# Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571 "2003-11-05T16:50:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![pure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@pure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pure)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/61 "2003-11-14T06:16:44Z")
I enjoyed this book alot more than “Wizard and the Glass” and I’m salivating for more. Thank goodness two more are coming out in the next year. damn i hate spoiler boxes. I found the lightsabres, Doctor Doom reference, and Harry Potter refernce to be just too much. It was pretty cheesy but we’ll see how it works out. It’ll probably just be something inane like “the writers of Marvel comic books went todash and were inspired by the Wolves to come up with Doctor Doom!!!” or vice versa. I didn’t really care about the geographic problem since I’m not from Detroit (or Chicago or wherever) so in my mind I just insert “american city I’ve never been to.” Does anybody know how many books this series is going to be? Is it going to end at book 7 or 9? There’s 2 more announced, but for some reason I’ve always thought there wa going to be 9 books in total. AAAAANDDDD I liked the background given about Father Callahan. I’ve never read Salem’s Lot so 30 or 40 pages of background on a pretty significant character was welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/62 "2003-11-14T14:11:48Z")
There’s 7, pure. King mentions in one of the intros that’s it’s all done, and no one needs to worry about Roland if King suffers some horrible accident. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/63 "2003-11-14T15:56:39Z")
Thanks for looking it up, **blanx**. I guess I just must have thought Michigan Avenue, right by Great Lake, must be Chicago! Without checking. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/64 "2003-11-14T17:33:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Munch \* > \*\*There’s 7, pure. King mentions in one of the intros that’s it’s all done, and no one needs to worry about Roland if King suffers some horrible accident. \*\* Plus the short story _Little Sisters_ in the Legends compilation. We can probably count on the occasional short story after it’s all said and done. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/65 "2003-11-14T19:00:35Z")
200 pages in … damn, but #5 is as good as the first three … I have serious fears that the Dark Tower will end in some sort of anticlimax. After all of this buildup, and waiting all of this time, it strikes me that actually ending the series will be the difficult part. I always sort of assumed that King was reluctant to end it, because he couldn’t - that, in reality, he had no better idea of what the Tower _really_ is, or what ails it, than the rest of us. However, the fact that he has announced a release date for the last two books sort of proves that little theory quite wrong! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/66 "2003-11-15T02:13:17Z")
I’m on Donald Grant’s mailing list (not sure why), and have received a few e-mails lately with their schedule for mailing the various editions, lettered, numbered, etc. Just for the heck of it, I e-mailed back and asked about the black ink problem. They answered! What they said was that the trade edition was actually published by Scribner. They’ve received complaints about the dye, and they asked Scribner what happened. Scribner says they don’t know, they’re using the same **water soluble** dye they use on all their books. Doesn’t water soluble means it will disperse when wet? The Grant person sounded frazzled and was apologetic. The limited was actually published by Grant, so there won’t be a problem with those copies. ---
**Author:** ![pure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@pure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pure)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/67 "2003-11-15T05:00:58Z")
I don’t understand what the big deal about the “black hand” thing. I read about it, and just decided to read it with the cover on 😕 ---
**Author:** ![E\_Bailey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@E\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/68 "2003-11-17T02:29:40Z")
I have no idea how to do the spoiler box. sorry. Eddie says he doesn’t recognize the name Stephen King. HUH??? SK was pretty famous by 1984. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/69 "2003-11-17T03:10:42Z")
But maybe not to a kid of his age who attended a prep school, and such. It’s conceivable, at least. How old was Jake in 1984? I was 11, and hadn’t heard of him. I don’t think I read my first King book until I was a senior in high school, which was 1991. ---
**Author:** ![d\_redguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@d\_redguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d_redguy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/70 "2003-11-17T07:15:01Z")
I just finished the book. I have the fingers to prove it 😃 I have some theories as to all the stuff in the spoiler boxes, and thus, here is my own… Regarding HP references, Star Wars references, and Dr. Doom references; It didn’t come off so cheesy to me. Hmm, I am not sure how to put this into words. I see these creations as inspired by the works of fiction that they are reminiscent of. IE, the people who created these devices took the designs from HP et al. I imagine if a geek like me made some sort of fantastical robot in the future, I would probably name it after some sort of fiction that I loved. Hell, my computer at home is named Asimov! Speaking of Asimov, anyone else notice anything familiar about a robot named Andy ([Andrew](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1857989325/qid=1069052682/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-4375455-6130219?v=glance&s=books) )? A bear named [Shardik](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1585671827/103-4375455-6130219?v=glance)? And how it reminded Eddie of [rabbits](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060935456/ref=pd_sim_books_2/103-4375455-6130219?v=glance&s=books)? All of the technology is coming from works of fiction. [Charlie the Choo-choo too!](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1888443278/qid=1069052323/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-4375455-6130219?v=glance&s=books) The Emerald Castle from the Wizard of Oz. They all come from fiction. They all tie together. What that says about the tower, I don’t really know. But it all comes from fiction, and everything has been nineteen for a while. And ninety-nine. It’s just that everything got sorta nineteen ninety-nine at the end there, when one of the books on Tower’s shelf happened to be 'Salem’s Lot. As is to be expected. It’s ka. 😛 Oh, and Jake is from 1977. So not having heard of Stephen King is pretty likely. As far as Eddie never having heard of Stephen King, I imagine that reading isn’t something one does on heroin. I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/71 "2003-11-17T08:12:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Superdude \* > \*\*But maybe not to a kid of his age who attended a prep school, and such. It’s conceivable, at least. > > How old was Jake in 1984? I was 11, and hadn’t heard of him. I don’t think I read my first King book until I was a senior in high school, which was 1991. \*\* Jake wasn’t around in 1984; he’d disappeared (or been murdered, depending on which reality you’re dealing with) seven years before. In the summer of 1977, the average 11-year old wouldn’t recognize the name Stephen King. In fact, I wouldn’t expect a used-book store to have any of his stuff, considering that his first novel had only been published the year before. So why was Stephie’s name on the menu-board at the bookstore when they went todash? As for Eddie, he was in his early twenties when he crossed into Roland’s world from 1984. At that point, he hadn’t been keeping tabs on the literary world for a few years, what with the heroin addiction and the drug-muling and what have you. Out of curiosity, had _Salem’s Lot_ been published by the summer of '77? I’m fairly sure it was King’s second novel, but I can’t remember for sure when it came out. I can’t shake the feeling that all this is somehow related to the conversation Roland and Eddie had early on about how this world they’re travelling in is real and yet not real at the same time. Something to do with interactions between levels of the Tower, maybe. There’s something else niggling at me, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/72 "2003-11-17T08:24:35Z")
Hmm, a quick search reveals that I was mistaken. _Carrie_ was copyrighted, if not printed, in 1974, and _Salem’s Lot_ in '75. I could have sworn I’d read something in one of King’s forewords or afterwords or author’s notes where he talked about _Carrie_ being published in '76. Maybe I just hallucinated it. ---
**Author:** ![E\_Bailey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@E\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/73 "2003-11-17T14:00:24Z")
As someone pointed out before, Eddie mentions The Shining in one of the earlier books. If Eddie is somehow reminded of rabbits by the name Shardik, I think he is pretty well-read! how many average Joe-Shmos know Richard Adams wrote both Watership Down and Shardik? Besides, heroin addiction doesn’t preclude being in touch with the world. I agree with Crazy Cat Lady: something BIG is going on here. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/74 "2003-11-17T14:57:15Z")
Hi, A couple of things- There is a part that mentions that when Eddie was a kid, he was a book worm- to the point that his brother made fun of him. So he would have been fairly well read for a New York junkie :). Also- on the East/West mixup- in Book 5, one of the ranchers mentions that if the ka-tet head for the Thunderclap, directions might swap themselves out at will- could that explain the apparent mixup in the previous book? If time isn’t quite right, it seems possible directions may have swapped themselves out too… Just a theory of course. I did like Book 5, although I’m suprised at the mentions of people who didn’t like Book 4 as well- I loved Book 3 and Book 4 the best so far. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/75 "2003-11-17T19:21:01Z")
Yes, it says explicitly in multiple books that the directions are in flux, too. In fact, in _Wolves_ it talks about how what had been due south the day before was now southwest, and how the sunset keeps shifting all over the sky while they’re in the Calla. The more I keep thining about it, the more I keep coming back to the possibility I had considered and rejected back during _The Wastelands_: that Roland’s world and our world are the same world, that _we’re_ the Great Old Ones who built all this stuff and (as Eddie so eloquently put it) blew our Great Old Asses up. It doesn’t quite gel, but it seems to come pretty close sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/76 "2003-11-18T18:44:09Z")
Something I thought of on the way to work last night: Those books that came through the door were _valuable_ books. They were signed first editions and printing anomalies and really old stuff. _Salem’s Lot_ was only a couple of years old, and it had a pretty good-sized first run, especially for a second novel. So what was so special about that copy that Tower lumped it in with his valuable stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/77 "2003-11-18T18:48:02Z")
It got on the shelf by accident…I mean ka.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/78 "2003-11-18T19:03:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrazyCatLady \* > \*\*The more I keep thining about it, the more I keep coming back to the possibility I had considered and rejected back during _The Wastelands_: that Roland’s world and our world are the same world, that _we’re_ the Great Old Ones who built all this stuff and (as Eddie so eloquently put it) blew our Great Old Asses up. It doesn’t quite gel, but it seems to come pretty close sometimes. \*\* That’s my theory as well, and it seems very well supported in the books. I had the luxury of reading the series for the first time early this year, so it was all pretty fresh in my head. Haven’t read the 5th one yet, but I plan to in the near future. **Smokin** , for the record, I wasn’t a fan of the 4th either. Currently, there are really only about 3 chapters that are important in any way to the story as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![tarragon918](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/79 "2003-11-21T16:29:03Z")
Finally finished “Wolves” this morning. Took me a while to read (longer than many King books take me!) but once it got going, I did find it very hard to put down (hence my finishing it at 5 am :p). I don’t know what to make of the stuff referenced coming from the future (Microsoft, Harry Potter) nor especially the copy of 'Salem’s Lot. Borrowing a bit from Star Trek, I’d thought about mirror universes–particularly one that would be affected by what happens in -ours-. There seems to have been a huge nuclear fall-out at some point in Roland’s world; maybe that could be tied to all the nuclear testing that was done in the 50s? Just a theory. And the strangest part is that now, physicists and scientists are starting to explore the possibility that there are -infinite- numbers of universes out there. Which includes the possibility of mirror universes. Strange, isn’t it?! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571/80 "2003-11-21T16:38:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tarragon918 \* > **There seems to have been a huge nuclear fall-out at some point in Roland’s world; maybe that could be tied to all the nuclear testing that was done in the 50s? Just a theory.** In _The Talisman_, Jack Sawyer has to go through the Blasted Lands. The description he gives of the wildlife there, not to mention the terrain itself, certainly sounds like nuclear fallout. And, geographically speaking, it would be right about Nevada where the Blasted Lands are. In fact, I think that Jack (or maybe it was Richard) says something about the nuclear testing that was done back in the 50’s. In _Black House_, it’s implied that what Jack Sawyer calls The Territories is actually the world in which Roland lives. So your theory certainly fits; I’d made the same connection. I wonder if Jack Sawyer’s going to be a part of the next two books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-tower-v-wolves-of-the-calla/211571.md?page=5)