"The fifth installment of King's #1 "New York Times" masterpiece. Roland and his tet have just returned to the path of the Beam when they discover that they are being followed by a group of inexperienced trackers. The trackers are from the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, and they desperately need the help of gunslingers. Once every generation, a band of masked riders known as the Wolves gallop out of the dark land of Thunderclap to steal one half of all the twins born in the Callas. When the children are returned, they are roont, or mentally and physically ruined. In less than a month, the Wolves will raid again. In exchange for Roland’s aid, Father Callahan—a priest originally from our world—offers to give Roland a powerful but evil seeing sphere, a sinister globe called Black Thirteen which he has hidden below the floorboards of his church. Not only must Roland and his tet discover a way to defeat the invincible Wolves, but they must also return to New Yorks so that they can save our world’s incarnation of the Dark Tower from the machinations of the evil Sombra Corporation."
Maybe not the best in the series...I still think the fourth book holds that place, but well worth the wait.
It
is in this book we see the characters finally work together as trained
Gunslingers. Each of the characters has a pressing problem and hardship
in their lives, and yet they must put them aside to help the children of
the Calla . How these characters deal with their own monumental
problems and act as true heroes at the same time is a reflection of the
fact they have become true gunslingers, following Roland.
King
also takes the opportunity to let this book show us more of Roland's
world and culture. I found the dance Roland did at the start of the book
fascinating, and the society of goddess worshiping disk throwing women
seemed like they might have walked out of the pages of Roman Mythology.
King does a great job rounding the culture, and giving us views of the
world just as if we were reading a historical fiction, instead of high
fantasy.
Wolves of the Calla, at 736 pages, is the longest yet of
the series. But the length is justified as King takes time to create
characters and places so real, you feel as if you might have been there
before in some odd and half forgotten dream. He builds suspense to the
final battle with the Wolves, and then makes that battle as fast, and
horrible as any real war skirmish.
Many complained about the
references to pop culture, Kings other works, and aspects of the "real"
world, but I thought they only served to make the idea of the Tower as
an axis of reality more believable. Making himself a real, yet invisible
character in the book gave me a little shiver, after all...if King is
real in that world so am I and all his readers. Heh heh heh. It only
served to make the sense of so many realities tied in one moment of fate
more grand.
King also makes the themes of choices and payment
for those choices central. Lives are altered forever by the Calla's
choice to go along with the Wolves so long. Susannah's brave choice of
using her sexuality as a weapon against the portal demon in book 3 is
now coming due for payment as the birth of her monstrous child
approaches. The choice the Father makes in forcing Roland's hand to not
offer Susannah an abortion is about to be paid. Yet, King doesn't
moralize these choices. He shows each character as someone who simply
made the best choice they could. There is a great tragedy in this, and
also a great beauty.
I recommend this to anyone who has found
their hearts tied to the fate of the brave little Ka-Tet. To anyone who
has not read the others, go back to book one first and take the journey
to this one. Only then will you truly understand the path that these
brave gunslingers have walked so far, to save the tower and all
realities. And you will understand how far the along the path they
really have still to go.
Wolves of the Calla is an excellent blend of horror, science fiction and
fantasy. It is entertaining and thought provoking. King develops the
characters in a way that makes them human and allows the events to flow
like a river downstream... into the gaping mouth of a blood thirsty
monster. In this alternate universe nothing is what it seems, yet
everything has an air of familiarity. It is in this familiarity that
King frightens us the most, because there is nothing more frightening
that the alternate reality of King's mind.
Hold on to your horses, kids. Its going to be a hell of a ride.
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