Entertaining the Alien

40. The Dark Tower V: The Wolves of the Calla, Stephen King*

I blew through this book so fast the first time I read it, I missed a lot of it (ditto the next book in the series, which is ironic, as you'll see in my next post). On a second reading, it feels much more coherent than it did the first time. The first time, I finished it and was hard pressed to tell you exactly what had taken so many pages to tell--it went by so fast!

One thing I love about this book (and I've seen it called a retread of IV because of the similarities between Mejis and Calla Bryn Sturgis, but oh, far from it) is that it expands on the sense of world (worlds?) that comes from the first four books. There are different cultures in Roland's world, and cultures that live next door to each other--Mejis is to the Calla as Georgia is to Mississippi. The other thing that snags me (although I know it drives other people crazy) is the crazy patois the Calla folk use. It's so damned sneaky, I catch myself wanting to use it afterwards.

One book closer to the Tower. I'm crazily giddy at this notion.