Audiobook note, 7/7/17: 
 George Guidall reads this and the next two volumes. He does just fine, and we all say thankya. I still prefer Frank Muller's narration, but he was out of commission by the time this was written. But laws, ain't Guidall an improvement over Stephen King who reads The Wind through the Keyhole. "M-O-O-N." That spells "improvement." 
 Original review, 8/12/10: 
 This book, like Wizard and Glass has a story that can almost be read by itself, but it's so interwoven with the bigger plot that I definitely don't recommend starting here. There are just too many side notes and references to other things that it would lead to confusion. I've always felt that the last three books of the series make one story itself, but there's a separate story included in Wolves of the Calla which, oddly enough, involve the Wolves of the Calla. This book sets the stage for the final acts which are played out in the last two books, though. I think the reason for this is due to Stephen King's real life auto incident where he got hit by a vehicle while taking a walk. He realized he wasn't going to live forever and went ahead and finished up the series he started 20 years before. This was the first volume after the accident, and the other two followed soon after. Gone was the several year wait between volumes. 
 So, what's great about this book? Roland dances the commala, and we get a gem of a line involving the store owner Eben Took who "was coming off as a shithead, which wasn't surprising. Took clearly was a shithead." Also, this book brings Father Pere Callahan, the alcoholic priest from Salem's Lot, into the series along with his anti-abortion views which create a lot of trouble for Roland and friends in the remaining books. He also has a great quote when discussing his alcoholism, and it's one that's always stuck with me. "Later it all became simpler. Later he came to understand that he wasn't drinking too much because he was spiritually unsettled but spiritually unsettled because he was drinking too much. You wanted to protest, to say that couldn't be it, or not just that, it was too simple. But it was that, just that." (And here's the zinger that's always stuck. -JLP) "God's voice is still and small, the voice of a sparrow in a cyclone, so said the prophet Isaiah, and we all say thankya. It's hard to hear a small voice clearly if you're shitass drunk most of the time." 
 This book brings Stephen King himself into the story, just as he is, and also introduces Mia: daughter of none, mother of one, and gives poor Susannah a fourth personality for her Multiple Personalities Disorder (this was written back before the name changed to Dissociative Identity Disorder, I think). Throw it all together, and you have a hell of a start to the final acts of this series, not to mention a good stand alone story as well.