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Wolves of the Calla
(The Dark Tower #5)
by
Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World on their quest for the Dark Tower. Their path takes them to the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis. But beyond the tranquil farm town, the ground rises to the hulking darkness of Thunderclap, the source of a terrible affliction that is stealing the town's soul. The wolves of Thunderclap and
...more
Mass Market Paperback, Pocket Books Premium Edition, 931 pages
Published
February 1st 2006
by Pocket Books
(first published November 4th 2003)
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Showing 1-30
(B+) 76% | Good
Notes: Essentially one long side quest, it's hampered by a plodding back-story but recovers and ends on an interesting twist.
Notes: Essentially one long side quest, it's hampered by a plodding back-story but recovers and ends on an interesting twist.
If someone would have told me back in the ‘90s that the way to get Stephen King to finish up the Dark Tower series quickly was to hit him with a minivan, I would have been on my way to Maine to rent a Dodge Caravan before you could say, "Bango Skank was here."
I confess this not to do more complaining about the long suffering years waiting on some advancement in the Dark Tower books, but to illustrate how utterly obsessed and frustrated I was with this goddamn series. Then King nearly came to the ...more
I confess this not to do more complaining about the long suffering years waiting on some advancement in the Dark Tower books, but to illustrate how utterly obsessed and frustrated I was with this goddamn series. Then King nearly came to the ...more
Mar 03, 2011
Rhiannon
rated it
it was ok
Recommends it for:
Fans of westerns, masochists
Recommended to Rhiannon by:
Uwdave
Shelves:
end-of-the-world,
read-in-2011
It is as though Stephen King:
1. Took me out to an arid, deserted sepia-toned no-place
2. Lit a sputtering campfire that quickly faded to embers
3. Handcuffed me
4. Sat me down Indian-style across from him
5. Proceeded to narrate to me in a hoarse, bored drawl over a series of three-to-four weeks the world's longest, most uninteresting story while my head lolled back, my lips grew dry with thirst, and my bum ached
If this book had been written by any writer other than Stephen King, it would never have ...more
1. Took me out to an arid, deserted sepia-toned no-place
2. Lit a sputtering campfire that quickly faded to embers
3. Handcuffed me
4. Sat me down Indian-style across from him
5. Proceeded to narrate to me in a hoarse, bored drawl over a series of three-to-four weeks the world's longest, most uninteresting story while my head lolled back, my lips grew dry with thirst, and my bum ached
If this book had been written by any writer other than Stephen King, it would never have ...more
The 2011 re-read:
Roland and his ka-tet of gunslingers ride into Calla Bryn Sturgis, a town with a problem. Once every generation, a gang of marauders called The Wolves ride out of Thunderclap and steal half of the town's children. The ones that return come back roont, or brain-damaged. Can Roland and the others stop the Wolves before Susan gives birth to the demon in her womb?
It was a long wait between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. Was it worth it? Well, does a horse piss where it pl ...more
Roland and his ka-tet of gunslingers ride into Calla Bryn Sturgis, a town with a problem. Once every generation, a gang of marauders called The Wolves ride out of Thunderclap and steal half of the town's children. The ones that return come back roont, or brain-damaged. Can Roland and the others stop the Wolves before Susan gives birth to the demon in her womb?
It was a long wait between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. Was it worth it? Well, does a horse piss where it pl ...more
Apr 16, 2017
Mark
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fiction,
favorites
Oh Mr king you are one weird cat!!
The Wolves of Calla is the fifth in the Dark Tower series, or 6th if you read Wind through the keyhole as 4.5.
The Ka-tet have survived Blaine, Lud, lobstrosities, mob bosses and many other things and they are back on the beam to the Dark Tower, at least that is their belief. Ahead in Calla Bryn Sturgis the locals are facing a crisis of their own. The wolves are coming! After 23 years the wolves are coming like they always do - like clockwork.
I am a big fan of Ki ...more
The Wolves of Calla is the fifth in the Dark Tower series, or 6th if you read Wind through the keyhole as 4.5.
The Ka-tet have survived Blaine, Lud, lobstrosities, mob bosses and many other things and they are back on the beam to the Dark Tower, at least that is their belief. Ahead in Calla Bryn Sturgis the locals are facing a crisis of their own. The wolves are coming! After 23 years the wolves are coming like they always do - like clockwork.
I am a big fan of Ki ...more
Commela Come Come!
Our journey has left so many behind. We have been attacked, beaten, and threatened. Yet, we persevere. Onward wayward travelers. Let us continue on our quest to the Dark Tower. Let us travel safely along the Path of the Beam
Our band of crazy MahFahs, led by the craziest MahFah yeh’ve ever encountered- Yours Truly- has seen and done much. I even let Jeff out of his
Bac ...more
May it do ya fine. This book did me real fine. Say thank ya.
I must be picking up the language from Calla Bryn Sturgis/Mid-World because it seems lately, I've been saying the speech of the people. I almost said, "Thankee-sai" as I was handed my receipt today at the grocery store. "Say thankee" I didn't.
Anyways, I'll stop being silly. (The grocery store thing is true, however.) What a fan-freaking-tastic book. I really enjoyed the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, the people, and I LOVED the way they s ...more
I must be picking up the language from Calla Bryn Sturgis/Mid-World because it seems lately, I've been saying the speech of the people. I almost said, "Thankee-sai" as I was handed my receipt today at the grocery store. "Say thankee" I didn't.
Anyways, I'll stop being silly. (The grocery store thing is true, however.) What a fan-freaking-tastic book. I really enjoyed the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, the people, and I LOVED the way they s ...more
This book took me the longest to get through of the dark tower series, but I blame that more on school than the book itself. I found this book to be fascinating, and so important to the connection of all the worlds and universes surrounding the dark tower. It's funny though, the conflict stated in the title of the book acted more as a clock than an actual tense moment. It was a side quest you knew they were going to win so there wasn't much stress or tension. The real important parts of the stor
...more
Jun 22, 2015
Jeff
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
buddy-reads,
scifi-fantasy
A prequel to a sequel or a sequel to a prequel of a previous Dark Tower “review”.
Both women’s hands moved like a blur as they obliterated their targets - moving and stationary. Their pistols were still smoking as they were returned them to their holsters.
“Well met,” said the fat rancher, as he moved towards the taller of the two women, “and mighty impressive.”
“Thankee, Sai”, said the taller of the two blonde katet members and by her calm and authoritative bearing, obviously the group’s dinh.
“I’m ...more
Both women’s hands moved like a blur as they obliterated their targets - moving and stationary. Their pistols were still smoking as they were returned them to their holsters.
“Well met,” said the fat rancher, as he moved towards the taller of the two women, “and mighty impressive.”
“Thankee, Sai”, said the taller of the two blonde katet members and by her calm and authoritative bearing, obviously the group’s dinh.
“I’m ...more
As my dawdling and ever dwindling ka-tet finally approaches the clearing at the end of the path—praise the Man Jesus—I find myself on the horns of a dilemma. You see, we read Wolves of the Calla nearly a year and a half ago, but I’ve left it unreviewed for a myriad of reasons. Actually . . . no, that’s not entirely true. For some idiotic reason, I began the silly practice of delaying reviews on buddy reads until all, or at least most my friends were finished reading. This delay tactic, commonly
...more
And so it was, three and a half years ago, that I stopped reading Stephen King altogether. Having begun him at age 12, and having read every single book up to that point, by my mid-twenties I was definitely reading his new stuff out of habit alone. But I was still looking forward to finishing the "Dark Tower" series.
And I never did. Because I read this book, which contains more filler than I thought you could put in 700 pages, and which confirmed that King had disappeared so far up his own ass t ...more
And I never did. Because I read this book, which contains more filler than I thought you could put in 700 pages, and which confirmed that King had disappeared so far up his own ass t ...more
OH RIZA! I think this might be my favorite (so far) of all the Dark Tower series of books....which says a lot.
If you were to combine a Western film with the TV show LOST with Back to the Future with a Horror film, you would *almost* have the vibe achieved here. There is hardly anything I can say that will not spoil at least PART of the book, so I will simply continue to sing its praises.
That ENDING! King continues to BLOW MY MIND. The way that EVERYTHING he has ever written seems to somehow ser ...more
If you were to combine a Western film with the TV show LOST with Back to the Future with a Horror film, you would *almost* have the vibe achieved here. There is hardly anything I can say that will not spoil at least PART of the book, so I will simply continue to sing its praises.
That ENDING! King continues to BLOW MY MIND. The way that EVERYTHING he has ever written seems to somehow ser ...more
I didn't really realize until I'd picked up this book that I was kind of in a reading funk for a bit. Either that, or this book is just that good. Either way, I had a new life of reading when I picked up Wolves of the Calla. I was sucked right back into the path of the Dark Tower, right along one of the 6 beams. And it's not just sucked in, but I was able to pick back up after a year or two with only my rusty memory of the previous 5 (counting Wind through the Keyhole) books.
Wolves is just what ...more
Wolves is just what ...more
My 100th book of the year is done!
I'm not exactly sure why, but I enjoyed this more this time around than I did the first time.
I much prefer this narrator over Frank Muller. (At this end of this audio book, King himself speaks about Frank Muller and why he didn't continue narrating this series-it was due to a motorcycle accident in which he was seriously injured.
(Frank is part of the reason The Haven Foundation was created. It's to help independent authors, narrators and frelancers during time ...more
I'm not exactly sure why, but I enjoyed this more this time around than I did the first time.
I much prefer this narrator over Frank Muller. (At this end of this audio book, King himself speaks about Frank Muller and why he didn't continue narrating this series-it was due to a motorcycle accident in which he was seriously injured.
(Frank is part of the reason The Haven Foundation was created. It's to help independent authors, narrators and frelancers during time ...more
Nov 17, 2018
megs_bookrack
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
stephen-king-read
All hail the King. Mind blown. Full review to come once I put the pieces of my brain back together...stay tuned!
These books become weirder and weirder with each volume, and this one is the weirdest so far.
To say that I didn't enjoy Wolves of the Calla would be a lie, but the book was too long. Though I love King when he writes big books, but this one was unnecessarily huge and 150-200 pages could have been cut off. This is one of the cases when King turns wordy.
Nevertheless, the book was entertaining and the characters were great, especially Jake, whose character-arc evolve dramatically but powerfully.
I ...more
To say that I didn't enjoy Wolves of the Calla would be a lie, but the book was too long. Though I love King when he writes big books, but this one was unnecessarily huge and 150-200 pages could have been cut off. This is one of the cases when King turns wordy.
Nevertheless, the book was entertaining and the characters were great, especially Jake, whose character-arc evolve dramatically but powerfully.
I ...more
Apr 20, 2017
Emma
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fantasy,
post-apocalypse
I absolutely LOVED this! The ka-tet get to be actual gunslingers in this story. We find out more about North Central Positronics and it's links to Eddie's, Jake's and Susannah's New York's , as well as Father Callahan. We find out how the Dark Tower is as relevant to their world as Roland's although it goes by a different name. We meet Andy, find about about the Wolves..I didn't see the Big Reveal about them until I was told.. it is a testament to King's skill that we don't get to the actual sho
...more
That face you make when a book has a horrible cliffhanger:
Why, Stephen King, why?!?!
Well, anyway, no review for this. It's suffice for me to say it's a million times better than book 4 (that one's a mess - I didn't even finish it). The story gets back to the quest to find the Dark Tower, I'm finally warming up to the characters and in few words, I liked it.
A little warning for people who want to read this series: Read King's 'Salem's Lot first. The destiny of one character is told here and you'l ...more
Why, Stephen King, why?!?!
Well, anyway, no review for this. It's suffice for me to say it's a million times better than book 4 (that one's a mess - I didn't even finish it). The story gets back to the quest to find the Dark Tower, I'm finally warming up to the characters and in few words, I liked it.
A little warning for people who want to read this series: Read King's 'Salem's Lot first. The destiny of one character is told here and you'l ...more
This was a refreshing return to the story of the Ka-Tet and their journey. After what felt like thousands of pages of flashbacks and backstory in Wizard & Glass and Wind Through the Keyhole, Wolves of the Calla returns to Roland and friends in their quest for the Dark Tower. There is so much drama throughout book five, leading up to an exciting ending that leaves you desperate to start the next book right away (which I did!). This book almost feels like a reintroduction of sorts to the main
...more
8.5/10
Another stonking effort from the Dark Tower series in a book that has left me drooling at the prospect of what the last two books hold. Initially it seemed like a slow read, this might not be so much the book as external factors making me unable to get chance to read it, and it plodded along and then all of a sudden I was swept up with it all and was engrossed and the last few hundred pages flew by. I would go as far as saying this is in my top two DT books but the slowness of the start me ...more
Another stonking effort from the Dark Tower series in a book that has left me drooling at the prospect of what the last two books hold. Initially it seemed like a slow read, this might not be so much the book as external factors making me unable to get chance to read it, and it plodded along and then all of a sudden I was swept up with it all and was engrossed and the last few hundred pages flew by. I would go as far as saying this is in my top two DT books but the slowness of the start me ...more
“First comes smiles, then lies. Last is gunfire."
- Roland Deschain, of Gilead
Dark Tower reviews:
#1 The Gunslinger
#2 The Drawing of the Three
#3 The Waste Lands
#4 Wizard and Glass
#5 Wolves of the Calla
#6 Song of Susannah
#7 The Dark Tower
- Roland Deschain, of Gilead
Dark Tower reviews:
#1 The Gunslinger
#2 The Drawing of the Three
#3 The Waste Lands
#4 Wizard and Glass
#5 Wolves of the Calla
#6 Song of Susannah
#7 The Dark Tower
This series is fucking perfect. And that Epilogue. Literally; holy shit. That's all I have to say on the matter. Long days and pleasant nights.
13/2 - I loved how meta this whole book was - references to Harry Potter, King himself, 'Salem's Lot (don't read this till you've read that or you'll be totally spoiled), and Star Wars abound. One of my favourite literary devices is when a character breaks the fourth wall or there are references to our 'world' in the story (one of the only lines I know off the top of my head from the TV show Charmed is from a scene where the sisters are in a mausoleum and Piper quips "Where's Buffy when you need
...more
There's a lot going on here. Luckily, it has the page count so nothing feels rushed. Because there's a new character (really an old one if you read a lot of King) and his backstory, and travel between worlds, and a demonic fetus, and a child-stealing evil to vanquish... Plenty to keep me avidly listening through 22 discs of audiobook.
That new-but-now character is Father Callahan, late of 'Salem's Lot. I wasn't exactly clamoring to see this guy again, and I doubt very many other people were. But ...more
That new-but-now character is Father Callahan, late of 'Salem's Lot. I wasn't exactly clamoring to see this guy again, and I doubt very many other people were. But ...more
I didn't think it was possible to be any more in love with this series than I already was. But with each book I reread, my love for it just keeps growing. I've become so invested in these characters and their journey that it feels like they've become a part of me.
I had forgotten a lot of the details of the story so at times it's almost like I'm on the Dark Tower journey again for the first time. And it's truly a magical experience. I feel like now that I'm a bit older, I'm able to truly appreci ...more
I had forgotten a lot of the details of the story so at times it's almost like I'm on the Dark Tower journey again for the first time. And it's truly a magical experience. I feel like now that I'm a bit older, I'm able to truly appreci ...more
If this series was written by any less of a writer, we would throw it to the side as the most ridiculous of fan-fiction. We would roll our eyes at the lightsabers and the demon sex and the trains that talk and the bear with a radar dish on its head and the people who somehow still have grenades when most people don't own guns and the magic door opened with a wooden key that they knew how to make just because they did. Actually, all of the times they just know things would normally get this disre
...more
Although many readers of this series liked this volume the least, I found it to be the most moving and exciting of them all. It appears to be a departure from the path of the Beam but in truth it is just another part of the journey of the Ka-Tet and very much on the path to the Dark Tower, bringing them closer. It is well tied in to all the past books, and it is in this book that we meet Father Callahan, from Salem's Lot. It was while reading this book that I completely fell in love with the cha
...more
One of King's best! Another great installment of The Dark Tower Series. King continues to create fabulously detailed worlds and then lets us bounce in and out of them as we visit other times and places. In this case, Roland and his Ka-tet come upon an old western town that's cursed with a band of marauding "wolves" who sweep in every twenty years or so and take many of the town's children away. The kids do come back after only a few weeks, but they're ruined. Big and dumb and stupid. They don't
...more
So I decided it was time to finally write my review- because apparently Dan 2.0 can't write one until either Jeff or I write one first. Yup...our 2.0 likes his excuses. I think his cowboy name should be changed to Procrastinatin' Shenanigan Playin' Dastardly Dan.
Buddy read with- Quick Draw Stepheny, Jumpin' Jeff, Procrastinatin' Shenanigan Playin' Dastardly Dan, Calamity Bev, Bronco Bustin' Black Jackin' Jason, and Cahootin' Christopher
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I can't believe our journey is almost finishe ...more
Buddy read with- Quick Draw Stepheny, Jumpin' Jeff, Procrastinatin' Shenanigan Playin' Dastardly Dan, Calamity Bev, Bronco Bustin' Black Jackin' Jason, and Cahootin' Christopher
[image error]
I can't believe our journey is almost finishe ...more
The Ka-Tet of Nineteen’s skills are requested when a gang of marauders threaten an entire generation of townsfolk. As Gunslingers, Roland and company are unable to refuse those who seek their assistance so they quickly begin preparing for battle. Susannah Dean, pregnant with a demon’s child, has yet another personality arise during her sleep. Her name is “Mia” and she may prove to be very, very dangerous.
There is a lot going on in King’s fifth entry of his acclaimed Dark Tower saga. Susannah’s o ...more
There is a lot going on in King’s fifth entry of his acclaimed Dark Tower saga. Susannah’s o ...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading with E.: Dark Tower Reread: WOLVES OF THE CALLA! | 1 | 3 | Sep 18, 2018 11:00PM | |
| Stephen King Fans: Dark Tower #5- Wolves of the Calla - Feb 2018 | 114 | 112 | Jul 07, 2018 04:02PM | |
| #RetoTorreOscura: La Torre Oscura V: Lobos del Calla | 2 | 22 | Jun 01, 2018 04:16PM | |
| Around the Year i...: Wolves of The Calla, by Stephen King | 1 | 18 | Jun 25, 2017 12:26PM | |
| Book Club: Wolves of the Calla | 1 | 2 | Jun 20, 2017 08:35AM | |
2019 Reading Chal...:
The Wolves of Calla (Dark Tower #5)
|
23 | 165 | Jun 01, 2017 07:20AM |
Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, M
...more
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The Dark Tower
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“It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.”
—
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“No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves.”
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