Wolves of the Calla: Dark Tower V

The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla opens with a prologue that introduces listeners to the folken of Calla Bryn Sturgis, people in need of ?hard calibers?; people in need of help from Gunslingers. The residents of the Calla are farmers and ranchers but as listeners quickly learn, they are themselves a crop of sorts, harvested every 20 odd years by the wolves. Roland and his band are engaged to put an end to the raids of the wolves forever.

The narrative elapsed time in Wolves of the Calla spans about the space of a month but it is packed with action, back story and tantalizing links to other worlds in Stephen King?s universe. One of the leaders of the Calla folken is a man called Pere Callahan. In a former life, he was known to a small New England town called Jerusalem?s Lot as Father Donald Callahan.

As the Gunslingers prepare to defend the Calla from the oncoming attack of the wolves, listeners learn more about what is going wrong at the Dark Tower and find new ways to travel between the worlds. We also see the true gunslingers in a maturing Eddie Dean and soon to be tested Jake Chambers. In addition, Susannah Dean is about to face her greatest trial. You will have to listen to the story to find out what happens?

George Guidall does a great job of reading this 5th volume of The Dark Tower. Listeners will definitely miss Frank Muller?s voice for the first hour or so, as Stephen King himself acknowledges in the Afterword, but Mr. Guidall is an excellent choice to take up this spectacular tale in Mr. Muller?s sad absence.

Must read Stephen King books that link directly to Wolves of the Calla: Salem?s Lot and Hearts In Atlantis, the second of which is available from audible.com. Other King books related to The Dark Tower include: Eyes of the Dragon, and Insomnia, to name but a couple.

Review continues, Summer 2004, with Song of Susannah?

This series just gets better as each page goes by! Stephen King has mingled a lifetime of previous stories into this series. I find that I've been pulled right along with these characters, on the journey to the Dark Tower - an ongoing saga about different whens and wheres, that crosses paths with King's immortal "The Stand". Perhaps King will change his mind and continue to grow this series for years to come. As I, you will not want this to ever end. Truly his best work - and what a mini-series for TV this would make!!

Overall, this was a great Dark Tower book. After the boring, soap opera nature of Wizard and Glass, this was a nice change of pace more in the vein of The Waste Lands. By the end, I found myself once again eagerly awaiting the sequel; fortunately, Mr. King is going to satisfy that craving quickly this time around. My main gripe is that George Guidall is just not the right person for this series. I guess I was spoiled by Frank Muller's exciting readings, but Guidall, on the other hand, seems bored with the reading and his voice is just too "old" for the characters. A better choice would be Scott Brick (High Druid of Shannara, The Company) or even Ron McLarty ('Salem's Lot).

The long awaited fifth book of the Dark Tower doesn't disapoint from a story standpoint. The story continues right where the fourth book ends without skipping a beat. As in previous books there is plenty of crossover to other King novels as Father Callaghan from Salem's Lot makes his return in this adventure.

Where the disapointment lies for those of us that have followed the adventures of the Dark Tower and other related novels like The Talisman and Black House on audio is the loss of Frank Muller. George Guidall is mediocre at best and compared to Muller he is terrible. He isn't able to create the division in the different characters or bring the out the emotion of the story the way Muller could. His versions of Eddie and Susannah seem generic and uninteresting compared to the life and energy Muller put into them. Sad they couldn't find someone better to finish such an important story.

The story line gets better and better but unfortunately George Guidall puts me to sleep. I keep missing Frank Muller's mastery which made the previous series so memorable. Overall, it's great.

The loss of Frank Muller's ability to ever professionally read for audio books hurt this audioseries more than I realized.

Guidall does Eddy's New York accented voice just horrible...and does Suzannah's voice only slightly better.

While the book in its actual print version is awesome, a gripping, entertaining read, the audio versions after Book IV are severely lacking under George Guidall's narration.

Disappointed with George's lack of effort to capture Eddie's accent and made Susannah sound like the witch in Wizards Glass with a southern accent....I am not gonna bother listening to the rest of this book or the remaining books. He does do a good Roland and narration but severly lacks on two main characters

The story is great, but the NARRATOR SUCKS!!!! His talent is non-existent when compared to Frank Muller. Thank God I am already hooked on the series.

I could not wait to start this fifth book, and I was not at all disappointed. The reader change was difficult to take at first, but I got used to him and enjoyed the story very much. At the end we learn why Mr. King was forced to change readers, it was very sad. I look forward to the last two books in this story with great antisipation.

No need to comment further on the fabulous quality of this story and this series, which have been rightfully lauded by others.

Unfortunately, George Guidall, who narrated the first installment of the series (The Gunslinger) has returned for books five and six. Guidall's voice is indeed deep and rich, but he lacks the ability to change timbre and accent for individual characters. It isn't so bad that Roland and Eddie Dean sound pretty much alike. But when Mr. Guidall tries to produce female and child voices (especially main characters Susannah Dean and Jake Chambers) he substitues raw speed for the ability to produce a light voice. Their dialog is delivered in a breathy rapid-fire monotone that removes all expression and makes them sound like chipmunks on amphetamines.

The second, third and fourth books (The Drawing of the Three, The Wastelands and Wizard and Glass) were brilliantly read by Frank Muller. Mr. Muller produces such a wide range of credible accents and speech styles that you can hear distinct individual voices as he reads the dialogue. Eddie Dean speaks (and thinks) with an authentic Brooklyn accent. Jake indeed sounds like a boy, and Susannah Dean has a soft, slightly southern drawl that is easily acceptable as a woman's voice.

Kudos to Mr. Muller. Let's hope they bring him back for the final book of the series, The Dark Tower, due for release later this year.