Londons Falling

Exhausting

Rating: 2/5
Comments:
After breezing through the first four novels at a frenetic pace, this novel took over a year to finish. After the first 400 pages i couldnt read it anymore and needed to take a long break from the Dark Tower novels (marvel comics graphic novels renewed my intrest). After page 500 or so/ Callahans second tale, the book gets better.
Two main problems i had, was that this book took 880 pages to build up to a fight that lasted all of 9 pages. 9 pages! out of 925!
Secondly, what made this series so compelling was the setting and atmosphere. Old Western, mixed with Kings horror, Tolkiens fantasy and with this North Central Positronics decayed technology mystery spred through out. Now not only does King change this dynamic by inserting everything he posibably could and it just comes across as a muddle of ideas with no linear progresion. Why a Star Wars lightsaber and not a unique device? Why a Harry Potter sneetch? Why put in other characters from your other novels? And why insert yourself as a Deus Ex Machina?
If this epic is ever to be adapted to big screen or tv, then whoever does the adaption needs to over look books 5 and on, and come up with a better ending for the ka-tet, otherwise it will be laughable.

The Return of Roland Deschain

Rating: 3/5
Comments:
As most people know, this is King's first return to Roland since the 1997 publication of Wizard and Glass, excusing "The Little Sisters of Eluria" of course. This book begins the second half of Roland's story. Wolves, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower were all published within rapid succession of each other because King felt it was time to finish the series.

Wolves of the Calla follows Roland's "ka-tet" to Calla Bryn Sturgis, a remote town harassed by "the Wolves", a group of creatures who wear wolf masks and appear every generation to collect children. The Wolves only take twins and they only take one of the twins, which they then return later on, but in a "roont" state, similar to retardation. Roland and the ka-tet enter Calla Bryn Sturgis days before the coming of the Wolves and are drawn into the conflict. Along the way they gain another member of the group, Father Donald Callahan from `Salem's Lot, another of King's novels.

Wolves succeeds in making the characters more complex. Roland finds temporary love, not to mention suffers from arthritis. Eddie matures greatly and stops making so many banal jokes. Susannah, pregnant with her "chap", develops another personality named "Mia". Jake befriends a local boy and finds acceptance for the first time since leaving New York. Even Father Callahan develops. His transition from New England priest to End World wanderer is some of King's finest writing.

However, much of the plot is unnecessary. I think that King felt that he'd overdeveloped Roland's character in Wizard and had to compensate for the rest of the group. There is an overabundance here of back story or "palaver" as King calls it. For the majority of the novel, the characters sit around and either talk about their past, or their plans for defeating the Wolves. The novel is rife with throwaway characters, many of whom are particular only to the Calla. While this may not be a bad method of storytelling for a standalone novel, creating atmosphere for example, it detracts from the overall story of the series.

While not a bad book, Wolves is like the Nebraska of the Dark Tower series; it's a long, necessary path on the way to something greater and a lot more interesting.

The saga continues, a la Seven Samurai

Rating: 4/5
Comments:
The Wolves of the Calla, the antepenultimate volume of Stephen King's Dark Tower series brings the ka-tet to Calla Bryn Sturgis, a small farming community on the outskirts of Thunderclap. The town, which births twins and only rarely "singletons", is plagued every few decades by the wolves, riders from Thunderclap who steal one child from each set of twins. The children then come back, years later, roont - dumb, and continuously growing until they die much younger than their other half.

The ka-tet, as gunslingers, have the duty to protect the Calla from the wolves, which are set to come in roughly thirty days as the ka-tet passes through. In the Calla, they are introduced to Father Callahan - a man from "our" side who had been brought to the Calla in a similar way as Eddie, Jake and Susannah. A large portion of the book is spent on his back-story and he becomes a main player in the Tower quest. (Many King fans will know him from King's second novel, Salem's Lot).

The majority of the book covers the thirty days of the ka-tet analyzing and preparing for the wolves to come, and on Callahan's interesting back-story which is complete with vampires and travel through the different worlds. Although it only covers roughly thirty days, the book is lengthy in pages (this edition has 736 pages) - longer even than the previous volume. However, unlike the previous volume, the story stays relevant to the Tower quest and the ka-tet, and provides further background of the characters - and further growth, especially in the boy (man, now?) Jake.

As with the other volumes, King transitions smoothly and easily into the next volume - and with interesting twists. Wolves of the Calla is an entertaining expansion on the Tower quest and the blend of Roland's world with "ours", and should not be missed for even casual fans of King or the series, as it makes up for the previous, lackluster fourth volume (Wizard and Glass) and leaves the reader quickly grabbing for the next volume.