Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, Book 5) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Bernie Wrightson (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Time is a face on the water," stretching and contorting reality as gunslingers Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and their talking pet "billy-bumbler" Oy continue their quest to prevent the destruction of the Dark Tower and, consequently, save all worlds from Chaos and the Crimson King's evil, red-eyed glare. Roland-the primary hero of King's epic tale, the first volume of which appeared in 1982-and company momentarily fall off the "Path of The Beam" to help the residents of Calla Bryn Sturgis, a farm town. But as Dark Tower fans know, everything follows The Beam, so what looks like a detour may really serve the will of "ka" (destiny). Roland and his posse learn that every 20-odd years the "Wolves" kidnap one child from each set of the Calla's twins, bring them to the Tower and, weeks later, send them back mentally and physically impaired. Meanwhile, back in 1977 New York City (the alternate world of Roland's surrogate son, Jake), bookstore owner Calvin Tower is being threatened by a group of thugs (readers will recognize them from The Drawing of the Three, 1987) to sell them a vacant lot in midtown Manhattan. In the lot stands a rose, or rather the Rose, which is our world's manifestation of the Dark Tower. With the help of the Old Fella (also known to `Salem's Lot readers as Father Callahan), the gunslingers must devise a plan against evil in both worlds. The task, however, is further complicated as Roland and his gang start noticing behavioral changes in wheelchair-bound, recovered schizophrenic Susannah.As the players near the Tower, readers will keep finding exciting ties between the Dark Tower universe and King's other books, with links to Black House, Insomnia, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Stand, `Salem's Lot and Hearts in Atlantis. The high suspense and extensive character development here (especially concerning Jake's coming-of-age), plus the enormity of King's ever-expanding universe, will surely keep his "Constant Readers" in awe.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Wizard and Glass (1997), volume 4 of King's massive, postapocalyptic, chivalrized western, The Dark Tower, was rather a snooze, not for lack of action but because it was primarily a flashback that drew unmercifully on King's stash of horse-opera cliches. "'S'all very nice," one thought, "but let's move it, Steve!" Volume 5--this book--moves it, despite not getting Roland the Gunslinger much nearer the Dark Tower, taking another big backward glance, and continuing to mine an open pit of oater conceits. Roland's ka-tet--himself and three twentieth-century New Yorkers, all of them now fellow gunslingers--approach a ranching and farming community anticipating a recurrent pestilence. After 23 years, the Wolves are coming from the evil-darkened East to abduct one of every pair of prepubescent twins older than three. The children will be returned, but nearly witless and sterile, doomed to grow immensely and enormously painfully in their middle teens, serve (if not too stupid) as workhorses, and suddenly, painfully wither and die in their early thirties. An erstwhile priest in the community knows what Roland and company are, and he persuades a community to send a committee to ask for their help. Of course, once asked, the code of the gunslinger compels acceptance. Gonna be a humdinger of a fight! Fore and aft of the showdown, King stuffs the book with juice, like the big flashback, in which Pere Callahan reveals his past in . . . 'Salem's Lot. One of the greatest cavalcades in popular fiction is back on track. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 736 pages
• Publisher: Donald M. Grant/Scribner; 1st Trade Ed edition (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880418568
• ISBN-13: 978-1880418567
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (396 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,154 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 5 in The Dark Tower Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but flaws bothered me for the first time, December 25, 2003

By	David Goodwin (Westchester, NY United States) - See all my reviews

(I'll attempt to make this review spoiler-free, but I can't give any promises)

I'm aware that the crowd here is fairly rabid, so I'll get the obligatory positive points out of the way. I've read almost everything Mr. King has written up 'til the point, and I firmly believe that he will be lauded in retrospect (laudation always seems to occur in retrospect) as one of the preeminent writers of his generation. His prose is artful, his characters believable, and his stories spell-binding, and the Dark Tower is no exception. It is, as he has frequently said, the lynchpin around which his universe revolves.

In recent years, however, I've seen this as becoming more of a crutch than anything else. Mr. King has been inserting Dark Tower-isms into everything he's written as of late, and while I don't necessarily mind this particular conceit, it frequently comes off occasionally as something he simply cannot escape doing (like that legendary gag about how every William Shatner TV appearence includes the word "Klingons" somewhere). "Black House" disappointed me by turning the vibrant and original world of the "Territories" that he and Peter Straub created in "The Talisman" into just another adjunct of the Dark Tower universe. I was hoping, then, that the actual followup to the series would solve the problem a bit, at the very least making all of these tie-ins worthwhile.

"Wolves of the Calla," then, is something of a mixed experience. For the first time, a Dark Tower book feels like it's being written long after previous installments. References to the previous books in the series feel forced, almost of a "hey, remember when *that* happened?" sort; if one follows Mr. King's advice and picks up this book after refreshing on the previous four, many of these references feel unnecesary and oddly out-of-character for our forward-looking troupe. Additionally, I lost count of the times exchanges of obligatory "casual reference to another world meets with confusion which is dispelled with a knowing 'never mind'" occured. King mostly avoids his tendency to "overforeshadow" this time around ("He walked down the street for what would be his last time as a human being with two arms"), which is a nice surprise.

So let's see. Two paragraphs of criticism...wow. The flaws of "Wolves of the Calla" are a shame, because King's written another excellent story. While parallels to the *other* grand epic in the current mindset are usually discouraged with regard to King's tale, I can't help but note that this is the "Two Towers" of his series. "Woves of the Calla" finds the main journey arc on pause as character development and exposition come to the fore, but King's talents at characterization and humanization mean that this is a welcome variation from the previous installments. Some have written justifiably on issues of pacing (the book's final showdown is left to the last fifty pages), but this is besides the point; "Wolves of the Calla" is less about the conflict of the villagers than it is about demonstrating how our protagonists have changed over the course of these five books. And at showing this King succeeds brilliantly.

The verdict? "Wolves of the Calla" is an excellent addition to the ongoing series, and its somewhat bizarre cliffhanger (which is no secret by now, finding King magnifying his joy of author-insertion to some previously-unrecognized levels) is sure to keep people looking forward to the next volume. "Wolves" feels a bit rusty at times--King has become so proficient at oblique references to the Dark Tower series that the book's *direct* references to the mythology feel forced--but at worst it feels like it was perhaps underedited. If you're a fan of the Dark Tower, you won't be disappointed. If you're a casual browser...well, you might want to start at the beginning.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True to the spirit of this series, January 18, 2004

By	Sarah T. Hosge "Dyslexic Librarian" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Maybe not the best in the series...I still think the fourth book holds that place, but well worth the wait.

It is in this book we see the characters finally work together as trained Gunslingers. Each of the characters has a pressing problem and hardship in their lives, and yet they must put them aside to help the children of the Calla . How these characters deal with their own monumental problems and act as true heroes at the same time is a reflection of the fact they have become true gunslingers, following Roland.

King also takes the opportunity to let this book show us more of Roland's world and culture. I found the dance Roland did at the start of the book fascinating, and the society of goddess worshiping disk throwing women seemed like they might have walked out of the pages of Roman Mythology. King does a great job rounding the culture, and giving us views of the world just as if we were reading a historical fiction, instead of high fantasy.

Wolves of the Calla, at 736 pages, is the longest yet of the series. But the length is justified as King takes time to create characters and places so real, you feel as if you might have been there before in some odd and half forgotten dream. He builds suspense to the final battle with the Wolves, and then makes that battle as fast, and horrible as any real war skirmish.

Many complained about the references to pop culture, Kings other works, and aspects of the "real" world, but I thought they only served to make the idea of the Tower as an axis of reality more believable. Making himself a real, yet invisible character in the book gave me a little shiver, after all...if King is real in that world so am I and all his readers. Heh heh heh. It only served to make the sense of so many realities tied in one moment of fate more grand.

King also makes the themes of choices and payment for those choices central. Lives are altered forever by the Calla's choice to go along with the Wolves so long. Susannah's brave choice of using her sexuality as a weapon against the portal demon in book 3 is now coming due for payment as the birth of her monstrous child approaches. The choice the Father makes in forcing Roland's hand to not offer Susannah an abortion is about to be paid. Yet, King doesn't moralize these choices. He shows each character as someone who simply made the best choice they could. There is a great tragedy in this, and also a great beauty.

I recommend this to anyone who has found their hearts tied to the fate of the brave little Ka-Tet. To anyone who has not read the others, go back to book one first and take the journey to this one. Only then will you truly understand the path that these brave gunslingers have walked so far, to save the tower and all realities. And you will understand how far the along the path they really have still to go.

Hold on to your horses, kids. Its going to be a hell of a ride.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're missing out if you aren't reading this series!, January 25, 2004

By	AMC "scifiali" (Atlanta, Ga) - See all my reviews

Stephen King's fans who don't read the Dark Tower series are really missing out. The "Wolves of Calla" is an impressive, well-written, story that raises questions King has been giving us in other works and ties in one of his very first stories in a unique way.

The suspense and drama of the books are fantastic, but I think it's the characters that really set this series apart. In "Wolves of the Calla", each member of the ka-tet has agonizing personal choices to make and their decisions, sometimes flawed, sometimes heroic, make this series something beyond classification. This isn't a drawn-out epic fantasy or a gimmicky tie in of other novels. Like "Wizard and the Glass" this novel is memorable both in itself and in what is does for the series storyline.

Jake is growing up. The Gunslinger is growing a heart (has been for some time). He's also losing some of his physical abilities, but he's a much more interesting character than when he started out. Susannah's latest personality would defy belief if written by any other writer, but Stephen King handles her masterfully. And Eddie the former junkie is now the one that's desperate to hold the group together. The battle to project a town's children against seemingly unstoppable "wolves" is just one part of the story.

The stakes are raised at the conclusion of this installment by a new character with his own stunning background added to mix and Stephen King tantalizes us with the first real glimpse of how this serious might conclude. I hate the spoilers, so that's all I'll say.

Don't miss it.