Book Home Books Information Wolves of the Calla

Wolves of the Calla

Wolves of the Calla is the fifth book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. This book continues the story of Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy, and also re-introduces the reader to the priest Father Callahan from King's earlier novel 'Salem's Lot.

After escaping the alternate Topeka and the evil wizard Randall Flagg, Roland's ka-tet travel to the farming village of Calla Bryn Sturgis where they meet Father Callahan. He and the townsfolk request the ka-tet's assistance in battling against the Wolves of Thunderclap, who come once a generation to take one child from each pair of the town's twins. After a few months of being away, the children are then returned "roont". The wolves are due to come in about a month's time.

Father Callahan also tells the gunslingers his remarkable story of how he left Maine following his battle with the vampire Barlow in the novel 'Salem's Lot. Since that encounter he has gained the ability to identify vampires, amongst whom Callahan identifies three types, by a blue aura. After some time he begins killing minor vampires as he finds them; however, this makes him a wanted man amongst the "low men" and so Callahan must go into exile.

Eventually he is lured into a trap and dies, allowing him to enter Mid-World in 1983, much as Jake did when killed in The Gunslinger. He appears near the Calla with an evil magic ball called the Black Thirteen, and is found by the Manni people.

Not only do Roland of Gilead and his ka-tet have to protect the Calla-folken from the Wolves, they must also protect a single red rose that grows in a vacant lot on Second Avenue and Forty-Sixth Street in mid-town Manhattan of 1977. If it is destoyed, then the Tower, which is the rose in another form, will fall. In order to get back to New York to prevent this they must use the sinister Black Thirteen.

To add to that, Roland and Jake have noticed bizarre changes in Susannah's behavior, which they are linked to the event recounted in The Waste Lands when Susannah occupies the beast in the stone circle.

Influences

Stephen King has acknowleged multiple sources of influence for this story, including Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, its stepchild The Magnificent Seven, Sergio Leone's "Man with No Name" trilogy, and other works by Howard Hawks and John Sturges, among others.

The weapons used by the Wolves, "Lightsticks", appear to be working versions of the Lightsabers of Star Wars. "Sneetches" are diabolical conglomerations of the Golden Snitch and bludgers of the Harry Potter books and the knife-wielding silver orb of the Phantasm movies. The Wolves themselves appear to be based on Doctor Doom's Doombots.