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

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

List Price: $35.00
Your Price: $23.10
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A must read for Tower fans
Review: Well, another book in the Tower series. I think the Dark Tower series is some of King's best writing. Wolves of Calla will not disappoint Tower fans.

It's been so long since the last installment that I've forgotten much of the lingo and happenings from previous books. Fortunately, readers should catch up quickly. Initially, I thought I might have to reread some of the earlier books but I decided against it due to the amount of reading that would be required. Not that I wouldn't enjoy rereading those books. I wanted to get into the new one.

This book is not like Wizards. There aren't many, if any, new revelations about the characters. It's pretty much a day in their travels to the Dark Tower.

This is a good book for Tower fans. I look forward to the next installment.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Yawn
Review: While I love most King...perhaps this series should not have been resuscitated!...its still dead...Steve buddy...uhm...I guess it is time to retire.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Wolves of the Calla is boring big-big
Review: I've been a fan of the dark tower series since the early 90s, and I've liked them quite a bit. I cry ye pardon King, but Wolves of the Calla blew serious chunks. The beginning prologue is great (and has been available from Stephen King's website for over a year), and the ending is "interesting" (with interesting revelations made about the true nature of the "wolves") but the 600 pages in between are, simply put, really BORING!!! This is probably King's worst and most boring novel since the Regulators or the Dark Half. Unfortunately, in order to finish the series (with Song of Susannah and the Dark Tower, due in 2004), you must persevere and methodically blow through this most painful of DT volumes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hold your judgment until the series is finished...
Review: Let me begin by saying, don't let someone else decide whether you should read a book or not. They say you can never judge a book by its cover; well the same goes for judging a book by someone else's opinion. What they may think is mediocre or even down right terrible; you may think it's great. On the other hand, what they think is great; you may think it deserves a place among such crap as the movie Ishtar or the "music" group Hanson.

Here's a little about me so you know where I'm coming from. I am what you would call a life long Stephen King fan. The first novel I ever read was Carrie at the ripe old age of eight. I do own every Stephen King novel in hardcover. I have read every one several times. But, I won't say that everything the man writes is legend, in my opinion. Some of his work, I have found myself unable to "get into". Not to say that these are bad novels, it's just that they didn't spark something in my imagination that other works of his have.

Now, on to my opinion of this book: I will have to agree with others who say that the Dark Tower series is by far some of Stephen King's best work. However, I don't agree with those who are saying that this series is taking a turn for the worse. In a series such as this, I think you should set aside judgment until you have read the entire series. Most of the negative reviews I have read are primarily aimed at the fact that the author's name, as well as one of his novels, is mentioned a few times in the book. Everyone seems to be jumping to conclusions. In my opinion, stating that his doing this is a bad thing is quiet hilarious. What better way to keep the audience on their toes than to throw them a curve ball. None of us know for sure what significance this will have on the outcome of the series. So, why not trust in the author's judgment on this one. Others say he seems to be rushing through this series, just so it is completed. I seriously doubt this is true. Who in their right mind would rush the ending of something they have worked most of their lives on? As for Callahan's story in this novel, I found it to be a good read. It didn't lead them much closer to the tower, but it did fit quiet nicely into the story. I didn't feel it slowed the story down in the least.

As I love every book of this series, I will hold my final opinion until I have read the final book. I trust that all of the questions will be answered. But, I will say that the only flaw I have found with this book is poor materials in the book itself. Shortly after starting this novel, I wondered why my fingers were always stained black. Come to find out, the cover was wearing off on them. The sacrifice of having to wash my hands more often was well worth it.

Just one final question though. Some reviewers say that they have never been a fan of Stephen King's work and this is just more of the same. My question is, if you didn't like his work before, why are you still reading his books?

No offense intended to those of you who like the movie Ishtar and the "music" group Hanson. But seriously, what's wrong with you?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I could only read 257 pages of it before I threw it down
Review: Oh man. I just finished reading SK's book "On Writing" when I saw Dark Tower 5 at the library. If you want to see King break a lot of the rules he sets forth in "On Writing" this is the book to read. It was so difficult to get through. Life is too short to spend reading fiction like this. Ugh.

But to be fair I haven't read it all. I'm hoping someone has and I might still yet finish it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW
Review: I read a ton of books by quite a few authors and let me tell you something.... They cannot hold a candle to King. If you have read all of the Stephen King's stories that this book touches on you be be extremly happy with this novel , If you have read none of them you be be extremly happy with this novel. Everytime I read a Stephen King book and start to get a glimpse of the complexity that he holds in his head and interweaves into his stories , I am uterly Amazed. The Dark Tower series is one for the ages and should be held in such regard as Tolkein's Epic stories. The thing is Tolkein had Middle Earth, King is speaking of worlds overlapping worlds, intersecting highways that connect the bridges between uiniverse's, that are all contained in a Rose and a Tower! Incredible book ..... Incredible author!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent book, could lose the epilogue
Review: The charachters in this book are really brought to life, this includes many new characters and then of course the gunslingers themselves. Oy takes a C3PO-like entertainment position in this book. In ways this book tells four stories. One story is about susanna, one story is about a new character called Callahan, one story is about the wolves that the book is named after, and finally the larger story of the journey to the Rose. The way he wrote the book was to mix the four so that you had to keep reading to get to the book's resolution of them. It is deffinetly a page turner.

Without the epilogue the book is easily four smileys/stars. I wasn't to found of the epilogue, mostly because it is about Salem's Lot. I have no interest in Salem's Lot and hope the final books in the series will not go into further depth about his older book. Since this only became blatently noticeable, and thus annoying, in the epilogue I can't hold it against the book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Perfect Continuation
Review: Stephen King has written a great continuation to his masterfull series. If you have read other King books besides the dark tower then you will like this book. King has written numerous books relating to the Dark Tower series such as Hearts in Atlantis and Salems Lot. Both would be good to read before you read this new book. For readers that have read a lot of his books its fun to see the way they refernce each other and tie in together. The storie line of this book is good. Not as good as the first books but still not bad at all. This book is not too exciting until the end and there are a lot of long stories told that sort of make it drag on. If you have read Salems Lot then there is a very long story retold for you but also more of what happend to father callahan. All in all this was a good book and I would refer it to anyone that has read the other Dark Tower Books.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Dark Tower is in sight!
Review: You can almost feel King rounding the corner in WOLVES OF THE CALLA, gathering speed as he heads towards the long awaited conclusion of this massive epic. After three decades, the end is finally in sight.

In this fifth installment of King's DARK TOWER series, Roland and his ka-tet are still on the path of the beam. Their quest has led them to Calla Bryn Sturgis, an agricultural town beyond the forests of Mid-World and in the shadow of the ominous dark city of Thunderclap. As they approach the city, they are met by a group of desperate townspeople who beg them for help against a foe so implacable that many in the town have long since given up hope. Among this delegation is a familiar face from King's canon, the unfortunate Father Donald Callahan, former resident of Jerusalem's Lot,Maine.

The townsfolk of Calla fear an army of beings they refer to as wolves, which descends from Thunderclap once each generation to abduct their children. Not just any children, mind you, but one half of each pair of the twins who live there in surprising numbers. Months after their abduction, the victims are returned to the village, robbed of some vital spark, doomed to grow into slow witted, short lived giants. Having seen signs that the wolves' next invasion is imminent, the people of Calla beseech the gunslingers to help them.

Bound by their code, the gunslingers have no choice but to cast their lot with the villagers. What follows is a period of preparation and soul searching, as hidden depths and hideous duplicity are discovered within the group. The day the wolves reappear, they find a newly defiant population, willing to do battle to protect their progeny, even if that entails the ultimate destruction of the entire village.

Always a powerful storyteller, King really hits his stride in WOLVES, which, as he acknowledges in an Author's Note, is essentially a western draped in the clothing of the fantastic. King works the tropes like a master, delivering a gripping and satisfying tale, simultaneously positioning his characters for the final battle to come. Along the way, he pays homage to several diverse works of fiction, among them THE LORD OF THE RINGS and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, further strengthening the links between this and past works, at one point dipping a toe into the murky waters of metafiction. A powerful new novel of blood, passion, and, in King's own parlance, resistance, WOLVES OF THE CALLA is winning entertainment from one of modern fiction's brightest lights.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Long, Hard Slog
Review: Bottom line, folks: I started reading this over ten days ago, and I'd rather be writing this review than facing the chore of getting through 300 more pages of the book. This is what Donald Rumsfeld might call "a long, hard slog."

It's not BAD. It's just not... compelling. Fitfully absorbing, perhaps; that is, the story heats up temporarily and then subsides into tedium. I'm still holding out hope that the pace will pick up in those last 300 pages I can't bring myself to face yet... but Steverino seems to be going in so many different directions here it's hard to get excited about it.

I absolutely loved the first four books in the Dark Tower series, particularly "Wizard and Glass", which I feel is one of King's finest works, a full-bodied fantasy novel remarkably free of some of Steverino's more irritating idiosyncracies. So I looked forward eagerly to "Wolves of the Calla."

I realize I'm being premature as I still haven't finished it. But frankly, folks, I wish someone would just tell me what happens so I don't have to bother. A novel of this kind should demand your attention, and "Wolves of the Calla" never quite does that. There are a couple of scenes where Roland makes a gesture with his finger signifying "Get on with it", and that's how I feel about much of this book.

Hard-core King fans will probably go easier on the Master than I do. I love some of his books and stories; others, less so. But so far this is a story that just smolders and never catches fire. A major disappointment.


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