Product Description

This fifth volume in Stephen King's epic series. Torn between protecting the innocent community and his urgent quest, Roland of Gilead faces the most deadly of perils as he journeys through the Mid-World towards the Dark Tower.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #426529 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 960 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Wolves of the Calla, volume five of Stephen King's epic fantasy western The Dark Tower, coincidence has, as Eddie Dean observes, been cancelled. Everything the gunslinger Roland and his companions encounter has taken on symbolic significance. So when they come to Calla Bryn Sturgis, named after the director of The Magnificent Seven, its clear that King will follow the classic western archetype of a small band of heroes defending peaceable homesteaders. Here, the heroes resist masked raiders who abduct one of each pair of twins (and almost all children are twins), only to return them a month later horribly changed.

Father Callahan from King's Salem's Lot is resident in Calla Bryn Sturgis, and has his own tale of vampires, regulators and the secret highways though alternative Americas. Not coincidentally, the evil Glass Black 13 is hidden in his church. Meanwhile Susannah is again sporting a secondary personality, this time Mia, mother to the inhuman child that Susannah does not know she is carrying, while Roland realises their quest has become a race against the arthritis which will soon leave him crippled.

In this enormously ambitious book, King continues to weave together his back catalogue with the pop culture and literature of America itself, noting in his introduction that if you haven't read the previous Dark Tower volumes this isn't the place to begin. It is, though, a hugely entertaining adventure, rich in allusion; a passing aside to Thomas Wolfe might easily be dismissed, yet his title You Can't Go Home Again, encapsulates this entire spellbinding odyssey as well as five words ever will. --Gary S Dalkin

Sunday Express
'Pulse-poundingly engaging'
Sunday Express

Independent on Sunday
‘Join the quest before it's too late'
Independent on Sunday

Customer Reviews

King at his greatest
This book is a worthy part of King's greatest work, the fifth book of a seven book saga, it brings us even closer to knowing the mysteries of the Dark Tower. Is the room at the top really empty? Who is the Crimson King? Why are things breaking down?
It continues to weave together all of the worlds Stephen King has created, answering questions that were raised in other novels by him.
This story shows King at his best, creating characters that are 100% believable, creating empathy in the reader, and even stronger emotions. I at least found myself both crying and laughing with this book. As usual King raises new questions and plot-hangers in this book as soon as he answers the questions asked in Wizard and Glass, which makes it a harsh ordeal waiting for the next installment.

The end is in sight
After another extensive break from The Dark Tower Stephen King finally decided that he had let Roland and his companions (and all the readers of course) wait long enough. Wolves of the Calla is the fifth book of the series, and in many ways it feels like the beginning of the end.

This is an extremely well balanced book. King starts out with unresolved threads from the previous books in the bottom of the cauldron, stirs in a new plot line to add volume, and spices it with some interesting, unforeseen complications. For a while it simmers quite nicely, but then he gradually raises the temperature, making you turn the pages faster and faster, and when you run out of pages to read you feel disappointed that it’s over for this time.

What impressed me the most is that despite the long time in between the different installments King has managed to stay true to (and develop) the main characters all the way. Wolves of the Calla also introduces a new, important character that I really enjoyed. Or really, it’s a person cast out from another of his books that has found a new home in the Dark Tower series. I know some people think this kind of recycling is just pure laziness, but in this case it works out very well.

As you would expect, the suspense lies not so much in whether Roland and his companions will succeed in finding a way to reach the tower, but in which plot line(s) will be resolved in this book, and what will carry over to the final two volumes. I felt satisfied even though I was left hanging there desperately holding on to the cliff, which is the perfect way to end a “middle book”. The tower is definitely closer now.

Just can't get enough
What can I say about this book? More of the same? Yes, and no. King has written a very engaging novel here. He has managed to lead us from the past 4 books, further along the path to the Dark Tower, but whilst he has continued the existing theme, this book, in itself, has a very enthralling sub-plot that made me unable to put it down and that I found very enjoyable to read.

If you are a King fan you will also find that as in some of his other books, there are answers to tie up loose ends from his other stories. This is highly entertaining and also has the added benefit of reviving forgotten memories of his past great works.

If I have one grumble (I won't say fault), it is that he states in his notes in the book that this is the fifth of seven, and I now just can't wait for them to be published.

If you liked the past four of the Dark Tower tales, you will love this.