Home :: Books :: Science Fiction & Fantasy  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy

Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
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

<< 1 .. 21 22 23 24 25 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ridiculously good
Review: I've been a Dark Tower (and Stephen King), fan since 89 when a friend of mine loaned me the then very hard to get "The Gunslinger" and "Drawing of the Three". Had my friend Brooke, on that cold winters night during an all night Spades and Drinks session at college told me it would take 15 years from that point to conclude the series I might have passed the books back to her without reading them.
Happily I read and loved them. Thank you Brooke.

The long stretches bettween books were rough. I filled my time with Tolkien, Jordan, Herbert, Rowling etc. All great writers of great long form SF and Fantasy. But Rolland's world was the one I always asked about at the bookstore. I'd take time off work to pick up Dark Tower books and read them on the day they arrived at the local bookstore, or Fed-Ex from Amazon.

I don't want to do a detailed review because most of you are just getting your copies now so I'll just say that DT V was well worth the wait.

I Just put it down after a cover to cover reading binge that took me from sunrise to sunrise. This is the best of the series to date. With the possible exception of The Stand this is, Mr. King's finest work to date. If it pleases ya.

Now Mr. King please hurry up and release the final volumes. I don't think I can wait till July to find out what happens next.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: First of all I'll start by saying that this book is the best in the series so far. I loved the character development. I do have to say that some parts of this book won't make much sense unless you are a well read King fan. However, I believe, this will only make folks all the more curious to learn of the all encompassing world that is the Dark Tower series. I just wish it was summer of 2004 so I can see what happens. Oh well, I waited over five years for this volume, I'm sure I can stand to wait 7 or 8 months
for the next one. I'll end by saying that while I am a very quick reader, I was surprised by the fact I finished all 719 pages in under 8 hours. I guess I was ready for this one!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Too wordy and long for the story given
Review: Having waited anxiously for this book, I was really irritated with the writing all the way through. Not to give anything away, but did that part of the story really take 600 pages??? For all the background, I have to say the creatures were not that inventive compared to other books. I am not going to dive into the next book as quickly.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if I could
Review: For all of you, like me, who despised Wizard and Glass this book is for you. Finally we are getting somewhere. It has been YEARS since King has been this good. It is good to see him back. Don't listen to the reviews of people who don't like the fact that it seems King is going to include himself in the Dark Tower series. What is the difference between that and Eddie, Susannah, and Jake entering Roland's world. Obviously they don't understand the point King has been hinting at all along: the thinness of reality. He even goes into a beautiful aside about how the choices we make and how one side step can change the course of our history. This is King's oh so subtle way of letting us know that our perception of reality may not be the truth of the matter. I'm hooked again Mr. King. Bring me to the Dark Tower. It has been years and I am ready. As we all are. I'm sure you won't dissapoint.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best installments so far...
Review: As a huge King fan, I've enjoyed all of his DT books so far. But I'd have to say if i was asked for a favourite, I'd pick the Drawing of the Three and Wolves of the Calla.
The only negative thing i'd have to say is that you can feel the story coming to an end after so many years.
Only two books to go.....

Rating: 5 stars
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: 2 stars
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: 5 stars
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: 4 stars
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: 4 stars
Summary: Horror, Intrigue
Review: Another DT book we cannot tear our eyes from. There are some pretty gruesome scenes here and there, but the underlying plot retains its cunning and keeps us reading. The love and disgust, cheer and horror, dreams and reality are all me3rged into this exciting story.


<< 1 .. 21 22 23 24 25 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates