The Dark Tower V: Wolves of Calla

by: Stephen King

Nov 11, 2023

A further continuation of the adventures of Ka-tet from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. This time the climate of the novel has definitely more elements of a western. After the sensational fourth part, however, I expected something different.

Stephen King tends to write long, sometimes verbose histories, dragging out certain plots and describing events. For many pages this novel seemed to me simply boring. Descriptions of town meetings, conversations between Calla residents and Roland, planning for the final battle… I had the impression that the author got lost in building the plot of this part. Some confusion (for me) aroused by the travel of the characters in time and space.

A big plus is Father Callahan’s story of how he came to be in this dimension and in this particular location. For those who are familiar with King’s other novels, this is a moment worth waiting for. After all, here we get direct references to one of the author’s best novels - Salem’s Lot.

Although I consider this part much weaker than the previous one, it is a successful read. Many plots, references to the author’s other novels and the slowly explored world of the Dark Tower make this a very worthwhile series.