Stephen King, The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah Review

Overall Rating

The book takes on a whole new and original approach to the Dark Tower series, that gives the series much more impact to the reader. The novel draws the previous instalments tighter together, leading the story nicely in to the final instalment to finish off this epic journey.

I can't think of anything particular off the top of my head.

Synopsis:
"Roland Deschain, gunslinger, hero, continues his perilous adventures in search of the key to the quest that will define his life. Roland's loyal followers, Jake, Father Callahan and Oy set out to break Susannah's date with destiny. She has used the power of Black Thirteen to transport her from the farming community of Calla Bryn Sturgis to New York, where she prepares to give birth to an unknown entity.

Meanwhile, Roland and Eddie brave the state of Naine in the summer of 1977. It is a frightful world, a real world, where bullets are flying. A world inhabited by the author of a novel called Salem's Lot".

Stephen King's novel "Song Of Susannah" is the sixth instalment of the seven part epic "Dark Tower" series. The novel runs for 427 pages out of the series total of 3712 pages. Unlike within the previous installations, the book does not include an introduction from King himself (Wolves Of The Calla delivered his last 'argument'). However, the book does finish with a two page afterward. Again, the hardback version includes some full colour illustrations (ten in total), this time by Darrel Anderson.

The story begins directly from where the previous novel left off, throwing the reader once again into the mysterious world King has created. From the very beginning, the tale picks up a fast pace, setting down clever twists and turns for each one of the main characters we have followed closely throughout this adventure. With a similar construction of the storyline to that of "Wolves Of The Calla", the fragmented plot lines that gradually draw together is a lot tighter within this action packed novel.

King develops upon the character of Susannah's multiple personalities, bringing out further layers to their rich personalities. Whilst the three separate tracks of the story weave their way through the book, King takes his almost surreal angle of bringing in the real world by introducing himself as a major character within the book. This brings a whole new and original approach to the saga, which tricky as it sounds, works surprisingly well. In doing this, the Dark Tower series becomes a more involved and personal adventure for King.

The novel draws to a close with a chapter constructed from the pages of the character of Stephen King within his own novel. These fictional accounts detail the real life of the writer in a way that reflects the parallel world from the series. Confusing as it sounds, it does work very well, bringing all the previous books tighter together and linking them to our own reality.

All in all, I found this instalment into the "Dark Tower" series one of the most rewarding and enjoyable reads of all the books so far. Short as it is compared with the previous books, "Song Of Susannah" is rich in its storyline and cleverly ties in almost all of the previous events, laying the ground for the final book to complete this epic journey. An absolute pleasure to read.