Wolves of the Calla
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Wolves of the Calla is the fifth book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
After escaping the alternate Topeka and the evil wizard Randall Flagg, Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy are nearing the farming village of Calla Bryn Sturgis where they are approached by the town's priest, a priest from a town called Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, Donald Callahan. He and the townsfolk request the ka-tet's assistance in battling against the Wolves of Thunderclap, who come once a generation to take the town's children. The children of Calla Bryn Sturgis are unique in that most children born are twins, and the Wolves only take one of each pair.
Father Callahan also tells the gunslingers his remarkable story of how he left Maine following his battle with the evil vampire Barlow, how he was pursued by the " low men", and explored the "highways in hiding" before he entered Mid-World in 1983. Not only do Roland of Gilead and his ka-tet have to protect the Calla-folken from the Wolves, they must also protect a single red rose that grows in a vacant lot on Second Avenue and Forty-Sixth Street in mid-town Manhattan of 1977 from the Sombra Corporation, and their representative Enrico Balazar, who intend to destroy it. If this happens, then the Tower, which is the rose in another form, will fall and creation will blink out of existence. To add to that, Roland and Jake have noticed bizarre changes in Susannah's behavior. To do this, they must use the sinister magic ball the Black Thirteen, which is the Eye of the Crimson King himself. Time, however, is gradually running out for both the Tower and the Calla-folken. Meanwhile, the ka-tet have noticed changes in Susannah's behavior and wonder what this has to do with the Crimson King.
Stephen King has acknowleged multiple sources of influence for this story, including Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, its stepchild The Magnificent Seven, Sergio Leone's "Man with No Name" trilogy, and other works by Howard Hawks and John Sturges, among others.
The weapons used by the Wolves, "Lightsticks", appear to be working versions of the Lightsabers of Star Wars. "Sneetches" are diabolical conglomerations of the Golden Snitch and bludgers of the Harry Potter books and the knife-wielding silver orb of the Phantasm movies.