Song of Susannah : The Dark Tower VI (Hardcover)

The strength of the narrative is how the characters have divided loyalties: to find Calvin Tower and persuade him to sell the lot containing the Rose to the 'Tet-corporation' and protect the Tower, or deal with the affair of the heart and find Susannah.

However, this conflict means the narrative is split three ways: there is little interaction between the groups and the story becomes three separate narratives, with Susannah, not surprisingly, the primary focus. The story mostly takes place our world in 1975 and 1999. Roland and Eddie leave the story around page 314, while Jake and Callahan really only have forty pages to themselves. Each of these three threads ends with a sense of anticipation for the final novel.

The story does carry the narrative forward - to a point. Song of Susannah answers some questions, most particularly, the surprising revelation of who the father of Susannah/Mia's baby is, and some remarkable characterisation of the internal conflict between the multiple personalities. Also, very impressive is the gradual transformation of Jake, becoming more like Roland following the death of Benny Stillman.

There are some disappointments within the story: one of the strengths of the earlier volumes was the gradual revelation through the retrospective view on the revolution and the fall of Gilead - there is none of that in this volume. Furthermore, the way that King narrates his story - having the characters recognise his conscious indebtedness to other genres is like having a magician explaining how magic tricks are done. Everything seems to have labels attached, and the information on the labels underscored (explaining the relevance of the name 'Calla Bryn Sturgis' and how many fighters were in the trench when the Wolves arrived). The use of the name 'Mordred' carries with it so much legendary baggage that it is impossible not to see the significance of the character. It seems a shallow way to present characterisation.

What is most frustrating is the significance that King places on his own importance and in-jokes. The novel is bogged down with self-conscious references to his other novels. There are some potentially distasteful references that the modern reader would understand but that the travellers from New York would not, for example, hiding Black Thirteen in the WTC and saying that it would be safe if 'a hundred and ten stories of concrete and steel' fell on top of it.

However, despite the above, it was an enjoyable novel, and it brings us closer to the end of the series. Unlike the first four novels, we only have to wait three months for the conclusion!

Obviously 'Susannah's greatest weakness is the lack of a real beginning and end, but this is to be expected. The series is going to conclude with an epic novel in it's own right (book 7 - 'The Dark Tower'), which should finally give us all 'the answers' (many new questions are raised, of course, in 'Song of Susannah').

Certain negative reviews are still missing the point about this series. It truly is one huge long book split into seven parts. There isn't meant to be an arc within each part, the story is continuous. In fact, no review can really do this book justice as we won't feel it's full effect until we've finished the final chapter.

As for King himself appearing in the saga, people are too ready to criticise this as self-indulgence. This story IS his life, the backbone of his writing career, what almost all his other books are about (some moreso than others). You think of 'The Stand' and 'It', two of his most famous books, and they are pretty much side plots to 'The Dark Tower'. Through including himself in 'Song of Susannah' he has elevated 'The Dark Tower' into something far greater than just another novel written by Stephen King. Read it and you'll see...

Meanwhile, Eddie is desperate to follow her lover and release her from her "prison", and to do this he needs the assistance of the rest of the members of the group, including Pere Callahan. They have to hurry though, because one of the beams holding the Tower has just broken, and only two remain, one of them being the one in which the ka-tet is now: Beam of the Bear. As the journey towards their gold progresses, the connection between the members of the ka-tet becomes stronger and stronger. But on top of that they all have to deal with their own issues. For example, Pere Callahan is struck dumb by the fact that his life is accurately depicted in a novel called Salem's Lot, written by a not so well-known author named Stephen King.

Between the group trying to save Susannah, Mia trying to get her chap born, and the necessity of the ka-tet to buy the lot in which the rose was located, which is now a building called Black Tower, we are in the presence of an action-packed book. This differs considerably from the previous novel in the series, which had some parts that were fast-paced, but which also spent a considerable amount of time going back to the past of the main characters and setting up a basis for what was to come.

Several characters from the previous books show up again, like Enrico Balazar, and sometimes it is hard to remember everything that we know about them from previous books due to the amount of time that has elapsed between their publication. I think that those people who love this series like I do, should go back to the beginning and read it as a whole again. I am sure it will enhance our understanding of everything that happened and will allow us to enjoy this work even more.

Even though this book is considerably shorter than the latest installments, I think that the quality remains at an exceptionally high level. This is truly King at his best, the same one you can find in "Misery", "The Shinning", "It" and "Pet Sematary". The only thing left to say is that Stephen King delivers a huge surprise in this book, and I am sure that some people will get angry at this, but I enjoyed it and thought it was a very clever idea. I believe that those who appreciate King's style will like it too.