The Dark Tower series is wonderful until this novel. I left it feeling greatly disappointed. ( )

The fifth installment in the Dark Tower series is full of cross-references to other King works that I love, further unifying the Stephen King universe, which even in this one novel has an infinite number of connected worlds. It begins by bringing in a familiar character from our world: Father Callahan of ‘Salem’s Lot, who after that fateful encounter with vampires began to walk the hidden roads of America, finally winding up in a rice-growing village in Roland’s world. There Roland and crew meet him and make him a part of their ka-tet. Father Callahan also has another piece of the Wizard’s Glass: the black eye of the Crimson King himself, which our heroes can use to get back to New York to do important things.

There’s a lot going on in this long novel. We learn more of the rose first glimpsed by Jake in The Wastelands (Volume III) and find out what kind of danger it is in. There is news of the Beams and the Breakers, and even the Low Men make an appearance. There is the small matter of Susannah’s demon pregnancy. And there is a spaghetti Western-style plot in which Roland and the others have to save a town from marauding wolves who steal one-half of all the town’s twins (and the kids are mostly twins), only to return them retarded and doomed – “roont,” as the townsfolk of the Calla say.

The cross-references abound, and King even manages to gleefully introduce elements from Marvel comics, Star Wars and the Harry Potter series. But the climactic reference in thrillingly audacious, even for King. I won’t give it away; suffice it to say, you won’t be able to wait to start reading Part 6. ( )

In places this felt a bit like a "Dark Tower Greatest Hits", in particular repeating themes and scenarios from "Drawing of the Three" and "Wizard and Glass". But on reflection perhaps that's just a feature of the books being set in a coherent, believable environment. ( )

I had caught up to King by the time this was published so I had to go out and buy the hardcover the day it came out. King's take on the classic Seven Samurai story. Really blew open the whole multiverse aspect of the series. My guess is that he finally figured it all out at this point. ( )

The Wolves of the Calla, the antepenultimate volume of Stephen King's Dark Tower series brings the ka-tet to Calla Bryn Sturgis, a small farming community on the outskirts of Thunderclap. The town, which births twins and only rarely "singletons", is plagued every few decades by the wolves, riders from Thunderclap who steal one child from each set of twins. The children then come back, years later, roont - dumb, and continuously growing until they die much younger than their other half.

The ka-tet, as gunslingers, have the duty to protect the Calla from the wolves, which are set to come in roughly thirty days as the ka-tet passes through. In the Calla, they are introduced to Father Callahan - a man from "our" side who had been brought to the Calla in a similar way as Eddie, Jake and Susannah. A large portion of the book is spent on his back-story and he becomes a main player in the Tower quest. (Many King fans will know him from King's second novel, Salem's Lot).

The majority of the book covers the thirty days of the ka-tet analyzing and preparing for the wolves to come, and on Callahan's interesting back-story which is complete with vampires and travel through the different worlds. Although it only covers roughly thirty days, the book is lengthy in pages (this edition has 736 pages) - longer even than the previous volume. However, unlike the previous volume, the story stays relevant to the Tower quest and the ka-tet, and provides further background of the characters - and further growth, especially in the boy (man, now?) Jake.

As with the other volumes, King transitions smoothly and easily into the next volume - and with interesting twists. Wolves of the Calla is an entertaining expansion on the Tower quest and the blend of Roland's world with "ours", and should not be missed for even casual fans of King or the series, as it makes up for the previous, lackluster fourth volume (Wizard and Glass) and leaves the reader quickly grabbing for the next volume. ( )