Since the earliest days of his career, Stephen King has been telling the story of Roland of Gilead. Something terrible is happening in his land—machinery and magic no longer work like they once did, the great civilizations have all fallen and the Dark Tower that is the nexus of all universes is in peril. Roland's life-long quest has been to find the Tower and fix what ails it. Along the way, he acquired a rag-tag band of helpers: a heroin junkie named Eddie, a physically handicapped black woman named Susannah with multiple personalities, a young boy named Jake and a dog-like creature named Oy. In the fifth installment of the series (the remaining two books will be published in late 2004), Roland and his group are diverted from their task by the plight of the villagers of Calla Bryn Sturgis. Wolves descend on the village once each generation, taking one of each set of twins in a region where most births are multiple. No one knows what the Wolves are or what they do with the children, but the survivors are returned "roont." The time of the Wolves is at hand and some of the villagers mean to fight—but they have no weapons or skill. The people of the Calla are like the Mexican villagers in The Magnificent Seven—part of King's inspiration for the book—who were raided regularly by food-stealing bandits. The repeated loss of its children is slowly killing the Calla. Roland's gunslinger code demands that they provide help if it is asked of them. Should they refuse, they could never complete their quest. The gunslingers have multiple deadlines working against them. The Wolves arrive in less than a month. Susannah is pregnant by a demon and the time of her delivery is unknown. In New York, the vacant lot containing the rose—the Tower's representation in our universe—is in peril. To rescue it the gunslingers need two very specific doorways between universes. The answer to their problem may lie in the hands of grizzled old Pere Callahan, formerly of 'Salem's Lot, Maine, the town infested by vampires in King's early book of the same name. Callahan fled Maine in disgrace at the end of that novel and spent years wandering America, drinking heavily, working odd jobs and hunting vampires. After coming to the attention of enemies of the Tower, he was tricked and killed, entering Roland's universe at the way station where Jake first appeared in The Gunslinger. He was transported to the Calla by Roland's nemesis Walter, who sent something with him that the wizard believed would trap Roland if he ever made it to the Calla. Roland's group is stalled for weeks in the Calla, sidelined from their pressing duties. Everything in Mid-World happens for a reason, though, and it may be that their diversion will lead them to the most important discoveries of their quest so far. Six years after Wizard and Glass, returning to the Dark Tower series is like putting on a comfortable pair of slippers. King recaptures his characters as if he'd last written about them only a few months ago. The novel has adventure aplenty and each character—even Oy—has his or her chance to shine. Eddie gets to confront some old enemies, Jake learns about the difficult choices when friendship and duty collide, and Roland shows aspects of his personality his followers never suspected were within him. Web site and all contents © Copyright Bev Vincent 2007. All rights reserved. |
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