Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla - Falcon's Blog

Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla

Greetings, Wolves of the Calla is the fifth novel in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. It follows the adventures of Roland Deschain and his small group of comrades as they continue their search for the mystical Dark Tower. By finding the Tower, they hope to understand why their worlds as well as time itself are beginning to fall apart and once discovered Deschain hopes to reverse the trend. The book is a mixture of the fantasy and western genres and in this series King seems to be connecting his novels together. Father Callahan, the protagonist from Salem’s Lot, became a prominent character in this story and it is suggested that he will remain for the other books as he becomes a member of Roland’s group.

The plot begins with Roland and his team coming across a small farming community called Calla Bryn Sturgis in their travels. This is the first inhabited settlement they have come across for a long period of time and it is where they meet Father Callahan, who had originally lived in Earth but managed to find his way into Mid-World after the events of Salem’s Lot. It is revealed to the gunslinger by the villagers that the little village would soon be plunged into danger by a recurring threat known as the Wolves of Thunderclap. Initially, the nature of the Wolves is unknown but it is uncovered that they take one young child from a set of twins away from their families once every generation for an unknown reason.

Dark Tower

The children are taken to Thunderclap, a hostile region that the villagers do not enter, and eventually the kids are returned to their families but lose their intelligence as well as die young in a violent manner. Andy, a messenger robot whose origins are unknown, informs the villagers that the Wolves would return to steal the children in one month’s time and so the people of Calla Bryn Sturgis are divided amongst themselves. Some want to resist the Wolves, believing that the arrival of the gunslingers could ensure victory while others are too frightened of the consequences if they resisted. A secondary plot is also established as it is revealed that Susannah, one of the five team members, is pregnant with a monster child and has developed another personality that threatens to take control of her mind.

As usual King builds up the pace slowly with an action scene at the end. This story was mostly based on tales of other characters and building lore for Calla Bryn Surgis, a large portion of the book is dedicated to Father Callahan recalling the events of Salem’s Lot which is based on vampires in America. The interaction between the five main characters, who all meet in the third book, is still a strong point of the adventure and helps move the bizarre storyline move along. The Dark Tower has expanded outside of the original novels, with prequel comic books centred on Roland and there are rumours of a possible film.

Plot=8/10

Characters=9/10

Wording=8/10

Overall=8/10

Quote of the day

You know what you are? You're a beard with an idiot hanging off it.

Bernard Black

Black Books

Written by Falcon, Saturday 7 December 2013

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Falcon  11 year(s) ago (134 months)

Thanks for the comments. I can't compare this series to other King books because these are the only novels of his that I have read but I am enjoying them so far. It will be interesting to see how the story is going to conclude.

 
Aaron  11 year(s) ago (135 months)

I've actually always thought about reading the Dark Tower series, the premise has always sounded like an interesting one to me. Nicely reviewed!

 
Brisingr  11 year(s) ago (135 months)

May still get into this series yet but it'll be a long time off as I'd want to finish a few other series first e.g. Game of thrones. Glad you enjoyed it though!

 
Joh  11 year(s) ago (135 months)

Glad you are continuing to enjoy the Dark Tower series! Nicely reviewed.