Wolves of the Calla

After a very long break, I have continued the Dark Tower series with the fifth book, Wolves of the Calla.

It was great to be back with Roland and the ka-tet. This book is also a pseudo-sequel to Salem's Lot, and I wouldnt particularly recommend reading it until you've read Salem's Lot, because that entire novel is spoiled here and is very relevant to this book.

The thrust of Wolves of the Calla involves Roland and the gang being recruited by a settlement to fight against the titular Wolves - a group of questionable immortals who show up once a generation to steal the town's children. The town has decided to fight back, and need some gunslingers to help them. Cue, magnificent seven.

Parts of this book were fantastic. Everything to do with Salem's Lot, I loved. The beginning was so strange and I was here for it. The ending of this book was exciting and straight up insane. But man alive, is this book too long.

Understand that I love long books. Rarely do I think a book is too long. But, as is sometimes the case with King, Uncle Steve needed an editor with a backbone here. A liberal cutting of 200 pages would have made this incredible; a conservative cutting of 100 would have made it more enjoyable. It was just so boring for so long. And the constant repetition of phrasing drove me crazy. If I never have to hear another person say the word “19” again, it'll be too soon. Just asinine stuff like, “wow that guy's name has 19 letters” “omg 19!” “No way, 19!” “19!!” Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up.

Anyway. Besides all that, it was an enjoyable book. Roland is one of the best characters out there. Jake had some great development here. The Dark Tower series is the weirdest, craziest thing I've ever read and Calla keeps that trend going. I'm exciting to see where things go. Mercifully, Song of Susannah is short.

The Path of the Beam continues!