Rating: 
Summary: Doing Time in the Calla
Review: Stephen King set the pacing and style of this series with the first four novels in the series. I have read each book and thought that the next was better than the last because he continued to provide interesting new insights and tension, and his tendency to write stories within stories is an interesting way to give a reader more bang for the buck. However, "Wolves of the Calla" is quite different from the previous four books in significant ways, and the differences make this book the least book of the series thus far.
The ka-tet has survived "Wizard and Glass," an amazing book where we learn of one of the most important events in Roland Deschain's past. We join the ka-tet soon after meeting a bizarre character more than a little familiar to fans of the "Wizard of Oz." The ka-tet is entering the lands of the Calla, an arc of communities that are adjacent to Thunderclap.
Calla Bryn Sturgis is one of the towns of the Calla, and Andy the robot has warned Calla Bryn Sturgis that the Wolves are coming. Each time the Wolves come they kidnap one-half of each twin pair of children. The children eventually return, but they do so "roont," or brain damaged. The ka-tet of Roland of Gilead, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers and Oy the bumbler are entreated to provide aid and succor to the town, thus being required by the code of the gunslingers to stand against the Wolves if it is possible to do so.
The next several hundred pages of the book are devoted to meeting Donald Callahan from "Salem's Lot" and learning how he arrived in the Calla, and the various intrigues surrounding the characters in and around Calla Bryn Sturgis. There is also an unusual introduction of Stephen King into his own story. Much of the story provides development of the characters of the ka-tet, in addition to the characters of the town. In considering other Stephen King books, this one is written somewhat like "The Girl Who Love Tom Gordon," only longer.
The story is well written. The character development is well done. However, it seemed to me that perhaps some of this development could have continued as the ka-tet continued on their quest for the Dark Tower. The result of delving into the characters of so many people in the Calla and of the ka-tet is that the pacing of the story slows down very much as compared to previous books in the story. The problem for readers is going to be that you really need to read the previous four books to get here, and if you prefer character oriented novels over action novels, you are unlikely to reach this point in the series. Conversely, fans of action-oriented novels or novels where there is a strong element of the bizarre will reach this novel and be less satisfied than with the previous books.
Another problem with the story is that King spent so much time on character development and giving so many hints that I had guessed the nature of the Wolves and several other important details well before the characters in the story made those discoveries. The best surprises come when you discover things at the same time as characters in the stories, not well in advance.
I also found the introduction of contemporary elements into the story, which you will have to read to see what I mean, to be amusing, though occasionally a little bizarre as I wonder at the motivations people might have to do certain things.
The five books in the series thus far are nicely tied together, and well written. I enjoyed "Wolves of the Calla," but I found this novel to contain less of what I typically enjoy in a Stephen King novel, and found the pace to be tedious at times. I provide a cautious recommendation for this book given the extensive amount of time King spends on character development, with only brief moments of action until the last fifty or so pages, where he finally moves beyond second gear into action. I am looking forward to "Song of Susannah," because the very end of this book sets up that novel, and I am hoping the pace picks up that book, which is much shorter than "Wolves of the Calla."
The fifth book adds another 700+ pages to the epic Dark Tower series, pushing the total page count toward three thousand pages. The cross time and space dimension epic is intriguing and usually exciting, and I yet wonder how Stephen King will tie it all together in the seventh book, "The Dark Tower." I recommend this series to fans of fantasy and science fiction, as this series combines elements of both.
Rating: 
Summary: Readable.
Review: Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla (Grant, 2003)I have been of the tacit understanding, over the past two decades, that when Stephen King uncorked the typewriter for the first Dark Tower story, he had an idea of where he was going to go with the series. Granted, as we all know, this runs counter to everything King has ever said in interviews about how he writes, but this is an epic series, one he had no idea how long it would be when he started. You don't go into something like that without planning. Well, okay, maybe you do if you're Stephen King. Wolves of the Calla was definitely not in the cards when he wrote the first story. There's too much in here that smacks of obvious attempts to tie in things that have come in between (and hints of tying in other stuff, as well). Wolves of the Calla continues the adventures of Roland and co., slipping back and forth between Mid-World and our world at three different times. Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy are on the border between Mid-World and Out-World, about to cross over, when they're approached by a priest from the small town of Calla Bryn Sturgis. The Calla has a problem; every twenty-three years or so, it's raided by masked riders called Wolves, who take one child from every pair of twins between the ages of three and fourteen. (Giving birth to twins is the norm in Calla Bryn Sturgis.) The priest asks Roland and friends to help with the problem of the wolves, and thus a novel is born. Along with this come subplots involving pieces of the other books (Black Thirteen from Wizard and Glass, the vacant lot in New York containing the rose from The Drawing of the Three, etc.). King is beginning the long process of tying it all together. There are even hints of the Low Men in Yellow Coats, the brimstone-filled alternate world from Black House, and various other ties to the other books that touch on the series. (The "other works by" page at the beginning finally gives us the comprehensive list of which books are Tower-related and which aren't.) I had read all the reviews and knew all the spoilers beforehand, and honestly I walked into this expecting a major disappointment. What I had forgotten is the sheer delight in reading Stephen King's prose, which is as strong as always. When he's talking about nothing, which is often, or going off on a tangent, which is even more often, the prose itself is so simply readable that getting through the book's seven-hundred-plus pages is a pleasure. He never fails to tie in the more odd elements of life in Mid-World to something we earthbound humans can understand, giving us a much clearer picture of what's going on than we might have had otherwise. And yes, the ending is a pain. No surprise there, if you've read any spoilers about the novel. But there's enough there to keep going, especially if you've got twenty years invested in the Tower already, as most people reading this review already do. We'll keep following the Path of the Beam wherever it leads us till the bitter end. (Which, after twenty years, is finally in sight.) ***
Rating: 
Summary: Time
Review: The Wolves of the Calla starts soon after Wizard and Glass leaves off, and immediately becomes an event to be charished. Effects from events in past Dark Tower books appear to wreak havoc upon Roland's ka-tet. And Susannah's "scizophrenia" breeds the character Mia who is a personality fixed on only one thing: motherhood. The town of Calla Bryn Sturgis is in needs the help of Roland and his ka-tet. Their children are kidnapped every generation, taken to Thunderclap (where the Dark Tower lies), and are returned "roont," or mentally defragmentated. The wolves follow a higher purpose; their goal, in serving the Crimson King, is to feed the psychic abilites of the "breakers" with the
mental juice (if you will) of these kidnapped children. The "breakers" are psychics enslaved to destroyed the Beams holding up the Dark Tower. The Wolves of the Calla is one component of a much greater whole, and for complete understanding should be read as such. Without at least a working knowledge of this greater whole, the novel's full meaning cannot be comprehended. The Dark Tower series includes more than these five Dark Tower books. To understand and enjoy this novel read these prerequisite volumes: The Dark Tower 1-4, The Little Sisters of Eluria (found in Everything's Eventual),'Salem's Lot, Low Men in Yellow Coats (a novella in Hearts in Atlantis), and Black House. As an aside, the time taken to write these books is incorporated into the framework of the series. I somehow doubt its a coincidence that the numbers 19 and 99 that are so important to the Dark Tower 5 put together equal 1999-the year King was hit by the van that made him realize time of was of the essence, the Dark Tower needed to be finished.
Rating:
Summary: Hey Nineteen!
Review: This story is unbelievably great. In my opinion, I think it may be Stephen King's best book, not just of this series. Never in my life has a 700+ page book seemed too short. I was sorry when it ended. The characters are so richly and vividly drawn, I could feel something for each and every character, from Roland and his ka-tet to the many townspeople of Calla Bryn Sturgis and especially Father Callahan. Also, the subtle references to other King books were a treat for me (the ones I recognized, like Salem's Lot and The Regulators).
The only grudge I could possibly hold against the book is the fact that the actual showdown between the gunslingers and the Wolves lasts only about 10-15 pages. After so much build-up, I guess I was expecting Battle of Helm's Deep. Although there is plenty of shooting (and dish throwing) in the final confrontation, most of the advantage comes from planning and watching, (palaver in the High Speech). It works exceptionally well. Roland's motives and actions don't seem to make sense at the time, but it becomes clear later. The suspense is of the page-turning variety, although most of the suspense comes from King deliberately not telling the reader things other characters are told. For instance, Eddie learns the secret of the wolves from another character about halfway in, but the reader does not know what he was told until the final chapter. Frustrating, but it kept my nose in the book to find out.
I recommend this book wholeheartedly, and can't wait for the next two installments to finish the series. You'll be counting letters in people's names and objects on your desk to see if they add up to 19!
(If anyone was bored with Wizard and Glass as I was please pick up this and keep going, it's worth it definitely)
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