Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Summary and Reviews of Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

Wolves of the Calla

The Dark Tower V

by Stephen King
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Readers' Rating (10):
  • First Published:
  • Nov 1, 2003, 736 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jan 2005, 736 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

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.

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World, the almost timeless landscape that seems to stretch from the wreckage of civility that defined Roland's youth to the crimson chaos that seems the future's only promise. Readers of Stephen King's epic series know Roland well, or as well as this enigmatic hero can be known. They also know the companions who have been drawn to his quest for the Dark Tower: Eddie Dean and his wife, Susannah; Jake Chambers, the boy who has come twice through the doorway of death into Roland's world; and Oy, the Billy-Bumbler.

In this long-awaited fifth novel in the saga, 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. One of the town's residents is Father Callahan, a ruined priest who, like Susannah, Eddie, and Jake, passed through one of the portals that lead both into and out of Roland's world.

As Father Callahan tells the ka-tet the astonishing story of what happened following his shamed departure from Maine in 1977, his connection to the Dark Tower becomes clear, as does the danger facing a single red rose in a vacant lot off Second Avenue in midtown Manhattan. For Calla Bryn Sturgis, danger gathers in the east like a storm cloud. 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.

Contents

The Final Argument

Prologue: Roont


Part One: Todash I: The Face on the Water
II: New York Groove
III: Mia
IV: Palaver
V: Overholser
VI: The Way of the Eld
VII: Todash

Part Two: Telling Tales
I: The Pavilion
II: Dry Twist
III: The Priest's Tale (New York)
IV: The Priest's Tale Continued (Highways in Hiding)
V: The Tale of Gray Dick
VI: Gran-pere's Tale
VII: Nocturne, Hunger
VIII: Took's Store; The Unfound Door
IX: The Priest's Tale Concluded (Unfound)

Part Three: The Wolves
I: Secrets
II: The Dogan, Part 1
III: The Dogan, Part 2
IV: The Pied Piper
V: The Meeting of the Folken
VI: Before the Storm
VII: The Wolves

Epilogue: The Doorway Cave

Author's Note

Author's Afterword


PROLOGUE: ROONT

Chapter One

Tian was blessed (though few farmers would have used such a word) with three patches: River Field, where his family had grown rice since time out of mind; Roadside Field, where ka-...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

Booklist - Ray Olson
Wizard and Glass (1997), volume 4 of King's massive, postapocalyptic, chivalrized western, The Dark Tower, was rather a snooze, not for lack of action but because it was primarily a flashback that drew unmercifully on King's stash of horse-opera cliches. [In Volume 5] one of the greatest cavalcades in popular fiction is back on track.

Library Journal - Nancy McNicol
This is the fifth installment of King's epic series, started more than 30 years ago..... Fans will delight not only in King's continued gleeful intertwining of multiple genres but perhaps most of all in the return of Salem's Lot's Father Callahan..... It will be followed in close succession by the final two volumes of the series, both of which are completed and scheduled for publication in 2004.

Publishers Weekly
The high suspense and extensive character development here (especially concerning Jake's coming-of-age), plus the enormity of King's ever-expanding universe, will surely keep his Constant Readers in awe.

Reader Reviews

dave folds

This book was amazing. I'm not sure that I understand some of the negative reviews on this page. The Dark Tower series seems to get better with every book. Each one gives you more insight on the characters personalities and the world/worlds they'...   Read More
AV

wow....simply wow. When you get near the end of the book, it will not leave your hands until it has been completed. Absolutely AMAZING!
Gilbert

I cannot say enough about the majesty of the Dark Tower novels. King has bridged tremendous gulfs between genres as diverse as fantasy, horror, sci-fi, and western. Wolves of the Calla is a monument of his achievements surpassing all others in the ...   Read More
Michaela

I am a Hard-Core King fan. I first read The Waste lands when I was around 11. I am now 17 and love everything he writes except the way he leaves some character's lives unfinished.

Write your own review!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Wolves of the Calla, try these:

We have 5 read-alikes for Wolves of the Calla, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Stephen King
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...
  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Censorship, like charity, should begin at home: but unlike charity, it should end there.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now