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

Rating:
Summary: Sprawling is not the word for this book and series.
Review: I have read all of Stephen King's other books, including the earlier volumes of the Dark Tower series. As much as I like King, the Dark Tower series -- particularly the last two -- could use some serious editing. The Wolves of Calla has three plot lines going. Of these one -- the confrontation with the wolves of the title -- is resolved in this long book. The other two are left hanging in midair at the conclusion. This is frustrating, even though King has stated he has written the remaining two books in the series in rough draft, and they are to be released in 2004.

It's interesting to contrast this book with King's excellent "On Writing." One would have to conclude that Wolves of Calla should be much shorter. Far too much of the story is dragged out at extreme length; in "On Writing," King advised that a second draft should always be 10% shorter than the first draft. If he followed this rule, then I would hate to see the first draft of Wolves of Calla. Indeed, the entire series has been written at great length.

It would be one thing if the book ended with a well-written confrontation with the Wolves. However, that confrontation is disposed of in a few pages, despite the hundreds of pages leading up to it. King really doesn't seem interested in it. At one point, Roland says that the shooting will be over in 5 minutes, and that seems accurate. King's real interest here seems to be setting up plots for the upcoming two books.

However, I am not saying that this book is a waste of time. Anyone interested in the series will have to read it. And there are sections that are well-written and engage the reader. I never had much of a desire to put the book down. When I did finish it, however, I did not take much from the book. And economy has never been one of King's virtues. He seems to enjoy cramming his novels with as many incidents as possible, even if they stray from the main plot line. I have often found these tangents, while stucturally awkward, one of the pleasures of reading King. Sometimes they work here, sometimes they don't.

Certainly King is stretching himself in the Dark Tower series. If this were the only thing he had ever written, I would expect he would have had difficulty in getting it published. This is not a criticism of the series; much of the problem would have been his original mixture of Western and Fantasy elements in the same book. Most publishers want fiction to fit neatly into genres, and King refuses to do that.

Anyhow, while this book is an improvement over its predecessor in the series, it hardly ranks with King's best. It's worth a read, if only to keep up with the series -- which will be an amazing length when completed. Let's hope he returns to form for volumes VI and VII.

Rating:
Summary: Excellant...But
Review: I started reading DT when there were just two of them. Since then I have waited years for new DT books, waited with frustration at times. So now DT 5 comes out and I purchase it right away. Less than a week later I am finished and ready for the next one. But first I would like to list just a few things I found lacking in this edition, not all of them among the hashed and rehashed reviews before this one.
First of all, as the book got closer and closer to the end I kept asking myself when the wolves would arrive. I couldn't believe how little is dedicated to the wolves. And when the do finally arrive it is over way too quickly. I asked myself "Is that it?" when it was finished.
Father Callahan's back story was interesting, especially when compared to the adventures of Ralph Roberts in "Insomnia". But it was a little long at times. It needed to be there but not in such excess.
I have no problems with Stephen putting himself in the series. That has been rumored since around the time DT II came out. At the time I didn't think much of the rumor but now I see it just might be so. I'm still waiting for an appearance of Jack Sawyer, the kid at the end of "Insomnia" (I forget his name), Speedy Parker, Dinky Burnshaw ("Everything's Eventual" King said he was a part of the series), Pennywise the Clown (He dies in "IT", but mention must be made that in "Dreamcatcher" someone seems to think that he is not dead after all), Brautigan (He's free again according to "Bleak House" but that doesn't mean he's in our world. He might be in New York '77, who knows), and maybe even the little bald doctors featured so oddly in "Insomnia".
DT 5 isn't the best of the lot (I give that honor to "Drawing of the Three" although "Gunslinger Revised" comes close), but it's not the worst. After "The Wastelands" I was sick and tired of cliff hangers in this series so the ending was kind of frustrating but at least I won't have seven darned years to wait for the resolution of this one. If anyone wants to comment on this review, e-mail me at [e-mail]. Title the e-mail, Dark Tower, and I'll be sure to read it and respond in return. Thanx, Tyler.

Rating:
Summary: Book 6 better be good!!
Review: First of let me say I am a big DT fan and loved the first 4 books and I have been waiting for a couple of years for King to get around to finishing the series before he went off to the clearing at the end of the path. Now I am a little worried that he is completing it just to finish or he has lost his touch. I dont understand the good reviews this book is getting (I think most of his fans like whatever he publishes, he could have his dog type something and slap his name on it and you will see 100 reviews saying how good it is) - it was boring and a torture to get through. I would have quit if I was not addicted to the Tower and Roland's ka-tet. I must say that I am generally not a big fan of King's other works - he is long-winded and that was the main problem with this book. Who the hell cares about Father Calhanan? If King wants to write a book about him let him write Salem's Lot 2 not stick this boring character into the DT series. 1/3 of the book is just repeating the same crap and going through Calhanan's story - nothing advances about the main characters and there is no flashbacks about Roland's past (ok - there is one but it seemed like he just stuck it in) and the final insult was Roland getting arthiritis - by the end of the series he is going to be drooling in a wheelchair, the mystery and darkness of Roland from book 1 has been slowly washed away making him just another character.
Anyway if you are DT fan you have no choice but to read the book but I hope that King gets it together and gets the magic back for the rest the series. I do have my concerns .. he has rewritten book 1 to correct the "mistakes and arrogance of his youth", but the result is not good. This is where he introduces this fetish with the number 19, which is just irritating. I think he has some corny ending in mind about himself tied to the tower (i.e. his mind is the source of all the worlds in his fiction) and since he got the idea for DT and Roland at the age of 19 there is the source of this stupid idea. The next book should have more about Roland's past so I hope it is half as good as Book 4.

Rating:
Summary: Getting There...
Review: As a bona fide King junkie, I can tell all DT fans that they are going to enjoy this latest edition. That being said, you really have to wonder how SK is going to pull everything together in just two more volumes. The latest version returns us from Roland's youth (DT4: Wizard and Glass) and back into the present storyline, with the gang coming across an old Western-style town similar to that of the River Crossing (from DT3: The Wastelands). Confronted with a crisis in the town--and another one in a version of New York with the Rose--the gunslinger gang meets up with a past character from 'Salem's Lot to battle past and present evil. Pretty damn compelling, especially if you enjoyed Father Callahan from Salem's Lot, one of King's great fallen heroes! This installment promted me to go back and read the entire series. Can't wait for the next one!

Rating:
Summary: Stephen King Has Created a Spellbinding Epic!
Review: If you have not read the first four books in the Dark Tower series, you don't even want to begin reading WOLVES OF THE CALLA: The Dark Tower V. There has been quite a history built up over the previous four volumes and WOLVES OF THE CALLA is not the place to jump aboard, believe me. There is a preface entitled "The Final Argument" that provides an excellent summary of what has gone before, but it is, by the nature of the beast, incomplete (how do you summarize 1,700 pages in only six?). By all means, purchase this volume, all 700 plus pages of it, with its gruesomely lovely illustrations by the incomparable Bernie Wrightson, as your investment will at this point and late date inspire you to read what has gone before and whet your appetite for what is to come.

And once you have done that...

WOLVES OF THE CALLA continues the saga of Roland the Gunslinger and his quest for the Tower, but the withal of this volume is a divergence. The assistance of Roland, Jake, and Eddie and Susannah Dean is sought by the residents --- at least some of the residents --- of rural Calla Bryn Sturgis on the borderlands of Mid-World. Roughly every twenty years, a raiding party known as The Wolves of Thunderclap ride through Calla, taking one from each set of twins who have come of age. The abducted twin is returned a few weeks later, horribly changed both mentally and physically. There are those who want to stand and fight and those who fear the worst if they should do so. The Wolves are due in thirty days and Roland and his party, deadly but outnumbered, must devise a plan.

Susannah, in the meantime, has a darkness growing within her that she only dimly senses, an evil that is tended to by Mia, yet another personality, and this one perhaps is the most deadly and dangerous of them all. Roland is aware of the personality; indeed, its manifestation is vintage Stephen King, and I assure you that the description could gag a maggot.

The most interesting manifestation in WOLVES OF THE CALLA, however, is that of Reverend Donald Callahan, last seen catching a Greyhound bus for New York City in SALEM'S LOT, now a resident of Calla Bryn Sturgis. Callahan has some tales to tell. And indeed, if there was to be a sequel to SALEM'S LOT (supposedly planned, rumored to be written but ultimately abandoned) it may well be contained within the pages of WOLVES OF THE CALLA. King continues to join the tapestries of two world continuities while joining yet a third. Does the name Richard Bachman ring a bell? Additionally, more of the destiny of The Rose is revealed, paving the way for THE SONG OF SUSANNAH and THE DARK TOWER, the final two novels in the series.

The tale of The Dark Tower requires substantial investments both materially and temporally; it is understandable, in a sense, why the volumes comprising this tale tend to be less read than King's other works. Yet The Dark Tower may well be the key, the Rosetta stone if you will, to King's entire mythos. Individuals with more time and intelligence than I possess will undoubtedly ferret out each and every reference and cross-reference between the Tower works and the remainder of King's bibliography.

Taken on their own, however, The Dark Tower volumes and WOLVES OF CALLA are spellbinding in their own right for the way that King has constructed this other world that may or may not be our own down to the last nuance. The colloquialisms employed by the inhabitants of Mid-World are also close enough to our own that they can find themselves being slipped into ordinary conversation (I absentmindedly told my wife "Thankee!" over dinner last night and she almost dropped a casserole). If you have yet to jump onto the epic that is The Dark Tower, the time to do so is now. Just don't use WOLVES OF CALLA as a point of departure.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Rating:
Summary: Mayhap clarifying Mr. King's insinuation of his writing...
Review: ...into the storyline.
As well as the Harry Potter/related references.
Now, King's done this prior in the DT series. Shardik from TWL, the Oz bits in WaG. Maybe more. So referencing Harry Potter, Dr. Doom(?) and the like isn't that odd. As for the Salem's Lot one... well, let's grant that Stephen King doesn't fancy himself to be the best of writers. So why would he refrain from doing with some of his own work what he's done with the work of others a la the above mentioned? If one of the other four exactly DT (and not just DT-connected) books had been mentioned, I probably wouldn't advance this theory, because then it would be sort of like saying that King is this great psychic being who has learned of the Dark Tower, et. al. or something. But since he didn't...
Now I saw a rumor about Mr. King inserting himself personally into the story in a later book, but until that happens, it is most fair to be undecided as to the matter.

As to why I rated this 3/5 stars... Eddie's little "kill the wives and kids" thing was rather disturbing (blah blah, I'm so pathetic). Furthermore the story didn't flow very well in certain ways, in my opinion (mainly the ka-tet's supposed dissolution). Having endured Robert Jordan's refusal to explain nearly any of his world's mysteries, detours into New York, etc. don't bother me, because at least we've been given something to go on about that rose, for example, unlike the decaying seals from the Wheel of Time series.

Rating:
Summary: The End Is Nigh
Review: With The Wolves of Calla, Stephen King continues his Dark Tower epic, the one story he's been working on since the beginning of his career (as a matter of fact, his WHOLE body of work seems to have been crafted with the series in mind). And the good news is, the book is great. Amazing even. The sad news is, this book only means that the end of the series is coming soon. Too soon.

In Wolves of the Calla, we find Roland, Jake, Susan and Eddie continuing their trek following the events at the end of Wizard and Glass. Their journey brings them to the town of Calla. The citizens of the Calla are looking for help; every twenty years or so, wolf-like creatures come into the town and steal many of the children. When they are returned, the children come back brain dead and completely empty. Now that they've learn the wolves will soon be coming, they ask Roland and his ka-tet for help and protection.

It is in Calla that they encounter Father Callahan, a character that was first featured in King's Salem's Lot. The Father joins them in their misison and gives them a very useful but dangerous tool that will help them travel through the different worlds. This tool comes in handy when they realize they will have to go back to New York circa 1976 to protect the rose that stands on that empty lot, a rose that could in fact be the tower itself.

Full of imagination and great wit, Wolves of the Calla shows that King hasn't lost his touch. The book is rich in ideas, and borrows freely from pop culture; Harry Potter, Star Wars, DC Comics, The Wizard of Oz and Stephen King himself are all featured prominently in the novel. All of it only makes this book greater than it already is. The pacing is quick, the writing tight, and the story very suspenseful. There is never a dull moment in Wolves (the parts where Father Callahan recalls his story might very well be some of King's finest writing).

This installment in the Dark Tower series will not disappoint. It can easily be read as a sole effort, but will be better understood as a part of this amazing ongoing series. I can't wait to read the next installment, but dread the day when I will turn the last page of the last Dark Tower book. That might very well be the saddest moment of my life.

Rating:
Summary: Stephen King Please Retire
Review: I am so sick of this story, I can tell Mr.King is just reaching for storylines the whole story is getting so idiotic. He should have written one book and left it at that. I liked the characters at first then as the story dragged on I hoped Oy would become a giant and eat all of them and let out a huge burp!Bag of Bones was passable, at least he didn't drag it out to 4 or 5 books. I think he's lost his touch, but there comes a time when we must all leave the party. He is a multi-millionare and should relax and enjoy his money. He's written alot of excellent stories, I don't take anything away from the talent he had. But retire while you still on top. Give someone else a chance to become world famous and wealthy. Don't be greedy, you had your place in the sun it's time to give someone else a chance.

Rating:
Summary: An annoyed ¿Constant Reader¿
Review: Just finished The Dark Tower V.
I enjoyed it while I was reading, but now that I'm done I'm starting to feel like a sucker. This book teaches me a lesson; never recommend a series to my friends until it is complete. After reading the epilogue, I dropped 'Wolves of the Calla' in disgust, then had to scrub at the sink for ten minutes to get the ink stains off my hands.
What a horrible ending. HATED all the winks to pop culture. And the self referential stuff was even worse. Right now at stephenking.com there is a pop up animation of the author's head. First it plugs the new Dark Tower book, then it just floats there on the screen, following the movements of your mouse with it's eyes. Trust me, it is the scariest thing from Stephen King in ten years. And I feel like it's laughing at us.
I understand King will be making an appearance as a character in the series (wearing jeans and Chuck Taylors, I'm sure.) I hope Roland fills him full of lead for messing with his character.
What was up with the Gunslinger in this book? He had some great moments, but what happened to him being a 'Tower Junkie?' His quest seems to be loosing steam, when it should be gaining intensity. I thought the device of the Doorway Cave was the only concrete step the Ka-Tet took towards the Dark Tower, and it felt both under-developed and contrived.
The scenes set in New York City were repetitive and boring. King once joked that he could publish his shopping list and it would sell. As I followed the characters while they ran errands through Manhattan, I felt the author was following through on his threat.
For me, the best part of the book was the defense of the Calla. I enjoyed the western style heroics, and thought the final battle worked pretty well. This time I was really grooving on Eddie as a character, and Jake and Oy were as good as ever. For my part, I enjoyed the inclusion of Pere Callahan, and his interesting post-Salem's Lot history. I am undecided on the Mia story line.
King has used the character of Susannah Dean in some really strange ways throughout the series, and I am 'hongry' to see where he is going with all of it. I think Susannah is a fascinating character, but sometimes the subtext surrounding her baffles me. She is the second character in a Stephen King novel whose sole purpose during a battle scene is to provide sex . If you have read IT, you know the super weird scene with young Beverly Marsh I am referring to.
But now I'm just nit-picking. I figure I would forgive all if it weren't for that awful ending.
It's not that I am opposed to the idea of metafiction, or breaking down the 'fourth wall.' But the Dark Tower was never presented as "Adaptation." From the start, we were asked to take this quest seriously, and as readers, we responded. It seems a bit late in the game for the author to start winking at us.
To end on a positive note, I thought it was very cool of Stephen King to dedicate the book to Frank Muller, who read all of the audio versions of The Dark Tower to such incredible effect. Actually, Wolves of the Calla was the first book in the series I have read. Up until now, I had the pleasure of listening to the audio versions performed by Muller, an amazingly talented storyteller. If you read the Afterwards, you know Frank Muller was in a terrible motorcycle accident recently, and is still recovering. Despite my opinions of the novel, I think Stephen King is a stand up guy for donating all income from the audio version of Calla to a foundation set up for Frank.

Rating:
Summary: Wolves was definently worth the wait!
Review: Wolves of the Calla, although a little slow at first, proved to answer a lot of questions for fans of the Dark Tower series. I was very curious about the outcomes of several plot twists in Wizard and I got some answers. However, I was left having more questions! I can hardly wait till the next segment comes out to find out what happens next. I really enjoyed the comeback of Father Callahan, who was one of my favorite characters in Salem's Lot! And of course there's always Randall Flagg, a.k.a. The Crimson King to start all kinds of trouble for the gunslingers. I would recommend this book, but I would read the other books in the series before tackling this one!