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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Only because it’s not as pleasingly adventurous as The Waste Lands, Wolves of the Calla is the second strongest entry in the series thus far, full of dark mystery and expansive world-building, with wicked tidings of where the story may go in the final two.
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Critical Score: B
Personal Score: B+
I have a hardcover first edition, and it’s truly gorgeous, from the jacket to the copy to the illustrations to the interior layout to the type of paper they printed it on. Okay, actually, I don’t love the choice of illustration for the front cover, but it’s fine. The overall package is top-tier. I’ll admit this is part of why I started the book with more excitement than I felt going into any of the other 5 previous volumes (The Wind Through the Keyhole included).
The other reason is that it’s clear with this volume that King finally got his Dark Tower shit together. His accident scared him into getting his ducks in a row to finish this series, and with Volume V, he seems to finally (finally!) know what this series actually is, what the story’s actually about, how the world(s) operates, how the narrative will end (roughly), and what needs to happen between here and there.
Every other volume has very much felt like he was just vibing with the world and its characters, making it up as he went along, taking it one volume at a time; there’s pros and cons to that model of fantasy writing, but I think it was past time to get things in order if we were going to sustain any narrative momentum.
With Wolves, “it’s showtime”. That’s palpable from the start. But *does* King deliver?
Pretty much!
This is a slow-paced side-quest novel, basically, but it’s good fun and develops the themes and world-building enough to satisfy.
It’s become so clear that these books are not about the quest to the dark tower. Most of the content is side missions and side stories, with intermissions of travel. The bulk of the series is everything *except* physically moving closer to the tower. Meanwhile, the scenes where they are adventuring are my absolute favorite parts. This book is a mostly the Wolves side-quest, and they’re already making the New York plans that appear to make up the general plot of Song of Susannah, so add in the cliffhanger in this volume and it’s clear that Volume VI will pretty much be a side-quest too. God, I just want us to be adventuring without these long pit stops. But that’s not the point. And King will die on this hill, so instead I’ll try to just take his hand and go with it.
Let’s get into the details.
The prologue is a bit long, and just wanted to get back to the ka-tet on their journey, so things start off on a weak foot. But once we return to the heroe’s, it’s game on.
I love that the heroes are putting together some mysteries that have lingered throughout the whole series, such as 19 and 99 and all the coincidences of names, the robot company, the rose plot of land, and the interconnecting worlds. The Star Wars et. al references and the big ‘Salem’s Lot reveal are extraordinarily weird—love it. I also love the addition of black 13. The pliability of time is interesting. The hint that geographical directions will soon start to become pliable is promising.
Callahan’s backstory is so fun. His chapters were a warm blanket.
One gripe, on that note. So, Callahan is a confused bisexual, and King himself doesn’t seem to know that bisexuality exists. Mix this up with problematic things like equating homosexuality with pedophilia (priests are usually gay, therefore they molest boys), transphobia (“boys dressed as girls” who work as especially cheap prostitutes), and an abundant use of slurs, and you’ve got a narrative that’s far from empowering and moderately harmful. Nonetheless, I guess it’s useful to make Callahan sort of queer? And him saving his gay friend is kind of sweet?
Ugh.
This book’s politics are truly so exhausting, as is this series as a whole. King goes into such a problematic state when he’s writing in this world. It’s agonizing at times. Take the roont (“ruined”) people, who are autism coded; yes, the disability is not something one wants to develop, but making it so tragic through the “roont” element feels a bit toxic. It would’ve been a lot more meaningful if instead they came back as depressive, hollow husks, as a commentary on veteran PTSD, that sort of thing. It would’ve been actually eerie, because you’re wondering what the heck they witnessed and went through to come back as depressed shells, and it speaks to the horrors of being used in war. Instead, these “roont” are almost supposed to be comic relief, or at least amusing. It’s quite distasteful. King’s never been good at writing disability—he always lands on inspiration porn at best—nor is he ever good at writing race; with Susannah in this volume, it’s a mixed bag. He’s occasionally good at writing women; this book gets more feminist as it goes, and that was great to see. He’s only recently gotten decent at writing queerness, the very few times he approaches it. He’s good at writing addiction, though (so Calhan’s sobriety journey is handled well, as expected), and that’s because he’s speaking from lived experience, as is the case when he’s writing about poverty/class. Though, over time him and his family got rich from his successful writing career, and you can sort of feel him fall away from writing class as well as he did early on.
I like how the ka-tet is breaking apart and developing secrets; Roland’s arthritis makes for terrific tension. It’s great character development cooking throughout, and it explodes at the end in a satisfying surprise. Much of these ka-tet issues are unfortunately rooted in Susannah’s demonic rape from The Waste Lands, and while that whole thing was pretty crazy, King doesn’t rub our faces in it this time around. Instead we’re just dealing with the aftermath. Obviously written by a man, but it’s not too bad.
The abortion commentary is good, though you can tell King’s only going there to justify why they can’t abort the demon fetus and be done with it; you’re telling me Roland can’t figure out a way around Callahan’s stubbornness?
The core climax is short, seven pages, but very effective. King’s endings often fail to thrill, but this one is really good. The bloody showdown on the road—great. The irony of young Benny dying while his dad survives the day—great. The final twist of Mia’s takeover and the Stephen King in-universe reveal? Quite the finish. Bravo.
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Critical Score: B
Personal Score: B+
I have a hardcover first edition, and it’s truly gorgeous, from the jacket to the copy to the illustrations to the interior layout to the type of paper they printed it on. Okay, actually, I don’t love the choice of illustration for the front cover, but it’s fine. The overall package is top-tier. I’ll admit this is part of why I started the book with more excitement than I felt going into any of the other 5 previous volumes (The Wind Through the Keyhole included).
The other reason is that it’s clear with this volume that King finally got his Dark Tower shit together. His accident scared him into getting his ducks in a row to finish this series, and with Volume V, he seems to finally (finally!) know what this series actually is, what the story’s actually about, how the world(s) operates, how the narrative will end (roughly), and what needs to happen between here and there.
Every other volume has very much felt like he was just vibing with the world and its characters, making it up as he went along, taking it one volume at a time; there’s pros and cons to that model of fantasy writing, but I think it was past time to get things in order if we were going to sustain any narrative momentum.
With Wolves, “it’s showtime”. That’s palpable from the start. But *does* King deliver?
Pretty much!
This is a slow-paced side-quest novel, basically, but it’s good fun and develops the themes and world-building enough to satisfy.
It’s become so clear that these books are not about the quest to the dark tower. Most of the content is side missions and side stories, with intermissions of travel. The bulk of the series is everything *except* physically moving closer to the tower. Meanwhile, the scenes where they are adventuring are my absolute favorite parts. This book is a mostly the Wolves side-quest, and they’re already making the New York plans that appear to make up the general plot of Song of Susannah, so add in the cliffhanger in this volume and it’s clear that Volume VI will pretty much be a side-quest too. God, I just want us to be adventuring without these long pit stops. But that’s not the point. And King will die on this hill, so instead I’ll try to just take his hand and go with it.
Let’s get into the details.
The prologue is a bit long, and just wanted to get back to the ka-tet on their journey, so things start off on a weak foot. But once we return to the heroe’s, it’s game on.
I love that the heroes are putting together some mysteries that have lingered throughout the whole series, such as 19 and 99 and all the coincidences of names, the robot company, the rose plot of land, and the interconnecting worlds. The Star Wars et. al references and the big ‘Salem’s Lot reveal are extraordinarily weird—love it. I also love the addition of black 13. The pliability of time is interesting. The hint that geographical directions will soon start to become pliable is promising.
Callahan’s backstory is so fun. His chapters were a warm blanket.
One gripe, on that note. So, Callahan is a confused bisexual, and King himself doesn’t seem to know that bisexuality exists. Mix this up with problematic things like equating homosexuality with pedophilia (priests are usually gay, therefore they molest boys), transphobia (“boys dressed as girls” who work as especially cheap prostitutes), and an abundant use of slurs, and you’ve got a narrative that’s far from empowering and moderately harmful. Nonetheless, I guess it’s useful to make Callahan sort of queer? And him saving his gay friend is kind of sweet?
Ugh.
This book’s politics are truly so exhausting, as is this series as a whole. King goes into such a problematic state when he’s writing in this world. It’s agonizing at times. Take the roont (“ruined”) people, who are autism coded; yes, the disability is not something one wants to develop, but making it so tragic through the “roont” element feels a bit toxic. It would’ve been a lot more meaningful if instead they came back as depressive, hollow husks, as a commentary on veteran PTSD, that sort of thing. It would’ve been actually eerie, because you’re wondering what the heck they witnessed and went through to come back as depressed shells, and it speaks to the horrors of being used in war. Instead, these “roont” are almost supposed to be comic relief, or at least amusing. It’s quite distasteful. King’s never been good at writing disability—he always lands on inspiration porn at best—nor is he ever good at writing race; with Susannah in this volume, it’s a mixed bag. He’s occasionally good at writing women; this book gets more feminist as it goes, and that was great to see. He’s only recently gotten decent at writing queerness, the very few times he approaches it. He’s good at writing addiction, though (so Calhan’s sobriety journey is handled well, as expected), and that’s because he’s speaking from lived experience, as is the case when he’s writing about poverty/class. Though, over time him and his family got rich from his successful writing career, and you can sort of feel him fall away from writing class as well as he did early on.
I like how the ka-tet is breaking apart and developing secrets; Roland’s arthritis makes for terrific tension. It’s great character development cooking throughout, and it explodes at the end in a satisfying surprise. Much of these ka-tet issues are unfortunately rooted in Susannah’s demonic rape from The Waste Lands, and while that whole thing was pretty crazy, King doesn’t rub our faces in it this time around. Instead we’re just dealing with the aftermath. Obviously written by a man, but it’s not too bad.
The abortion commentary is good, though you can tell King’s only going there to justify why they can’t abort the demon fetus and be done with it; you’re telling me Roland can’t figure out a way around Callahan’s stubbornness?
The core climax is short, seven pages, but very effective. King’s endings often fail to thrill, but this one is really good. The bloody showdown on the road—great. The irony of young Benny dying while his dad survives the day—great. The final twist of Mia’s takeover and the Stephen King in-universe reveal? Quite the finish. Bravo.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Hmm, another mid-world small town setting. I preferred this one to Wizard and Glass. it would have gotten 4 stars except that I have a small gripe with the Jake-Benny friendship - I just couldn't feel anything for Benny, he didn't really seem part of the story.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I don't even know what to say. I enjoyed this side quest of Roland's Ka-tet. Some parts were really boring, but it picked up speed as Roland and his Ka-tet started doing what they were supposed to do.
There were two things that I guess were supposed to surprise the readers when they were revealed (Possible SPOILER: one being what the Wolves were, and two being the book Roland saw in the cave), but I somehow had guessed both of them beforehand. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be able to guess them or not, but I was more surprised at how right I had been about them rather than the two phenomena themselves.
Anyways, one thing that didn't go as I'd expected was Susannah's (actually Mia's) story. The book ends in such a cliff hanger that I'm going to start the next book right away.
There were two things that I guess were supposed to surprise the readers when they were revealed (Possible SPOILER: one being what the Wolves were, and two being the book Roland saw in the cave), but I somehow had guessed both of them beforehand. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be able to guess them or not, but I was more surprised at how right I had been about them rather than the two phenomena themselves.
Anyways, one thing that didn't go as I'd expected was Susannah's (actually Mia's) story. The book ends in such a cliff hanger that I'm going to start the next book right away.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
4.0 / 5
The dialect of the people of Calla, and the linguistic depth of this world as a whole, is nothing short of genius. King crafts a language that feels both organic and immersive, adding rich texture to the setting. However, the novel itself suffers from a sense of artificial momentum. The shadow of King’s near-death experience looms over this entry, shaping the narrative in ways that feel unnatural.
One particularly jarring moment occurs when Roland becomes a mouthpiece for King’s own views, delivering a didactic and out-of-character denunciation of religion. The scene comes off as atonal and preachy, disrupting the flow of the story. Additionally, the mystery surrounding Roland’s past—his age, the length of his journey—is abruptly and unceremoniously unraveled during a discussion of passageways to other worlds. For a character so steeped in myth and enigma, this sudden exposition feels misplaced.
While the themes of memory and time’s fluidity are central to The Dark Tower series, Roland’s newfound certainty about his own past feels incongruous. The mystique that has long surrounded him is diminished, and the reveal lacks the weight or buildup it deserves.
Despite these missteps, The Wolves of the Calla still offers moments of brilliance, particularly in its worldbuilding and atmosphere. It’s a compelling read, but one that struggles occasionally under the weight of its own narrative choices.
The dialect of the people of Calla, and the linguistic depth of this world as a whole, is nothing short of genius. King crafts a language that feels both organic and immersive, adding rich texture to the setting. However, the novel itself suffers from a sense of artificial momentum. The shadow of King’s near-death experience looms over this entry, shaping the narrative in ways that feel unnatural.
One particularly jarring moment occurs when Roland becomes a mouthpiece for King’s own views, delivering a didactic and out-of-character denunciation of religion. The scene comes off as atonal and preachy, disrupting the flow of the story. Additionally, the mystery surrounding Roland’s past—his age, the length of his journey—is abruptly and unceremoniously unraveled during a discussion of passageways to other worlds. For a character so steeped in myth and enigma, this sudden exposition feels misplaced.
While the themes of memory and time’s fluidity are central to The Dark Tower series, Roland’s newfound certainty about his own past feels incongruous. The mystique that has long surrounded him is diminished, and the reveal lacks the weight or buildup it deserves.
Despite these missteps, The Wolves of the Calla still offers moments of brilliance, particularly in its worldbuilding and atmosphere. It’s a compelling read, but one that struggles occasionally under the weight of its own narrative choices.
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes