Dark Tower 5: Wolves of the Calla - Stephen King

In the mid-1960s, Stephen King read Tolkien epic trilogy The Lord Of The Rings. It was then that he realised he wanted to write his own 'magnum opus' of sorts - his own crowning work - his own saga. However, he waited, wanting to make sure that he wrote his work and not that of someone else, curbing his desire until such a time as he was influenced mainly by his own work and not another author's. Thus it was that in 1982, The Gunslinger was published, the first in a series of 7 books in The Dark Tower series. It was the start of Stephen King's own epic saga, one that would take him over 20 years to complete. One that would make me a Stephen King fan. Let me ...  Read the complete review

Wolves of the Calla is the fifth book in the Dark Tower Series, the book continues the story where the fourth instalment left off as we join Roland and his ka-tet leaving the forest of mid-world and coming upon a small farming community with big problems. The people of Calla Bryn Sturgis have been plagued for centuries by the rampaging wolves who turn up every 23/24 years and kidnap 1 child from every pair of twins in the village and surrounding areas (twins being the norm in this part of Rolands world means this affect nearly all families in the village.) The children then returned shortly afterwards as "roont" Kings word for disabled mentally and ...  Read the complete review

Let me start by saying that it’s a while since I read anything by Stephen King. I’ve always been a fan of earlier books like “It” and “Pet Cemetery”. These were seminal works for me as I grew up with the omnipresent horror/fantasy author. I’d gone off King’s stuff in recent years as I just found that meandering style hard to live with. However, I had started the Dark Tower series a number of years ago and when I saw that “Wolves of the Calla” was available in my local library then I felt compelled to read on in what is the fifth book in a series of seven. You will need to note that the Dark Tower/Gunslinger series of books is meant to be King’s life works or magnum opus ...  Read the complete review