Rating: 
Summary: Best one of the dark tower series
Review: When I finished Calla, I picked up The Dark Half by King. 50 pages into it realizing A. This is good but B. This is how far Stephen King has come as a writer. Shocking. Calla in comparison to his older ones like Dark Half is vastly different as for once King does something that he rarely does. He abandons the unecessary descriptions that lose you when you are into one of his stories. This book is so low on useless description of every landscape and such that the story really flies. This is high on dialogue and story and as strange as it may seem unbelievably more vivid without such those descriptions. The characters have become much more. Each one of the gunslingers is far more developed with their previous journeys and new troubles. Yes Roland too. I don't want to spoil your possible surpise at this but in short, while Roland is still Roland, his heart has become more a part of his strength then at any time previous in the books. Each character was tested and each character rose to the occasion. But in the end this is not only in my opinion the easiest reading and best written of the books but by God the most pleasantly surprising of the books character concerning. My favorite of the books and because of the investment in the story over the years, I guess I have to say my favorite Stephen King book period. Even reading Dark Half as good a story as it is, it shows such striking improvement over the years in his ability to tell a story. Not insulting the reader's intelligence and giving enough pure entertainment to keep them into some very heavy subjects and catch on to some highly subtle forces at work emotionally speaking, while telling a very large story. Moving on from the dark part four we are in for a real breath of fresh air, especially those who read Salem's Lot, which I did not but I suppose I will make myself read a flipping vampire book now [ as much as I don't look forward to it ]! Bottom line is, this is the most surprising book concerning the characters including Jake and his similarity to someone else that I won't mention, even now. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did, I lost sleep reading it for a few nights, and I sadistically hope you are just as worried as I am about the ending...appearances. How can some writer put SOME people [many] in such a panic about some story!? He can't,... unless he is really, really good.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story, one of the best in the series
Review: This is definitely one of the best books in the Dark Tower series and one of Stephen King's best. Those reviewers who gave this book less than four stars must not have read this book and hate Stephen King. As for those who are upset with King for referring to himself in the story, calm yourselves. This is not the first time he has done this and I don't think you should condemn the man until you see how it turns out in the last two novels in the series. Until then, just calm down and don't be so quick to call for a lynch mob.
Rating: 
Summary: I've waited years for this...
Review: I'm an adamant fan of the Dark Tower series to the point of buying almost all of the audio versions of the books to keep the story fresh in my mind. Roland Deschain is one of the most intense characters created in American literature and I believe he embodies the better qualities that we'd like to see within ourselves. The Dark Tower series has always held a sleight of hand feeling with it's mixture of Roland's world and our own, and that's a huge part of it's charm. The other appeal for me has been the recent addition (and when I say recent, I mean with 'Wizard and Glass' which was published in 1997) of the Randall Flag character from 'The Stand,' my favorite King book of all time.****Read no further if you don't like spoilers!!!!**** I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I was a little taken aback by King's inclusion of his own fiction, 'Salem's Lot,' in the storyline towards the end of the novel. It's a a bit too self-gratifying for an author of his stature. I am hoping that the next two installments will make it all worth while.
Rating:
Summary: How I Learned to Stop Whining and Enjoy the Story.
Review: Oops! You were expecting the end of the series! Sorry, this is only book FIVE out of SEVEN, so don't get upset that the story doesn't "go anywhere". This book was great, no, not as a stand-alone, but as a part of the epic quest of Roland of Gilead and his ka-tet. For you Tower Junkies and Constant Readers out there, if you haven't read this book, stop whatever you're doing and buy it (you're already on Amazon.com, how easy could it be) and express ship that puppy straight to your house. The story gives a lot of good information that we've been waiting to hear. Okay, that I've been waiting to hear. But, I think I represent most of humanity. Except women. And the intellegent crowd. I digress. There are a lot of throwbacks to the Great Old Ones, which are always welcome, there is a good tidbit (that might make you cry) about Cuthbert and the battle at Jericho Hill, and the lead-ins to the next two books don't stop, with The Stephen setting up our gunslingers mosey into Thunderclap, their battle against Legion, and their imminent soire to Out-World. And if you are a sadomasochist you'll love this book, that is to say that our band of pals has a few new problems to deal with. Like Susannah pulling a Ripley and Roland pulling a The-Guy-From-The-Ben-Gay-Commercials. How exciting! Stephen King delivers a great story, neverminding the inane (not insane) linguistic quirks of the locals (say thankya), and an ending that's going to leave you with a case of the What-the-Hecks. This book is a great vehicle for the story, and will leave you with the inevitable feeling of worthlessness that comes with not having any more pages to read until the next one comes out. Go get it. Go. Go now.
Rating: 
Summary: Utter garbage
Review: Stream of consciousness nonsense churned out so he can finish the series before he dies. After the riveting plot of Wizard and Glass, it's almost criminal that this book was written. Give it up, king. You are done.
Rating:
Summary: 4 Stars only in Relation to the Series
Review: In relation to most novels, i would rate this book a 5, but I looked at it in view of the entire tower series, and could not justify giving it five after reading Wizard and the Glass (which I voted 5). I would like to take this opportunity to express my disagreement with those who bad mouthed Wizard and the Glass because of its suppposed deviation from the quest for the tower. Now that Wolves of the Calla has come out, can't you see how so much of the story in Wizard was relevant to Wolves? Because of Wizard, we see how closely Jake resembles Alain, and Eddie mirrors Cuthbert in this story. Anyways, to me its just a lesson to avoid arguing with the authors direction when you dont know the end. Slow down and enjoy the ride, dont worry so much about the tower. Besides, if you think about it, all the events ARE relevant to what is happening with the tower, alot of the evil in the stories is a direct attack against the order and good that we think the tower represents. All these side stories give a lot of depth into the characters also. I would have to agree (while contradicting myself) that the long deviations into Callahans work with the homeless and vampires did get a little long, and even tedious at times. I found myself wanting to skim through it to get back to Calla Bryn Sturgis. I also found the tie-ins to Star Wars weaponry and other items a little annoying, and distracting from the stories genuineness, but overall, I did feel that it was a great continuuation to a great series. Hopefully the next two will be out in 04 as has been said.
Rating:
Summary: Short and Sweet reviewno spoilers
Review: Wolves of Calla is a good book. Darn good. The story never seems to drag down and I didn't skip over paragraphs that i thought would be boring. If you do skip, you might miss something. Many have talked bad about how it deals with Father Callahan's character but I thought it was rather interesting. I mean I don't kow how many times I have finished a Stephen King book and wondered ( an d maybe made up) my own little stories about what happens to the main characters. Well, in this book we DO learn what happened to the main character form Salem's Lot. Hey I thought it was very good and interesting to see what happened to his life after being "marked" by Barlow. Anyways, the story also tells us a lot about the main charcters , Roland, Jake Eddie, and Susannah. They are growing. They are changing. They are getting closer to the tower. This is my @nd favorite of the series, Wastelands being 1st.
Rating:
Summary: And the Tower is Closer
Review: With the world's most popular genre-fiction author now on the verge of self-proclaimed retirement, I'd say it is far past time for a serious re-examination of the literary status of Stephen King: specifically, the influence of his prolific oeuvre, and his eventual place in the hierarchy of the creative-bent. The Facts: King has mastered the structural patterns of the novel - the build of tension, the interweaving of multiple subplot and character, the satisfaction of climax - over the course of his forty-odd novels. But prolificacy alone does not make one great: King's genius lies in his assimilation and use of the symbols, simulacra and master-tropes of the late 20th century; and although this does *date* his work, no author can truly transcend their era or experiences: "write what you know." Few modern authors have succeeded so well in depicting our just-past century in all its increasingly self-conscious existence: its trend-mania and buzzword fever, its silent Cold War post-trauma, the uncertain edge of information-age eruption - metaphorical monsters reflecting the deeper corruptions of the real and hyper-real. Thus, I feel that Stephen King will, in hindsight, stand among the giants of the literary arena, particular those poets and pen-prophets who devoted their talent to the description and drama of their selected period: Balzac, Dickens, Austen, Pasternak, etc. Despite some sub-par work and a penchant for the vulgar (not a negative, for the vulgar is, after all, a purely human characteristic, wholly divorced from the cold, clinical pontifications of many of this era's so-called 'serious' authors), King's undisputable canonical status of *primal influence* is practically assured on the basis of sheer print-count alone. Come Apocalypse, the few remaining literary artifacts for our consequence-blasted survivors to pick over shall, in a number's game, include the Bible, Tolkien, Rowling, and that little horror-fiction writer who could, Stephen King. For close examination of King's talent and artistic tenacity, one need look no further than *The Dark Tower*, his three-decade in the making, seven-volume sci-fi gunslingers vs. entropy saga, the unifying thread - frayed and salt-stained as it may be - that strings all of his previous work together. *The Dark Tower* is King's masterwork, his opus, the culmination of all his creative energies focused into one massive over-arching storyline. For a saga, however, the devil is in the details, and King has made no secret of the fact that he is, in effect, making it up as he goes, drawing his inspiration from certain core influences: T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Lands," Browning's "Child Roland to the Dark Tower Came," spagetti-western serials. I don't doubt that certain pivotal events were planned out beforehand, but the bulk of this 3000 page epic seems to have emerged intuitively, shaped from the supraconscious ether. Thus, mistakes have been made, and changes wrought mid-epic: a recent re-write has helped to rectify most of these inconsistencies and make the Dark Tower flow as a continuous, solid work rather than, in reality, a patchwork albatross that has shadowed King and his creative output for the past twenty-five years. Wolves of the Calla is both the smoothest and the most self-conscious of the Dark Tower volumes to date. Taking up the hoary 'rough-hewn heroes protect the villagers' myth-motif, the bulk of the novel builds on the underlying resistance and fear that often accompany acts of desperate bravery. Roland and company must navigate treachery amongst the townsfolk of the Calla in order to protect the township's children, half of whom are in the danger of kidnapping, brainjuice exploitation, and the subsequent retardation by the minions of the Crimson King. Worse, a different but no less dangerous treachery has formed within the feminine core of the ka-tet: Susanna has manifested a mysterious new personality, an alter-ego by the name of 'Mia' (nice, Stephen, nice) with hideous dining habits and a one-track mind about childrearing. Throughout Wotc, and especially at the end, King overtly acknowledges how 20th century icons have permeated his work, and popularized it therein: name-dropped pop-modern sigils include Harry Potter, Star Wars, Dr. Doom's tech-minions, and a not-subtle inclusion of a certain author penning a certain saga. Speculations now abound upon rumor's virtual breeding-ground: a comparison of the "coincidental" numbers prevalent throughout WotC with certain recent events in King's life gives the casual reader an insight to where this epic is heading, beyond the usual metaphysical hints and forebodings. If King does choose to complete The Dark Tower in such a manner, this saga may become the biggest mainstream-oriented post-modern joke in history... and it might even work. We shall see. And soon, thankfully. 2004 heralds both volume 6, Song of Susanna, and volume 7, The Dark Tower. What is in that room at the top? Is it empty? Or does it give us a view - a very _special_ view - of the man behind the scenes...? Rating note: I've taken one star off my rating for two reasons. Like many, I don't care for the paintings. Out of all the talented artists who could give a Dark Tower volume some true justice, King seems inexplicably content on attracting dull and/or inappropriate visualists to define his opus (Whelan was the only decent choice out of the lot). Secondly, the stream-of-conscious manner in which King has chosen to write this epic has splintered a number of flaws in the foundation; not a damaging point, given the main antagonist seems to be the force of entropy itself - however, I did not care for the constant "reminders" of what had happened in the series before. King urged virgin readers to seek book one after the opening summation: he should have left it at that and done without the needless rehash of events. Thus, four stars.
Rating:
Summary: School of Bloom Bah Humbug!
Review: Back when England was a viable country and not a tribute state Shakespeare, Shelley, and Dickens were all rich, at least in their later careers. Much like King. They were all bestsellers vilified by the critical establishment of their time, and they were all commercial as apparently they did not distribute their writings for free. Dickens even traveling to the US to complain about his loss of revenue that the pirating of his books in that country entailed. As for twerps who aspire to be ideal test subjects in Harold Bloom's courses do not confuse your SAT score keeping with literature. Sanctimonious stuffed shirts who go to $$$ colleges nestled in farmlands need to aerate their dorm rooms. I have no doubt that these masterworks of King will be anointed as classics.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Dark Tower Series to Date
Review: I am sick and tired of those old fans who complain that King's books are not as scary anymore. If you do not like the style of the book, that does not mean it is not well done. I have to say that this is his best in this series because it fixed the problems that were in the earlier ones. It is at the same time its own story (the story of the battle against the wolves), and part of the tower (Susannah's pregnancy, and the beginning of Callahan's role). For those of you who thought that this was boring, I would want to know what it would take. With the battle against the wolves, how could there be no excitement? Also, along these same lines, all the problems that come into the story because of Susannah's pregnancy and the growth of Roland's weaknesses are exactly what the series needs. We are getting near the end, and the best way to make the series become more tense to reach a climax is for more problems to arise. I hate to mention something that comes in near the end of the book. However, I have to say something about King being in the story. HE IS NOT A CHARACTER!!! Have any of you read other authors? There are many that do things similar to this. Not only that, but King slowly used the whole book to prepare for that moment. He constantly mentioned things in novels of another world being true within Roland's world. But the real reason that I am pleased he did this is that there is no better way to make this novel as real, and significant. He now makes it as though every story, and even reality, is a part of it without doing it in a manner to say that he is the only one worthy of it. One last thing I want to comend King on. He fixed the problem that is in Wizard and Glass. When Roland told of his past, it was too central, and far too long. It made the story much slower. In this, the story of Callahan's past was much shorter, and also divided so that the central plot was not left entirely. King, that was much better! Some may not be able to accept that King was INDIRECTLY part of the novel, but this was a minor part. IF you do not want to read this the end of the book may not be as crucial for you to read. Also, if you have been avoiding King because of his horror stories, there is much more to them. If you read him, only because you want a scary novel, I hope you have not missed the many themes in his earlier works. This is definitely the best of the series. Until you read this one, I feel that you have no idea how good this series can be.
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