Rating: 
Summary: Dangerous read
Review: I had troubl putting this one down even when it was late and I knew I had to get to work. I have read almost all of Stephen King's books, but this series is the best yet. The only others that come close are the Stand and It. I am now almost all the way through Song of Susannah and it is nearly as dangerous as this one.
Rating:
Summary: 5+! one of the best in series!
Review: I loved the come back of Dark Tower! Wolves of Calla was one of my favorite in the series (together with #4 and #1). Just read it and ya`ll see!
Rating:
Summary: The Last Gunslinger & His Katet
Review: I thought this book was very good. A good suspenseful tale Along the Path of the Beam and well worth the wait. If I would've had reason to believe I would have to wait another 10-15 years before the next one, then I guess I would've wanted a story that came across as a little more important, as opposed to feeling like this was just a sidebar (despite all the things we discovered.) But since all the other books are done, it gave me the luxury of being able to enjoy this book on it's own merits without feeling frustrated about the series as a whole. Good Read! The only thing I didn't like was the incredibly, disappointingly BAD illustrations from the legendary Bernie Wrightson. What in the world happened, Bernie?! I agreed with another reviewer who said it was like he never even SAW a black woman before. Yikes!
Rating: 
Summary: Could Not Put it Down
Review: If you have been hooked on the Dark Tower series, you should be longing to get your hands on this one.
The hero Rowland and his companions are still on their quest to reach the Dark Tower, but are repeatedly thwarted by problems.
This time a local farming community has been warned that the deadly Wolves of Thunderclap are coming back to wreak havoc and vengeance on their lands. The farmers desperately need Roland and his fellow gunslingers to protect them, but it is vital that Roland does not lose sight of his original goal.
Can they be successful in two missions?
This is classic Stephen King.
Rating: 
Summary: A shallow piece of work !!
Review: If you read the prologue and the LAST chapter in this book, you have essentially read the whole plot. What's in between is just materials to fatten up the book, and does NOT contribute AT ALL to the story of the Dark Tower or about the main characters. Having reading this book, you won't have any greater insights into any of the characters.
This is a sharp contrast to the previous 4th book, which I very much enjoy except the ending where the characters turns into plastic and the dialogue turns to mush. This 5th book is a continuation of that cheesy, unrealistic set of dialogues that just makes you wonder what really happenned to Stephen King.
Rating:
Summary: The quest continues . . .
Review: J.R.R. Tolkien has Middle Earth. C.S. Lewis has Narnia. Frank Herbert has Dune.Each of the preceding authors has done something miraculous within the confines of fiction. They have created entire, living, breathing worlds, worlds that exist only on the page, yet through the force of their writing, the worlds somehow exist beyond the white of paper, just next to us, waiting for us to visit if only we could find the key. They are fully-realized, fully-articulated universes, at once bewilderingly odd yet surprisingly familiar, wholly separate from our reality and yet somehow integral to the way we view ourselves. Stephen King is slowly evolving his own conception of the world next door. First truly explored in THE TALISMAN, and eventually encompassing almost everything he's written, King is developing his own mythos, an amalgam of almost everything he can think of, a mingling of fantastical monsters, science-fiction robots, feudal England, and Itallian spaghetti westerns. Under the Tolkienesque shadow of a black place of evil called the Dark Tower, King presents a ka-tet (fellowship) of one gunslinger, three apprentices, and a raccoon/beagle hybrid, on a quest to save not their world, but all worlds. King names this land Mid-World, and like the countries and planets of those who have preceded him, it is a marvellous place to visit. However, unlike his precursors, there is a palpable sense that he's just making it up as he goes along. King's ka-tet, by now familiar to eager readers, is led by Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger. On his quest are three apprentices from different worlds, worlds far more familiar to readers than Mid-World. Eddie, Susanna, and Jake are all refugees from New York, although quite possibly not the same New York. There are many worlds, after all. The ka-tet takes a side journey to the tiny hamlet of Calla. There, in the best tradition of THE SEVEN SAMURAI and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, they agree to aid the locals in their battle against fearsome creatures, mysterious riders who appear every twenty-three years to kidnap one twin of every pair. As a twin birth is not rare, but rather the norm, the town is almost utterly destroyed as a result. Very early on in his stories, King made the decision to weave together disparate strands of his multitude of novels, combining characters and themes into one enormous tale. Novels such as THE STAND, ROSE MADDER, and IT have all made appearances in one form or another. The tradition continues in WOLVES, as King reaches decades back to 'SALEM'S LOT, reviving a character long thought lost, becoming an integral element in Roland's quest. As per usual, king excels in his creation of character and place. His ka-tet, continually evolving throughout the narratives, has become as familiar to readers as the immortal likes of Frodo Baggins and Gandalf. Roland in particular is a magnificent titan, a killing machine who will sacrifice all he loves to complete his search. Yet there lacks an internal logic to the bizarre goings-on. While LORD OF THE RINGS was nowhere near a perfect piece of literature (the dialogue is laughably bad), it succeeded in its establishment of an entire world, with its own rules and logic. THE DARK TOWER series keeps throwing curve-balls at the reader, keeping them confused. Roland would blame this on time slowly unravelling, or his version of fate, "ka", or on any number of things King keeps inserting to explain his narrative's connivances. But it becomes an irritant, a mosquito buzzing in the ear, as if King is having us on. Nevertheless, the story is so well told that King manages the ideal purpose of such a story; he leaves the reader craving more, wondering "What's next?" Mid-world is a marvellous land of magic and science, and visiting it is a mature treat. Just don't go looking for rationality. Oh, well. Maybe the next one . . .
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a return to the quest for the Dark Tower
Review: Long-time King fans like myself have eagerly awaited this sequel for many years, and for the most part, the master storyteller does not disappoint. After focusing on Roland's past in the previous installment, Wizard and Glass, in Wolves of the Calla, King returns to the present-day challenges facing Roland and his companions, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy. Much like in The Wastelands (the third book of the series), Wolves of the Calla tells the story not only of the ongoing quest for the Dark Tower but also of a more immediate predicament--in this case, the plight of the town of Calla Byrn Sturgis. King tantalizes the reader through brief returns to the New York City setting as well as glimpses of the tasks which lie ahead of the gunslingers in the future. In addition, dedicated King followers will appreciate the tie-ins with other King works, namely 'Salem's Lot. Although not quite as captivating as the second two books in the series, Wolves of the Calla is a satisfying continuation of this fascinating saga which will whet the reader's appetite for the two remaining Dark Tower novels, both of which are scheduled to be published in 2004.
Rating:
Summary: CALLA IN NEED OF AN EDITING -- BUT A GOOD READ
Review: Of the 7 book series, this, book 5 ,is the second best behind #2, DRAWING OF THE THREE. Not because Roland, Jake, Eddie, and Susannah return, but more in spite of it. The stand-out character in this edition is Father Callahan, the priest from SALEM'S LOT. His story following the demise of the Lot is memorizing and the most interesting part of WOLVES. Dealing with the remnants of type 3 vampires and the Low Men from HEART OF ATLANTIS kind of ran off with the story.
Here, Roland and company make like the Magnificent 7, rolling into Calla Bryn Sturgis, a farm town plagued every 19 years or so by the Wolves. Doctor Doom look-a-likes who take one of every pair of twin children, for some fiendish purpose. The stories of Roland, Jake, Eddie and Susannah have grown stale in Roland's quest for the Dark Tower. Perhaps killing off the ka-tet would have been most merciful for the reader. Each book should start with Roland meeting and employing new characters to get killed off in his quest.
SK has pushed the made-up language of Roland's earth to the limit. If I read "Thankee, sai" or "commala" or "ken" one more time I'm going to scream. I don't understand what those annoying tag-lines add to the story. Also annoying is the turn of SK injecting himself into the story. You've got to be kidding me.
This book could stand a good editing out of about 200 pages. That done it would be flawless. Now that Susannah has come up pregnant with the demon seed and fled to give birth I have to read what happens next. I hope the next two books are tighter than this one, but WOLVES is well worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Limited but vast.
Review: Ok, if your a fan of the Gunslinger novels you realize how King relates the majority of his books to this series. It's actually kinda sick how over a 30 year career King can interelate the majority of his books to this series. (Being a Gunsliner fan but not a King fan as a whole, I'll tell you that this book makes me waht to read 2 or 3 King books from the past due to the interconnections) While this book is extremely limited in it's storlyine it is an EXCELLENT story that continues the gunslinger experience and does a tremendous job of foreshawdowing the future. By the end of the book you realize that Roland and the gang are inches away from the Dark Tower in the entire scheme. The only problem is that until this point, the series has taken too long to develop and King is a little behind in the times. He makes current pop culture references in each novel, but it seems to be for shock value/coolness/relativity instead of fitting the era of the past novels here. The Gunslinger began about 10-15 years ago and stays with the eras introduced there (which is great to keep the storyline) but at the same time King tries to include recent literature phenomenom that doesn't fit the bill. (sorry, when a series takes this long to be published it's hard to keep with the times and King incorporates technology that was cutting edge in book 3 but is now lame in book 5 but at the same time appears to have made last second changes to incorporate modern culture) It's great, but at the same time unfortunate, that a series that in the end will define KING, took too many years to finish and when he releases the last 3 out of 7 books in the series, over a year and a half makes (KING says the 6th and final book will be realesed next year) the first 4 books dated and the last 3 books (assuming the last two hit on current tech and lit) vastly different. Regardless, KING sticks to the original beauty of all the characters and "The Wolves of the Calla" makes you want to re-read the entire series. OUT OF EVERY FANTASY SERIES I'VE READ KING IS THE ONLY ONE THAT SLOWLY BUT SURELY INCORPORATES ENOUGH BACK STORY TO ALLOW YOU TO RECALL THE PREVIOUS 4 BOOKS.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite dissapointing
Review: Stephen King is my favourite author and I have read most of his books and enjoyed almost all of them, my favourite is the dark tower series especially Wizard and Glass. I wonder if the reason I enjoyed Wizard and Glass so much was because it is not really about the ka-tet but about Roland who is by far the most interesting character. A problem I have had with the last three dark tower books is that I find Suzzanna and Eddie esentially unlikeable. It is hard to take them seriously as gunslingers. It is also hard to root for characters you don't like. So this problem continued with Wolves of the Calla - eddie and suzzannah are no more likeable in this book than they were in the others. Wolves fo the Calla take us to a small town that is besieged every 20 or so year by mysterious creatures that abduct the towns children and send them back permantly damaged. The ka-tet is asked to help save the children from this happening again. It introduces what will apparantly be a key character Pere Callahan who featured in 'Salems Lot. I have enjoyed the references to Kings other books but feel that Callahans tale is kind of dull and makes the story line messy. At times I felt quite frustrated with this book - it sometimes felt like it was written by someone else. I also found the references to the number 19 a bit ridiculous. To be honest I had to force myself to read this and it took me several weeks with whole days going by when i did not pick it up at all, unlike the first four books which I read (all of them) in less then 2 weeks and could not put them down. So on the whole very disappointing but the last 100 pages or so were more interesting and by the time I had finished I had reaserted my desire to complete the series. THe last 100 pages picked up the pace and of course there is the obligatory cliffhanger with lots of questions still to be answered and the mystery still there. So yes I do recomend reading this book but I am grateful I did not pay $50 for it(as I nearly did) but got it out of the library instead.
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