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Wolves Of The Calla (The Dark Tower book
5) by Stephen King and illustrated by Bernie Wrighton check out website: www.toruk.com and www.panmacmillan.com
They are led by Roland Deschain of Gilead, who searches for the Dark Tower which is apparently the key to reversing the decline of Mid-World, as this world is known. Roland's companions are all from New York but not from the same era. They have been plucked from different decades during the later twentieth-century and it becomes clear these are not the same New York but New Yorks from parallel if similar worlds. They have, of course, gathered together over the previous books and are following Roland's quest. Our heroes come across a threatened town, Calla Bryn Sturgis, some of whose inhabitants call on them for their help against child-stealing marauders. At this point, the book, which I found somewhat dull, begins to pick up pace. In many ways the story becomes a western and is very reminiscent of the Yul Brynner film 'The Magnificent Seven', itself based on a Japanese classic by Akira Kurosawa, 'The Seven Samurai'. In this case, every generation a large group of raiders ride out of the hills and take half the children of the area. These children are almost always born as twins and it is one each of these who are taken. They are then returned sometime later but as morons. Attempts in the past to resist the raiders have met with disaster and many of the populace require persuading that defiance will not result in worse retaliation. Our heroes plan and scheme and are able to persuade enough of the townsfolk to join then in putting up a credible defence. Gradually, we learn more of the lives of the townsfolk, the nature of the threat against them and how it is to be countered. At the end of the book is the final battle which provides a very satisfying and satisfactory climax. This is a much layered story and in addition to our 'western' adventure there are other threats not only within this world but within the parallel worlds the New Yorkers once inhabited. They are able to travel between these worlds and need to in order to cope with other threats to themselves and to their quest to find the Dark Tower and save Mid-World. I enjoyed the book and feel encouraged to locate the earlier volumes and read the overall story from the beginning. Stephen King is a highly successful writer and I hesitate to criticise his writing, but one element that irritated me was the way he wrote the speech of the townsfolk in a form of dialect. This was a habit of Victorian writers, usually to demonstrate the inferiority of some or other bunch of yokels. I found it made it difficult to read, stopping the flow and would have thought other means could have been found to distinguish characters one from another. Another irritation is the amount of coincidence. There is an intentional amount of coincidence in the book which is intended to link elements in one world with those of another. However, I felt there was rather too much of this and think it rather lazy of the author to use this device to the extend he did. Charles Dickens did the same, but in his defence he was writing his books as weekly serials in newspapers and was under severe time constraints. The illustrations are by Bernie Wrightson are all in colour. I have the habit of flicking through illustrations when I first pick up a book and, if you are like me, they perhaps give away too much of the plot in advance. I am not sure how necessary they are to the book. A map of the heroes travels or of the town, might have been of more practical use to the reader but it is perhaps rather a nice trend to encourage illustration in books Overall, worth reading, and I would imagine those who have followed these characters through earlier books will enjoy this book. Paul Hanley
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OTHER REVIEWS - March 2004
Chasing Science by Frederick Pohl Wolves Of The Calla by Stephen King and illustrated by Bernie Wrighton The Mammoth Book Of Native Americans edited by Jon E. Lewis Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin Red Star Rising: More Chronicles Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Three Hearts And Three Lions by Poul Anderson Downward To The Earth by Robert Silverberg Buffy: Seven Crows by John Vornholt The Dragon Of Despair by Jane Lindsjold Gunpowder Empire by Harry Turtledove Barry Trotter And The Unnecessary Sequel by Michael Gerber Fitcher’s Brides by Gregory Frost Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror 2003 The Moon’s Shadow by Catherine Asaro Which Way To The Future: Selected Essays From Analog by Stanley Schmidt
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'This
is the latest volume in a saga by Stephen King, an author perhaps
better known for his horror stories. The intention of the author
is apparently to write some 7 volumes in total in this series. 
I
must confess not to have read the preceding four volumes. I cannot
therefore compare this book to its predecessors. What I can do is
give an opinion on how this stands up as a read in its own right
which is, I believe in a series as long as this one is proposed
to be, an important factor for many of its readers. 'Wolves Of The
Calla' is the tale of a quest by a group of characters through a
post-apocalyptic world.
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