ROONT; a drooling buffoon capable** of mostly just grunts and giggles.
One of my favorite characters became a favorite because of this book- Pere Callahan. His story in Salem’s Lot was not finished. It is continued here in the Calla.
Calla. Callahan.
But will the other folken listen to his pleas? Can they be convinced that now is the time to stop the wolves? Will Jeff ever get out of my basement for good?
This story is laid out beautifully. You are getting just enough information to keep turning those pages. You’re being teased with information. Your leaders are whispering and even you don’t know what they’re saying. There’s robots, twins, taters and gravy, time travel and talking caves. YERBUGGER.
Wolves of the Calla is a great read and is filled with a language that is sure to make any buddy read more interesting. I just can’t wait to continue this journey with my Ka-Tet.
April 29, 2022
"𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮 𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵."
Roland and his three companions come to the aid of a Wild West type village which is plagued by the "Wolves" who raid the village once a generation, steal half the children; then return them "roont", doomed to giantism, idiocy and agonising death.
The Ka-tet which are now proven gunslingers themselves muster the villagers in self-defence and try to uncover the truth about these malevolent "Wolves"
The plot is full of twists, suspense and plenty to make us feel for and fear for the characters we've come to know and love.
The cliffhanger ending is enough to have you rushing straight on to the next installment, if it's your first time read.
My favourite installment of the series. 🥀
Roland and his three companions come to the aid of a Wild West type village which is plagued by the "Wolves" who raid the village once a generation, steal half the children; then return them "roont", doomed to giantism, idiocy and agonising death.
The Ka-tet which are now proven gunslingers themselves muster the villagers in self-defence and try to uncover the truth about these malevolent "Wolves"
The plot is full of twists, suspense and plenty to make us feel for and fear for the characters we've come to know and love.
The cliffhanger ending is enough to have you rushing straight on to the next installment, if it's your first time read.
My favourite installment of the series. 🥀
July 4, 2012
May it do ya fine. This book did me real fine. Say thank ya.
I must be picking up the language from Calla Bryn Sturgis/Mid-World because it seems lately, I've been saying the speech of the people. I almost said, "Thankee-sai" as I was handed my receipt today at the grocery store. "Say thankee" I didn't.
Anyways, I'll stop being silly. (The grocery store thing is true, however.) What a fan-freaking-tastic book. I really enjoyed the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, the people, and I LOVED the way they spoke.
The story in this volume was just about as great as The Waste Lands....ahem...my favorite installment so far. So, I put this tied with The Drawing of the Three as my second favorite installment. Things were kind of mysterious in some parts, such as who was the snitch, and who or what were the wolves. The end with the 'Salem's Lot mention was also pretty brilliant. Father Callahan's part in the quest for the Dark Tower, the voices at the bottom of the cave, and just all of the connections to the number 19, Calvin Tower, the bookstore, etc....just brilliant.
King has such a creative mind, and I think this book completely made up for Wizard and Glass for me. Thanks King for delivering a solid book again. It was real trig. Say thank ya. I won't be surprised if Calla Bryn Sturgis/Mid-World speech is here to stay in my English speech.
I must be picking up the language from Calla Bryn Sturgis/Mid-World because it seems lately, I've been saying the speech of the people. I almost said, "Thankee-sai" as I was handed my receipt today at the grocery store. "Say thankee" I didn't.
Anyways, I'll stop being silly. (The grocery store thing is true, however.) What a fan-freaking-tastic book. I really enjoyed the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, the people, and I LOVED the way they spoke.
The story in this volume was just about as great as The Waste Lands....ahem...my favorite installment so far. So, I put this tied with The Drawing of the Three as my second favorite installment. Things were kind of mysterious in some parts, such as who was the snitch, and who or what were the wolves. The end with the 'Salem's Lot mention was also pretty brilliant. Father Callahan's part in the quest for the Dark Tower, the voices at the bottom of the cave, and just all of the connections to the number 19, Calvin Tower, the bookstore, etc....just brilliant.
King has such a creative mind, and I think this book completely made up for Wizard and Glass for me. Thanks King for delivering a solid book again. It was real trig. Say thank ya. I won't be surprised if Calla Bryn Sturgis/Mid-World speech is here to stay in my English speech.
March 3, 2025
Continuing my journey of reading all Stephen King's books in publication order and Wolves of Calla, an all time favourite was next, I couldn't wait to delve back into this one.
This is the Fifth instalment of The Dark Tower and it's a beauty, I am torn between this and The Drawing of the Three being my favourite DT book. This book like it's predecessor diverts the ka-tet from The Dark Tower, in doing so it explores so much of SK's universe, the stand out is Father Callahan if you have read Salem's Lot you'll know this man well. This book showcases the true beauty of reading SK's books in orders, not just nods to other SK works but things that actually effect the plot of The Dark Tower, masterfully done.
Although a large chunk of this book takes the ka-tet away from their path of The Dark Tower the plot moves forwards nicely. Everything that happens in this book still happens for a reason, its Ka without Calla their journey to the Dark Tower would be unsuccessful, even now the odds are stacked against them. These books always feel high risks and as an avid SK reader I know no one is safe.
So many new characters are introduced during the fifth instalment of The Dark Tower but we still get to know them so intimately. King’s character development during this book is next to none with Old Fella and Mia stealing the show. We are introduced to Roont children too, I think this is one of the more heart-breaking things SK has written about, is it worth living being a Roont, is life worth risking to save others from the same fate, well Roland might think so.
Roland shows his fun side at times during this book too, however it is undermined by his selfishness, as a reader we know he wouldn't be helping these people if he didn't think it would bring him closer to his tower. Not matter how much Roland loves his ka-tet he will always put his quest for the tower first.
Some of my favourite SK quotes come from the Wolves of Calla. "If being a grown up really meant knowing better, why did his father go on smoking three packs of unfiltered cigarettes and snorting cocaine until his nose bled?”
“He’s a hothead and I’m a coward. Perhaps that’s why we’re friends—we fit around each other’s wrong places, make something that’s almost whole.” I think this quote in particular is beautiful, two peoples weaknesses becoming strengths when they are put together no matter what people say about SK, between the horror and gore he creates beauty.
I still love OY and his relationship with Jake, a Jake who in this book we see is still really just a child which I love. It was nice to see Jake with a real life friendship, someone of his age, someone who he can be just a boy with so knowing what lies ahead hurts even more. I have benefited so much from re-reading this book, this is something that we always be re-readable for me. There is a little SK gore along the way in this one things to make the reader squirm, a lot of it at the hand of Mia.
This is a fairly big book and you need to be committed to the strange and unexpected world of The Dark Tower. I can see why this book gets some negative rating because there is just so much to take in – I fully advise you to take you time with this one, and be prepared to take on this epic series with all your concentration. If you love character building, world building, quests, a little bit of kookiness, some heart-warming moments and plenty of spine-chilling ones this is the series for you.
This is the Fifth instalment of The Dark Tower and it's a beauty, I am torn between this and The Drawing of the Three being my favourite DT book. This book like it's predecessor diverts the ka-tet from The Dark Tower, in doing so it explores so much of SK's universe, the stand out is Father Callahan if you have read Salem's Lot you'll know this man well. This book showcases the true beauty of reading SK's books in orders, not just nods to other SK works but things that actually effect the plot of The Dark Tower, masterfully done.
Although a large chunk of this book takes the ka-tet away from their path of The Dark Tower the plot moves forwards nicely. Everything that happens in this book still happens for a reason, its Ka without Calla their journey to the Dark Tower would be unsuccessful, even now the odds are stacked against them. These books always feel high risks and as an avid SK reader I know no one is safe.
So many new characters are introduced during the fifth instalment of The Dark Tower but we still get to know them so intimately. King’s character development during this book is next to none with Old Fella and Mia stealing the show. We are introduced to Roont children too, I think this is one of the more heart-breaking things SK has written about, is it worth living being a Roont, is life worth risking to save others from the same fate, well Roland might think so.
Roland shows his fun side at times during this book too, however it is undermined by his selfishness, as a reader we know he wouldn't be helping these people if he didn't think it would bring him closer to his tower. Not matter how much Roland loves his ka-tet he will always put his quest for the tower first.
Some of my favourite SK quotes come from the Wolves of Calla. "If being a grown up really meant knowing better, why did his father go on smoking three packs of unfiltered cigarettes and snorting cocaine until his nose bled?”
“He’s a hothead and I’m a coward. Perhaps that’s why we’re friends—we fit around each other’s wrong places, make something that’s almost whole.” I think this quote in particular is beautiful, two peoples weaknesses becoming strengths when they are put together no matter what people say about SK, between the horror and gore he creates beauty.
I still love OY and his relationship with Jake, a Jake who in this book we see is still really just a child which I love. It was nice to see Jake with a real life friendship, someone of his age, someone who he can be just a boy with so knowing what lies ahead hurts even more. I have benefited so much from re-reading this book, this is something that we always be re-readable for me. There is a little SK gore along the way in this one things to make the reader squirm, a lot of it at the hand of Mia.
This is a fairly big book and you need to be committed to the strange and unexpected world of The Dark Tower. I can see why this book gets some negative rating because there is just so much to take in – I fully advise you to take you time with this one, and be prepared to take on this epic series with all your concentration. If you love character building, world building, quests, a little bit of kookiness, some heart-warming moments and plenty of spine-chilling ones this is the series for you.
May 22, 2025
It never ceases to amaze me how much of this series isn’t actually in active pursuit of the Tower. I feel like there is so much languish and toil that it detracts from the momentum. I need more time to process and appreciate how these tie into broader themes or plot elements, but it often drives me crazy when in the midst of reading.
This wasn’t my favorite entry, but also wasn’t my least favorite. About 300 of the 700 pages are among the best I’ve read in this series. It’s the extraneous, non-plot critical, meandering verbosity that made me put this book down at several points for a respite
Character I Loved & Hated
Still loved Eddie, but low-key loved Tower. I mean, the man’s name is Tower and obsessed over rare books, including a Stephen King classic. A man after my own heart
Didn’t hate Father Callahan, but did hate how much of his story we got here. It was completely superfluous and unnecessary in my opinion, and I say that as someone who loves Salem’s Lot.
Themes
Love, betrayal, and standing for what’s right without promise of recompense.
One Thing I’ll walk away with
Roland’s dance scene for sure. I never thought I’d say those words together in a sentence, but he straight up “Step Up”’d they ass
This wasn’t my favorite entry, but also wasn’t my least favorite. About 300 of the 700 pages are among the best I’ve read in this series. It’s the extraneous, non-plot critical, meandering verbosity that made me put this book down at several points for a respite
Character I Loved & Hated
Still loved Eddie, but low-key loved Tower. I mean, the man’s name is Tower and obsessed over rare books, including a Stephen King classic. A man after my own heart
Didn’t hate Father Callahan, but did hate how much of his story we got here. It was completely superfluous and unnecessary in my opinion, and I say that as someone who loves Salem’s Lot.
Themes
Love, betrayal, and standing for what’s right without promise of recompense.
One Thing I’ll walk away with
Roland’s dance scene for sure. I never thought I’d say those words together in a sentence, but he straight up “Step Up”’d they ass
November 11, 2025
Помня много ясно, прашните и облицовани с червен плюш седалки на кино "Аура", в едно време далечно - още преди да тръгна на училище. Светлините угасват внезапно и тръгва пропаганден соц преглед, възхваляващ пропадащата система. А след него започва филм, който съм гледал вече десетина пъти и който няма как да ми омръзне - "Великолепната седморка"!
Кинг умело е разработил този познат ни класически сюжет, заплитайки го в своя мрачен постапокалиптичен фентъзи свят.
Хареса ми много, макар че книгата е почти 700 страници!
Цитати:
"Красноречието не винаги идва от убедеността, често се корени в бутилката."
"Противно на логиката ние се заблуждаваме, че ако се преместим на ново място, нещата ще потръгнат по-добре; че стремежът ни към саморазрушение ще изчезне."
"Гробовете ги копаят победителите."
Кинг умело е разработил този познат ни класически сюжет, заплитайки го в своя мрачен постапокалиптичен фентъзи свят.
Хареса ми много, макар че книгата е почти 700 страници!
Цитати:
"Красноречието не винаги идва от убедеността, често се корени в бутилката."
"Противно на логиката ние се заблуждаваме, че ако се преместим на ново място, нещата ще потръгнат по-добре; че стремежът ни към саморазрушение ще изчезне."
"Гробовете ги копаят победителите."
April 28, 2021
Somewhere further down that Path, mayhaps long beyond the Crystal Palace of Wizard and Glass, our company of four, plus one billy bumbler, stride nearer to the Tower. How much further down that path? Well, even though they walk by foot, it seems impossibly further than the previous book. In Mid-World, time advances in stutters and steps now, but not nearly as fast as the leaps it is taking in “our” world, as Roland and the gang will find while going “Todash” (gee, I love that term). One thing is for certain. They are not in Kansas anymore, and now I see exactly what King meant after adding book 4.5, thus adeptly filling a small space between the two middle books.
Meanwhile, new faces arise (and an old, familiar one hearkening back to early King that further ties these worlds together - do ya kennit?) from a place called Calla Bryn Sturgis. Like so much of this world, including the books before this, the Calla reminds me of the our Old West (King gives credit where credit is due: Sergio Leone, among the names). This West is now further East? It has become another uncertainty as the beams continue to weaken. Yet one thing is for certain at this point in time in the Calla. Thirty days hence and the Wolves will come, so says Andy the Robot. Once a generation when the children are old enough to take, the wolves come riding out of the blackened east. Men-like things each riding a horse of a singular color. Perhaps this time could be different. Maybe this time the folk will take a stand against the riders, so their twinned-children won't go away, only to come back simple and roont. Call it Ka that is a wheel that four gunslingers venture by so close to the Calla in this time of need.
In Wolves of the Calla, I found the new and old blended together. It's not quite seamless, but it's a very good ride. A lot of time is spent with Callahan explaining his past, but it stands to reason. If he wasn't a major character in King’s world before the Wolves, he became one. And I’ll add that this book feels like a transition point. The path ahead is not yet clear, but the Tower looms somewhere much closer than before. I hadn't remembered the few very clear moments in this story where King provides the clues to the ending, and how it may all play out. It's almost as if Roland knows it too.
Meanwhile, new faces arise (and an old, familiar one hearkening back to early King that further ties these worlds together - do ya kennit?) from a place called Calla Bryn Sturgis. Like so much of this world, including the books before this, the Calla reminds me of the our Old West (King gives credit where credit is due: Sergio Leone, among the names). This West is now further East? It has become another uncertainty as the beams continue to weaken. Yet one thing is for certain at this point in time in the Calla. Thirty days hence and the Wolves will come, so says Andy the Robot. Once a generation when the children are old enough to take, the wolves come riding out of the blackened east. Men-like things each riding a horse of a singular color. Perhaps this time could be different. Maybe this time the folk will take a stand against the riders, so their twinned-children won't go away, only to come back simple and roont. Call it Ka that is a wheel that four gunslingers venture by so close to the Calla in this time of need.
In Wolves of the Calla, I found the new and old blended together. It's not quite seamless, but it's a very good ride. A lot of time is spent with Callahan explaining his past, but it stands to reason. If he wasn't a major character in King’s world before the Wolves, he became one. And I’ll add that this book feels like a transition point. The path ahead is not yet clear, but the Tower looms somewhere much closer than before. I hadn't remembered the few very clear moments in this story where King provides the clues to the ending, and how it may all play out. It's almost as if Roland knows it too.
September 23, 2017
This book took me the longest to get through of the dark tower series, but I blame that more on school than the book itself. I found this book to be fascinating, and so important to the connection of all the worlds and universes surrounding the dark tower. It's funny though, the conflict stated in the title of the book acted more as a clock than an actual tense moment. It was a side quest you knew they were going to win so there wasn't much stress or tension. The real important parts of the story came from the interactions with the calla folk, the hidden object I won't mention because spoiler, and the todash journeys.
Im incredibly excited to complete the 6th and 7th books!
Im incredibly excited to complete the 6th and 7th books!
November 10, 2016
A prequel to a sequel or a sequel to a prequel of a previous Dark Tower “review”.
Both women’s hands moved like a blur as they obliterated their targets - moving and stationary. Their pistols were still smoking as they were returned them to their holsters.
“Well met,” said the fat rancher, as he moved towards the taller of the two women, “and mighty impressive.”
“Thankee, Sai”, said the taller of the two blonde katet members and by her calm and authoritative bearing, obviously the group’s dinh.
“I’m known as Quick Draw and this here”, indicating her straight shooting partner, “is the Rootin’ Tootin’ Pistol Packin’ one. Her name used to be longer, but folks got confused, so we narrowed it.”
“I reckon if yer willin’, we could use yer help against them evil clowns, who’ve been rustlin’ our kittens and turnin’ em into six-legged muties that are lazy and can’t bathe themselves.”
“Jenkies! As gunslingers in the Eld tradition, we’d gladly be of service to ya.”
The rancher eyed the snoring lump, sleeping face down in the dirt. “If it do ya, can I see the big cully do some shootin?”
“He’s a decent shot when he’s sober….” Quick Draw’s voice trailed off.
Rootin’ Tootin’ nudged the slumbering figure with her boot, softly at first, but when that didn’t have any effect, she kicked him much harder.
“N-O-O-M. that spells moon backwards”, blubbered the hulking figure as he scrambled to his feet.
“What in tarnation is he goin’ on bout? Is he one of them roont galoots?
"Probably not, sai, he’s sleepin’ off a two day drunk. Or a devil grass bender. We ain’t entirely sure.”
She turned toward the blinking, half-asleep man and said, “Kindly, do some shootin’ for us, Jumpin’. There’s a cactus over yonder you can shoot and remember the face of yer father.”
“Yer confusin’ me! My daddy could ha’ been the stableman or the deputy or a stuffy guy.”
“More than likely the town idjit”, muttered Pistol Packin’.
“Jes pick a cactus and shoot.”
Jumpin’ shakily raised his pistol and let loose a shot. The shot missed the cactus by a wide margin, ricocheted off a nearby boulder and lodged itself in the fat rancher’s left buttock.
“I cry your pardon,” blurted the shooter.
As the group behind the rancher started muttering angrily, the two blondes hurriedly grabbed the big man set him on his horse and galloped quickly away ignoring the furious shouts from behind them.
“Ka?” came out like a belch from Jumpin’.
“I’ll give ya yer fill of ka later,” shouted Quick Draw.
Both women’s hands moved like a blur as they obliterated their targets - moving and stationary. Their pistols were still smoking as they were returned them to their holsters.
“Well met,” said the fat rancher, as he moved towards the taller of the two women, “and mighty impressive.”
“Thankee, Sai”, said the taller of the two blonde katet members and by her calm and authoritative bearing, obviously the group’s dinh.
“I’m known as Quick Draw and this here”, indicating her straight shooting partner, “is the Rootin’ Tootin’ Pistol Packin’ one. Her name used to be longer, but folks got confused, so we narrowed it.”
“I reckon if yer willin’, we could use yer help against them evil clowns, who’ve been rustlin’ our kittens and turnin’ em into six-legged muties that are lazy and can’t bathe themselves.”
“Jenkies! As gunslingers in the Eld tradition, we’d gladly be of service to ya.”
The rancher eyed the snoring lump, sleeping face down in the dirt. “If it do ya, can I see the big cully do some shootin?”
“He’s a decent shot when he’s sober….” Quick Draw’s voice trailed off.
Rootin’ Tootin’ nudged the slumbering figure with her boot, softly at first, but when that didn’t have any effect, she kicked him much harder.
“N-O-O-M. that spells moon backwards”, blubbered the hulking figure as he scrambled to his feet.
“What in tarnation is he goin’ on bout? Is he one of them roont galoots?
"Probably not, sai, he’s sleepin’ off a two day drunk. Or a devil grass bender. We ain’t entirely sure.”
She turned toward the blinking, half-asleep man and said, “Kindly, do some shootin’ for us, Jumpin’. There’s a cactus over yonder you can shoot and remember the face of yer father.”
“Yer confusin’ me! My daddy could ha’ been the stableman or the deputy or a stuffy guy.”
“More than likely the town idjit”, muttered Pistol Packin’.
“Jes pick a cactus and shoot.”
Jumpin’ shakily raised his pistol and let loose a shot. The shot missed the cactus by a wide margin, ricocheted off a nearby boulder and lodged itself in the fat rancher’s left buttock.
“I cry your pardon,” blurted the shooter.
As the group behind the rancher started muttering angrily, the two blondes hurriedly grabbed the big man set him on his horse and galloped quickly away ignoring the furious shouts from behind them.
“Ka?” came out like a belch from Jumpin’.
“I’ll give ya yer fill of ka later,” shouted Quick Draw.
December 26, 2021
This was really good. Once again King's descriptions are breathtaking. I thought the buildup to the ending was nicely done. Once everything started to come together, I couldn't put it down! Also I thought ending was quite satisfying. Can't wait to see what happens in the next one....
2021 Reread:
I feel like I'm getting so much more out of my second journey to the Dark Tower! I could not imagine reading these books as they were released, having to wait for the next installment to come out. I don't typically handle cliffhangers all that well. This one is very fun and exciting to read! It's probably one of the most adventurous books in the whole series. The world building in this one is beyond elucidation. The word picture King paints here is a tour de force! The suspense is constantly building and the ending is super fulfilling. Aside from Roland and his ka-tet, the characters in this one aren't all that well developed. A few of them were still fairly likable. Some of the others, not so much. Overall this is an enjoyable read and one of my favorites of the series. I look forward to reading the next one!
2021 Reread:
I feel like I'm getting so much more out of my second journey to the Dark Tower! I could not imagine reading these books as they were released, having to wait for the next installment to come out. I don't typically handle cliffhangers all that well. This one is very fun and exciting to read! It's probably one of the most adventurous books in the whole series. The world building in this one is beyond elucidation. The word picture King paints here is a tour de force! The suspense is constantly building and the ending is super fulfilling. Aside from Roland and his ka-tet, the characters in this one aren't all that well developed. A few of them were still fairly likable. Some of the others, not so much. Overall this is an enjoyable read and one of my favorites of the series. I look forward to reading the next one!
January 30, 2020
This 5th book in the Dark Tower series was "the worst" for me so far.
The Ka-tet arrive at the valley town of Calla Bryn Sturgis. The town, at least in my mind, is very Wild West-ish. Lots of farmers and ranchers, a hard life at a sort of frontier. The frontier to what? Well, the Thunderclap - home to "wolves" that steal children in regular intervals from the community (always one of a set of twins). Now, some farmers and ranchers want to rise up while others don't dare. So when the Gunslingers come through the area, they are asked to help.
In the town, our four "heroes" meet Pere Callahan, who turns out to be the priest from King's Salem's Lot. So we get his story in a flashback (all the events since the other novel's end) while the town is explored, people met, secrets uncovered and magical instruments used to visit parallel worlds.
Because another story thread here is what happened to a certain bookstore back in our New York after Jake left to join the Ka-tet. Turns out, he - or, rather, some land he owns - is very important in this epic struggle between for the forces of good and evil.
Honestly, I liked seeing Father Callahan here, but my god, King could have told his story much more quickly. Just like I enjoyed the mystery of this little town and Andy, but that could have passed more quickly as well. The only thread that had the perfect pacing in my opinion was that of NYC and the bookstore.
I am really concerned that !
But I very much like(d) the mystery of what the wolves actually are. Clearly, they work for the Crimson King, the big bad here, but the big questions was WHAT ARE THEY EXACTLY? You know that feeling when reading a Sherlock Holmes story and people believe in magic and stuff and you are following the clues to find a reasonable explanation? It's a bit like that - only, you can't be sure magic ISN'T involved.
The further puzzle pieces we got - such as the significance of the numbers, more about the directive in the tech, why the wolves took the children (and returning them mentally retarded), the connection between the worlds, the black Maerlyn ball as well as those corporations frequently mentioned both in the universe's past and NYC's present - were all very fascinating once again.
Like I said before, this was too drawn out, even for me, even for a SK novel. Callahan's story as well as the preparation of the valley town could have been told much more quickly and it would still have had all the information and suspense. I sincerely considered deducting a star because it was the worst in all the books of the series so far.
Then again, I'm still enjoying the romp through the multiverse, I am still discussing intensely all kinds of theories with my buddy-reader, SK still fascinates me with details such as different bodily features displayed by different personalities of one and the same body (there are scientific studies about this kind of phenomenon where a person's one personality is blind while another isn't, or a person whose's one personality has diabetes while the other hasn't), the people keep me engaged (I either roll my eyes at them or want to kill them, usually) and once there is action, there is no time to breathe.
And then there was this cliffhanger. My god, SK is cruel! Not to mention the introduction of ! I won't continue with the series right away, maybe only on Monday, but I'm glad I don't have to wait for the next volume to be published as that would be torture. I'm obsessing over the story and its details so I guess there is no reason to rate this lower after all.
The Ka-tet arrive at the valley town of Calla Bryn Sturgis. The town, at least in my mind, is very Wild West-ish. Lots of farmers and ranchers, a hard life at a sort of frontier. The frontier to what? Well, the Thunderclap - home to "wolves" that steal children in regular intervals from the community (always one of a set of twins). Now, some farmers and ranchers want to rise up while others don't dare. So when the Gunslingers come through the area, they are asked to help.
In the town, our four "heroes" meet Pere Callahan, who turns out to be the priest from King's Salem's Lot. So we get his story in a flashback (all the events since the other novel's end) while the town is explored, people met, secrets uncovered and magical instruments used to visit parallel worlds.
Because another story thread here is what happened to a certain bookstore back in our New York after Jake left to join the Ka-tet. Turns out, he - or, rather, some land he owns - is very important in this epic struggle between for the forces of good and evil.
Honestly, I liked seeing Father Callahan here, but my god, King could have told his story much more quickly. Just like I enjoyed the mystery of this little town and Andy, but that could have passed more quickly as well. The only thread that had the perfect pacing in my opinion was that of NYC and the bookstore.
I am really concerned that !
But I very much like(d) the mystery of what the wolves actually are. Clearly, they work for the Crimson King, the big bad here, but the big questions was WHAT ARE THEY EXACTLY? You know that feeling when reading a Sherlock Holmes story and people believe in magic and stuff and you are following the clues to find a reasonable explanation? It's a bit like that - only, you can't be sure magic ISN'T involved.
The further puzzle pieces we got - such as the significance of the numbers, more about the directive in the tech, why the wolves took the children (and returning them mentally retarded), the connection between the worlds, the black Maerlyn ball as well as those corporations frequently mentioned both in the universe's past and NYC's present - were all very fascinating once again.
Like I said before, this was too drawn out, even for me, even for a SK novel. Callahan's story as well as the preparation of the valley town could have been told much more quickly and it would still have had all the information and suspense. I sincerely considered deducting a star because it was the worst in all the books of the series so far.
Then again, I'm still enjoying the romp through the multiverse, I am still discussing intensely all kinds of theories with my buddy-reader, SK still fascinates me with details such as different bodily features displayed by different personalities of one and the same body (there are scientific studies about this kind of phenomenon where a person's one personality is blind while another isn't, or a person whose's one personality has diabetes while the other hasn't), the people keep me engaged (I either roll my eyes at them or want to kill them, usually) and once there is action, there is no time to breathe.
And then there was this cliffhanger. My god, SK is cruel! Not to mention the introduction of ! I won't continue with the series right away, maybe only on Monday, but I'm glad I don't have to wait for the next volume to be published as that would be torture. I'm obsessing over the story and its details so I guess there is no reason to rate this lower after all.
June 9, 2017
As my dawdling and ever dwindling ka-tet finally approaches the clearing at the end of the path—praise the Man Jesus—I find myself on the horns of a dilemma. You see, we read Wolves of the Calla nearly a year and a half ago, but I’ve left it unreviewed for a myriad of reasons. Actually . . . no, that’s not entirely true. For some idiotic reason, I began the silly practice of delaying reviews on buddy reads until all, or at least most my friends were finished reading. This delay tactic, commonly referred to as the Delee effect (heh), inevitably led to leaving things unreviewed, unrated, or posting half-assed teasers, which ultimately led to my own demise as a reviewer. Although, to be perfectly honest, unlike Jake Chambers, it wasn’t all that far of a fall . . . but I digress. The point that I’m trying to make is this: As our epic journey together draws to a conclusion, the time for delays is over. It’s time to put up or shut up: goo.gl/bL2kbp
Time to put that elephantine memory to the test.
Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!
When last we checked in on Roland’s ka-tet they had just escaped from Oz—yeah, the story gets stranger by the book. Or, if you bothered to read the controversial Wind Through the Keyhole novel in the proper order, then you last read of the group seeking shelter from a Starkblast, and spending a little more time reminiscing over Roland’s past—yeah, it’s never enough. Either way, the start of our story here sees our fearless ka-tet back along the Path of the Beam, drawing ever nearer to the Dark Tower, until they’re accosted by some townsfolk seeking help.
The locals tell of some strange goings-on in their home town of Calla Bryn Sturgis. They describe a place that has been blessed with an inordinate amount of twin births, but also cursed in that every twenty years or so the “Wolves” ride down from Thunderclap to claim a child, from each set of twins, for their own. The children are eventually returned to their families, once they’ve served their purpose. But whatever horrific things the Wolves do to the poor children transforms them into drooling idiots, or, as the locals would say, renders them “roont.”
The townsfolk are fortunate to have an early warning system, in the form of a friendly helper robot named Andy, who’s able to predict when the Wolves will arrive. His latest forecast calls for imminent doom, which sends the Calla spiraling into full panic. Most folks are simply too frightened to fight back, but there’s a small group attempting to shame the majority into growing a backbone. They’re fed up with the status quo, and are finally ready to take a stand, no matter the cost, as long as the gunslingers are willing to stand alongside them that is . . .
This story initially appeared to be yet another diversion to sidetrack our group from their ultimate goal of reaching the Dark Tower. But as Roland explained, even if that’s the case, it’s a gunslinger’s duty to stand up for those who cannot stand on their own. “Stand and be true.” And, as it just so happened, this leg of the journey later proved to be of vital importance.
This was our first true glimpse at just how bizarre and wide reaching this saga would become. What with Mia’s banquet hall feast *shudders*, Black Thirteen’s creepy monstrous eye, the Unfound Door, the Cave of Voices, going todash, and Pere Callahan’s backstory. The Wolves themselves, along with their outfits and weapons, were oddly curious, but the most shocking event of all occurred in the final act when King kicked a hole in that fourth wall and inexplicably inserted himself directly into the narrative.
There was just so much to this story—it was quite the kitten-squisher—that the good far exceeded the bad. King’s character development was once again on point, but the gun battles were brief and underwhelming. This was the first time we saw Roland really let loose—he sang and danced a furious commala at the town hall celebration, even “stage-dived like Joey Ramone.” However, all of the wear and tear of his long life’s journey was clearly starting to take it’s toll. Lucky for him, the rest of his ka-tet have developed into fully fledged gunslingers, so they were more than capable of taking up the slack. And with so much treachery afoot, he needed all the help he could get.
This installment was an absolute pleasure to read with a ka-tet of my very own, which included: Deadpool’s #1 fan, Mr. Unconventional Reviewer himself, Jeff; Delee, AKA Miss Thaaang was tragically lost at sea 😢; our three church mice: Bev, Jason, and Chris; and, lastly, our dinh, the great sage and eminent Dark Tower junkie, Stepheny.
Cheers, guys. 🍻
Time to put that elephantine memory to the test.
Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!
When last we checked in on Roland’s ka-tet they had just escaped from Oz—yeah, the story gets stranger by the book. Or, if you bothered to read the controversial Wind Through the Keyhole novel in the proper order, then you last read of the group seeking shelter from a Starkblast, and spending a little more time reminiscing over Roland’s past—yeah, it’s never enough. Either way, the start of our story here sees our fearless ka-tet back along the Path of the Beam, drawing ever nearer to the Dark Tower, until they’re accosted by some townsfolk seeking help.
The locals tell of some strange goings-on in their home town of Calla Bryn Sturgis. They describe a place that has been blessed with an inordinate amount of twin births, but also cursed in that every twenty years or so the “Wolves” ride down from Thunderclap to claim a child, from each set of twins, for their own. The children are eventually returned to their families, once they’ve served their purpose. But whatever horrific things the Wolves do to the poor children transforms them into drooling idiots, or, as the locals would say, renders them “roont.”
The townsfolk are fortunate to have an early warning system, in the form of a friendly helper robot named Andy, who’s able to predict when the Wolves will arrive. His latest forecast calls for imminent doom, which sends the Calla spiraling into full panic. Most folks are simply too frightened to fight back, but there’s a small group attempting to shame the majority into growing a backbone. They’re fed up with the status quo, and are finally ready to take a stand, no matter the cost, as long as the gunslingers are willing to stand alongside them that is . . .
This story initially appeared to be yet another diversion to sidetrack our group from their ultimate goal of reaching the Dark Tower. But as Roland explained, even if that’s the case, it’s a gunslinger’s duty to stand up for those who cannot stand on their own. “Stand and be true.” And, as it just so happened, this leg of the journey later proved to be of vital importance.
This was our first true glimpse at just how bizarre and wide reaching this saga would become. What with Mia’s banquet hall feast *shudders*, Black Thirteen’s creepy monstrous eye, the Unfound Door, the Cave of Voices, going todash, and Pere Callahan’s backstory. The Wolves themselves, along with their outfits and weapons, were oddly curious, but the most shocking event of all occurred in the final act when King kicked a hole in that fourth wall and inexplicably inserted himself directly into the narrative.
There was just so much to this story—it was quite the kitten-squisher—that the good far exceeded the bad. King’s character development was once again on point, but the gun battles were brief and underwhelming. This was the first time we saw Roland really let loose—he sang and danced a furious commala at the town hall celebration, even “stage-dived like Joey Ramone.” However, all of the wear and tear of his long life’s journey was clearly starting to take it’s toll. Lucky for him, the rest of his ka-tet have developed into fully fledged gunslingers, so they were more than capable of taking up the slack. And with so much treachery afoot, he needed all the help he could get.
This installment was an absolute pleasure to read with a ka-tet of my very own, which included: Deadpool’s #1 fan, Mr. Unconventional Reviewer himself, Jeff; Delee, AKA Miss Thaaang was tragically lost at sea 😢; our three church mice: Bev, Jason, and Chris; and, lastly, our dinh, the great sage and eminent Dark Tower junkie, Stepheny.
Cheers, guys. 🍻
June 19, 2016
I didn't really realize until I'd picked up this book that I was kind of in a reading funk for a bit. Either that, or this book is just that good. Either way, I had a new life of reading when I picked up Wolves of the Calla. I was sucked right back into the path of the Dark Tower, right along one of the 6 beams. And it's not just sucked in, but I was able to pick back up after a year or two with only my rusty memory of the previous 5 (counting Wind through the Keyhole) books.
Wolves is just what I needed and as much as it moves the plot forward, there's plenty more "stories" to be told. It's not quite as much of a stall as in that last book, Wizard and Glass, but it's quite lengthy. But yet again, as in W&G, I loved every minute of it. Back stories have consistently been my favorite parts and King has a gift for backstory and every character has one, that's why they're so rich and why you care so much when they get ripped away from you. In Wolves I was pretty into both the past and the present, you could count them equal.
I'd heard things about this book, that's it's sub-par compared to the previous books, but I didn't find that to be the case. I had a great time and only wanted more. Some commentary on the ending:
I can't leave this review without pointing out the dialect. I think that's one of the greatest parts of this book. I wanted to use it with everyone around me, it sets such a great ambiance about the area and brings you right into it, yer bugger!
Well played sai King, I can't wait for more. I'd forgotten the face of my father by waiting so long to reenter the path. Thankee sai for this reminder.
4.5 out of 5 Stars (Just under W&G and TW)
Wolves is just what I needed and as much as it moves the plot forward, there's plenty more "stories" to be told. It's not quite as much of a stall as in that last book, Wizard and Glass, but it's quite lengthy. But yet again, as in W&G, I loved every minute of it. Back stories have consistently been my favorite parts and King has a gift for backstory and every character has one, that's why they're so rich and why you care so much when they get ripped away from you. In Wolves I was pretty into both the past and the present, you could count them equal.
I'd heard things about this book, that's it's sub-par compared to the previous books, but I didn't find that to be the case. I had a great time and only wanted more. Some commentary on the ending:
I can't leave this review without pointing out the dialect. I think that's one of the greatest parts of this book. I wanted to use it with everyone around me, it sets such a great ambiance about the area and brings you right into it, yer bugger!
Well played sai King, I can't wait for more. I'd forgotten the face of my father by waiting so long to reenter the path. Thankee sai for this reminder.
4.5 out of 5 Stars (Just under W&G and TW)
September 21, 2021
As a big SK fan I'm disheartened by how unbothered I am about this series. I guess 'rocky' is the word I'd use to describe the experience so far, some books I've loved and others I'm meh about. Having finished this instalment I'm left feeling fine, its fine, the reading experience was fine. No more no less.
What I totally loved about this one is the obvious link up to Salem's Lot. I couldn't believe my eyes to see Callaghan and as soon as he started talking about Ben Mears and Barlow I was rapt. Seeing the multiverse expanding is something special and what is really pushing me along to finish the series.
Plus only SK would write himself into the story, that was pretty epic.
However those parts aside it just felt fine. Totally fine. An acceptable three stars.
With two more books to go am hoping I can get this wrapped up in the next month or two.
What I totally loved about this one is the obvious link up to Salem's Lot. I couldn't believe my eyes to see Callaghan and as soon as he started talking about Ben Mears and Barlow I was rapt. Seeing the multiverse expanding is something special and what is really pushing me along to finish the series.
Plus only SK would write himself into the story, that was pretty epic.
However those parts aside it just felt fine. Totally fine. An acceptable three stars.
With two more books to go am hoping I can get this wrapped up in the next month or two.
July 12, 2023
Lobos del Calla
Quinto libro de la serie de la torre oscura donde el pistolero y su equipo sigue el camino del Haz hasta la torre.
Como en los anteriores episodios de la serie todo es imprevisible, cualquier cosa puede ocurrir al pasar página. Esta vez llegan a un pueblo llamado Calla en el que los pobladores tienen un problema con lobos que les vienen a perturbar cada cierto tiempo.
Hay que resaltar que en esta ocasión, King recupera un personaje conocido de otra de sus obras para darle un papel muy importante en esta historia. El autor hace encaje de bolillos para introducirlo contando su propia aventura, que no está nada mal. Además, tiene casi más papel aquí que en el libro de origen.
No creo que cuando escribió ese libro en los años setenta pensase que algún día lo usaría en otra historia. Pero el camino hacia la Torre ha durado tantos años, escribiendo a la vez un montón de libros entre medias con tantísimos personajes interesantes, que si puede introducir alguno de ellos hace bien. Me pregunto si este hombre cuando escribe, no se confundirá de personajes en sus libros, como en las familias los padres se confunden llamando a sus hijos por el nombre equivocado 😃.
Este libro sigue la tónica de los anteriores intercalando varias historias de personajes que aparecen; unas más entretenidas que otras desde luego. Durante todo el tiempo se crea espectación para saber el desenlace que no defrauda.
Pues habrá que continuar el camino hacia la Torre.
Quinto libro de la serie de la torre oscura donde el pistolero y su equipo sigue el camino del Haz hasta la torre.
Como en los anteriores episodios de la serie todo es imprevisible, cualquier cosa puede ocurrir al pasar página. Esta vez llegan a un pueblo llamado Calla en el que los pobladores tienen un problema con lobos que les vienen a perturbar cada cierto tiempo.
Hay que resaltar que en esta ocasión, King recupera un personaje conocido de otra de sus obras para darle un papel muy importante en esta historia. El autor hace encaje de bolillos para introducirlo contando su propia aventura, que no está nada mal. Además, tiene casi más papel aquí que en el libro de origen.
No creo que cuando escribió ese libro en los años setenta pensase que algún día lo usaría en otra historia. Pero el camino hacia la Torre ha durado tantos años, escribiendo a la vez un montón de libros entre medias con tantísimos personajes interesantes, que si puede introducir alguno de ellos hace bien. Me pregunto si este hombre cuando escribe, no se confundirá de personajes en sus libros, como en las familias los padres se confunden llamando a sus hijos por el nombre equivocado 😃.
Este libro sigue la tónica de los anteriores intercalando varias historias de personajes que aparecen; unas más entretenidas que otras desde luego. Durante todo el tiempo se crea espectación para saber el desenlace que no defrauda.
Pues habrá que continuar el camino hacia la Torre.
January 21, 2018
OH RIZA! I think this might be my favorite (so far) of all the Dark Tower series of books....which says a lot.
If you were to combine a Western film with the TV show LOST with Back to the Future with a Horror film, you would *almost* have the vibe achieved here. There is hardly anything I can say that will not spoil at least PART of the book, so I will simply continue to sing its praises.
That ENDING! King continues to BLOW MY MIND. The way that EVERYTHING he has ever written seems to somehow serve the Dark Tower? Incredible.
The tone of this one (despite all the battle and death) was more light-hearted than the last book, and you fall in love with Roland and his ka-tet all over again. Also, having FATHER CALLAHAN FROM 'SALEM'S LOT' join the cast of characters is wickedly awesome.
WARNING= do not read if you haven't read the previous 4 books or you'll be *ahem*...LOST. 5 Stars, if it do ya.-Jen from Quebec :0)
If you were to combine a Western film with the TV show LOST with Back to the Future with a Horror film, you would *almost* have the vibe achieved here. There is hardly anything I can say that will not spoil at least PART of the book, so I will simply continue to sing its praises.
That ENDING! King continues to BLOW MY MIND. The way that EVERYTHING he has ever written seems to somehow serve the Dark Tower? Incredible.
The tone of this one (despite all the battle and death) was more light-hearted than the last book, and you fall in love with Roland and his ka-tet all over again. Also, having FATHER CALLAHAN FROM 'SALEM'S LOT' join the cast of characters is wickedly awesome.
WARNING= do not read if you haven't read the previous 4 books or you'll be *ahem*...LOST. 5 Stars, if it do ya.-Jen from Quebec :0)
December 12, 2017
My 100th book of the year is done!
I'm not exactly sure why, but I enjoyed this more this time around than I did the first time.
I much prefer this narrator over Frank Muller. (At this end of this audio book, King himself speaks about Frank Muller and why he didn't continue narrating this series-it was due to a motorcycle accident in which he was seriously injured.
(Frank is part of the reason The Haven Foundation was created. It's to help independent authors, narrators and frelancers during times of catastrophe. ) To find out more, please click here: http://www.thehavenfdn.org/
I was sorry to hear about what happened, but I'm glad to have George Guidall back as narrator and I'm looking forward to listening to the next book.
I'm not exactly sure why, but I enjoyed this more this time around than I did the first time.
I much prefer this narrator over Frank Muller. (At this end of this audio book, King himself speaks about Frank Muller and why he didn't continue narrating this series-it was due to a motorcycle accident in which he was seriously injured.
(Frank is part of the reason The Haven Foundation was created. It's to help independent authors, narrators and frelancers during times of catastrophe. ) To find out more, please click here: http://www.thehavenfdn.org/
I was sorry to hear about what happened, but I'm glad to have George Guidall back as narrator and I'm looking forward to listening to the next book.
December 13, 2022
What a totally insane and wonderful book. The Dark Tower continues to impress and be truly one of the strangest things I've ever read in my life. Stephen King is super weird and I love it.
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