The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (5) (Packaging may vary) by Stephen King
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The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (5) (Packaging may vary)

by

Stephen King

(Author)

4.7

-

10,955 ratings


Wolves of the Calla is the thrilling fifth book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series—a unique bestselling epic fantasy quest inspired many years ago by The Lord of the Rings.

In the extraordinary fifth novel in Stephen King’s remarkable fantasy epic, Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World. Their path takes them to the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis, a tranquil valley community of farmers and ranchers on Mid-World’s borderlands.

Beyond the town, the rocky ground rises toward the hulking darkness of Thunderclap, the source of a terrible affliction that is slowly stealing the community’s soul. The Wolves of Thunderclap and their unspeakable depredation are coming. To resist them is to risk all, but these are odds the gunslingers are used to, and they can give the Calla-folken both courage and cunning. Their guns, however, will not be enough.

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ISBN-10

0743251628

ISBN-13

978-0743251624

Print length

736 pages

Language

English

Publisher

Scribner

Publication date

January 03, 2005

Dimensions

5.5 x 1.8 x 8.38 inches

Item weight

1.9 pounds


Product details

ASIN :

B000FC0VEI

File size :

7063 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

Enabled

X-Ray :

Enabled

Word wise :

Enabled


Editorial reviews

One gets the feeling that this colossal story means a lot to King, that he's telling it because he has to....he's giving The Dark Tower everything he's got. ― San Francisco Chronicle

Wolves of the Calla is one of the strongest entries yet in what will surely be a master storyteller's magnum opus. ― Locus

[A] hypnotic blend of suspense and sentimentality...a sprawling, eventful tale of demons, monsters, narrow escapes, and magic portals. ― The New York Times Book Review

The man can spin a yarn, and a great one at that. ― The Philadelphia Inquirer

The master of the macabre....[King] is still quite the entertainer. ― People

An impressive work of mythic magnitude. May turn out to be Stephen King's greatest literary achievement. ― The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It works because King, despite his long resume, keeps insisting on surprising himself and, in so doing, surprising us. ― The Kansas City Star

Brilliant in technique and ability...Feed your head! Now dig in, 'cause King's latest in this seven-course banquet...is a lip-smacking, brain-filling repast. ― The Denver Post

"The Dark Tower" is King's masterpiece....Wolves of the Calla succeeds as a standalone work. ― Bangor Daily News

The high suspense and extensive character development here...plus the enormity of King's ever-expanding universe, will surely keep his "Constant Readers" in awe. ― Publishers Weekly


About the authors

Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King's books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald's Game and It.

King was the recipient of America's prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.

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Reviews

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

10,955 global ratings

T-Rex 5

T-Rex 5

5

Best of the 1st 5 Books of the Series

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book is a masterpiece in so many ways. It is one of Steven King's best books, and by far the best book of the first 5 books in this series. This book has everything one could want in a book, time-travel, time & space dilation, evil "wolves" who prey on twins-destroying the brain of 1, good guys who come to the aid of the children, a talking robot in a primitive land, split-personalities, a traitor, as always a range of different characters, a woman-pregnant with a demon child, star-crossed lovers, a quest to save all worlds, and a big cliff-hanger leading into book 6. Other than the epilogue, I can't imagine anything I would have changed in this book to make it better. The book starts with the gunslinger & his party of 3 nearing the end of their journey to "Thunderclap", where they believe the Dark Tower and the future of all worlds lie. They are sought out by a party from a nearby town Calla Bryn Sturgis who seek their aid in protecting their children. Calla Bryn Sturgis is a subsistance level farming community, other than a walking/talking giant robot who will at times aid them in their physical work or in babysitting their children, and who warns them when the "wolves" are coming. For unknown reasons, almost all births in Calla Bryn Sturgis are of twins, and every few generations the town will be raided by unknown creatures wearing wolf masks who will kidnap one of every set of twins. The twins are then returned by train a few weeks later, but are severely brain-damaged. Efforts to hide the twins or fight the "wolves" in the past have been futile. Roland and group agree to help them. They also meet up with Father Callahan, a main character from another Steven King novel, 'Salem's Lot. We learn the history here, what happened to Father Callahan between the end of the book in Salem's Lot, and to when he ended up in Calla Bryn Sturgis. Father Callahan also has a present for them, Black 13 from the Wizard's Rainbow, which Roland believes can enable them to time/parallel world travel. Which will be definitely needed, because Roland and party have learned that the rose from previous books, located in NY is in great danger, none other then by Eddie's old drug boss, Ballazar. Roland also learns that Susannah is pregnant, and by all indications, the baby is from her encounter with the demon in Book 3, and not from Eddie. Unfortunately, nobody knows how long demon pregnancies last, so in addition to the intense work of figuring how to solve their 2 simultaneous problems of protecting the rose and the twins of Calla Bryn Sturgis, the group must also worry that Susannah will go into labor at an inopportune time. The storylines are thoughtfully interwoven, the ending unpredictable. The book was very hard to put down, as the story was so compelling. Then, the epilogue. It's not that the epilogue was bad, it wasn't. But the epilogue was a set-up for book 6, and I fear from the tone of the epilogue, that Book 6 may be crossing into "jump the shark" territory. Still King very seldom disappoints, so I have hope that my initial thoughts on the epilogue are wrong, and Book 6 will turn out to be every bit as entrancing as Book 5.

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2 people found this helpful

L.A.Applebee

L.A.Applebee

5

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2024

Verified Purchase

Bought as a gift and he said they get. Better each book

Graham Downs

Graham Downs

5

Best one yet! A literary masterpiece!

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

Best one yet!

While on their continuing quest for The Dark Tower, Roland and his ka-tet are waylaid by a village in crisis. The gunslingers - because they are all gunslingers in their own right, by now - have to decide whether they can help. And if they can help, they must, and are not allowed to accept any kind of payment, according to the Gunslinger Code.

This book mostly concerns that side quest, but there's a helluva lot of depth, and along the way, they discover much that will aid them in their main quest.

In my review of the last book (Wizard and Glass) in this series, I lamented the long, drawn-out, and somewhat inappropriate backstory. Well, this one ALSO has a significant chunk of backstory to share, but it's nothing like the one in Wizard and Glass. This one's entirely appropriate and perfectly paced, and we're constantly reminded that it is, in fact, a backstory.

In many ways, it forms somewhat of a sequel to 'Salem's Lot. I'll say no more than that, but if you haven't read that book, I strongly suggest you do so before reading Wolves of the Calla.

Back to the main story of this book: the village and its inhabitants are so richly detailed, none of them are "cardboard cutouts" by any means, and their own unique dialect is presented so beautifully, so consistently... I can only call it a literary masterpiece.

Around about 85% of the way through, I started noticing the odd typo here and here. These were clearly things that the editors missed (but in a book this long, who can blame them?). If you know me, you'd know that normally a single typo would be enough to destroy any book's chances of getting a five-star review from me. But in this case, I was so engrossed by the time I spotted the first one, and there are so comparatively few of them, that it didn't matter.

As the author himself advises in his introduction, I wouldn't recommend reading this book if you haven't read the first four (skip the "point fives", though - just read the main story), but if you've been struggling through, I promise you you won't regret sticking with it for this one!

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10 people found this helpful

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