And so, I’ve finished the fifth level of my second trip to The Tower with Wolves of the Calla (which, incidentally, I have been mispronouncing in my head for over a decade and am still adjusting to the correct pronunciation, having now listened to the audiobook!).
The main plot in this hefty tome is that our ka-tet of gunslingers, Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy, reach one of the last towns, the Callas, of their world and make a final stand to protect the town’s children from being reaped by mysterious Wolves, who appear from Thunderclap on the horizon once a generation to take half of the children. The group must win over the citizens of this smallhold, learn about the threat they face, uncover any traitors among the townspeople, devise a plan, and then execute it successfully. It’s not the most compelling story, but it does keep the journey moving along and helps demonstrate the skills and role of the gunslingers, pistol-toting knights of old.
Threaded throughout are a few subplots: a mysterious pregnancy, a rose in peril, and a retelling of what happened to the returning King character, Father Callahan. For King’s Constant Readers, the last we saw of Callahan was in ‘Salem’s Lot, an earlier novel involving a small town beset by a villainous vampire. It’s been at least 20 years since I read ‘Salem’s Lot, and it’s not one of my favourite King novels (let us not even speak of the impotent movie adaptations).
But what struck me most in this continuation of the Dark Tower journey is how much King started to, for want of a better phrase, enjoy the smell of his own farts. What starts out as neat little sayings and observations becomes repetitive and downright boring. If Eddie Dean makes one more languid remark about the coincidental appearance of the number 19 on this journey, I might snap. King himself is now referenced within the story as an author, and Callahan finds a copy of ‘Salem’s Lot and has a little menty-b as a result. It’s all getting a little annoying.
Given these quirks are starting to grind, I think that my cue to to take a little vacation from my trip to the Tower and read something else before turning back to Roland for the next novel.
Overall, I’ll give this fifth entry 3 out of 5 golden Sneetches.
