The "bookend" of the book felt very "comfortable" to me, like it was straight out of Dark Tower II or III. The flashback story reads a little like book IV, although not nearly as elaborate and "deep". I am not sure, but I believe this is the longest section in the Dark Tower series that Roland narrates in first person. The fairytale is much more like Dark Tower V-VII.

It's been a while since I've read/listened to the series, but characters and events from the later books are foreshadowed, hinted at, and in at least one case explicitly named. I don't recall Roland or his ka-tet expressing familiarity with these events/characters in Wolves, even though they should. It'll be interesting to re-read the series with Winds in its proper place to see if this really is a continuity error or not.

First of all, the first couple of chapters of 5 is pretty clear about their path since the end of 4, and I didn't feel like there was really a gap in the narrative there. The second big one, in 4.5 it is very clear from Roland's tale that he knows that Walter/Marten is NOT the same person as Maerlyn. However, it is mentioned more than once in 5 that Roland is not sure whether or not they're all the same person. None of this is major, but it is very noticeable if you read 5 right after 4.5.

I wasn't expecting fully half the book to be a story about completely different characters. I liked the story, I just would have preferred another "early Roland" tale. I did like the young Roland/Jamie part of it too.

I really didn't like the book-ends with Roland, Jake, Eddie, etc. It felt like someone else writing King's characters. The dialogue was weird and it just didn't click for me.