But as Dark Tower fans know, everything follows The Beam, so what looks like a detour may really serve the will of 'ka' (destiny). Roland the primary hero of King's epic tale, the first volume of which appeared in 1982 and company momentarily fall off the 'Path of The Beam' to help the residents of Calla Bryn Sturgis, a farm town. Their guns, however, will not be enough.'Time is a face on the water,' stretching and contorting reality as gunslingers Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and their talking pet 'billy-bumbler' Oy continue their quest to prevent the destruction of the Dark Tower and, consequently, save all worlds from Chaos and the Crimson King's evil, red-eyed glare. To resist them is to risk all, but these are odds the gunslingers are used to, and they can give the Calla-folken both courage and cunning. The Wolves of Thunderclap and their unspeakable depredation are coming. For Calla Bryn Sturgis, danger gathers in the east like a storm cloud. As Father Callahan tells the ka-tet the astonishing story of what happened following his shamed departure from Maine in 1977, his connection to the Dark Tower becomes clear, as does the danger facing a single red rose in a vacant lot off Second Avenue in midtown Manhattan. One of the town's residents is Pere Callahan, a ruined priest who, like Susannah, Eddie, and Jake, passed through one of the portals that lead both into and out of Roland's world. Beyond the town, the rocky ground rises toward the hulking darkness of Thunderclap, the source of a terrible affliction that is slowly stealing the community's soul. In this long-awaited fifth novel in the saga, their path takes them to the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis, a tranquil valley community of farmers and ranchers on Mid-World's borderlands.

They also know the companions who have been drawn to his quest for the Dark Tower: Eddie Dean and his wife, Susannah Jake Chambers, the boy who has come twice through the doorway of death into Roland's world and Oy, the Billy-Bumbler.

Readers of Stephen King's epic series know Roland well, or as well as this enigmatic hero can be known. Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World, the almost timeless landscape that seems to stretch from the wreckage of civility that defined Roland's youth to the crimson chaos that seems the future's only promise.

The dark tower v wolves of the calla