REVIEW

The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

Posted: June 1, 2004
Category: Books
Song of Susannah starts where Wolves of the Calla ends. You can really feel that King probably wrote them pretty much back to back. The Mannis are helping Roland and his ka-tet to open the door in the Cave of the Voices so that they can find Susannah and Calvin Tower. Jake, Callahan and Oy are sent to New York to try and find Susannah and Eddie and Roland to Bangor where Tower is with his friend Aaron Deepneau.

In the book there are three parallel stories. In one Susannah and Mia is struggling to keep the baby from arriving to soon. Mia wants to get to the right place before the labors start and Susannah wants to go the other way.

A turtle plays a big role in Song of Susannah. One thing that got my attention is that King refers to it as "skolpadda". That is the Swedish word for "turtle". At one point a person called Mathiessen Van Wyck (a Swedish United Nations diplomat) tries to get the turtle from Susannah. I don't know why King is using the Swedish name for "turtle" and it may not mean anything to the story but since I'm Swedish it's kind of funny. BTW Mathiessen Van Wyck is not a Swedish name; don't know why King chooses to call him Swedish…

The second story is about how Jake, Callahan and Oy try to find Susannah and save her. Upon arriving to New York they learn that 2 Hammarskold Plaza is now built on the vacant lot where the rose was/is...

The last story is about how Roland and Eddie go after Tower and Deepneau. They end up in what they believe are the world closest to the Dark Tower, Bangor Maine, July 9 1977. Here they found out about something called "Walk-ins". A "walk-in" is a person that just shows up from nowhere. Probably like them when they arrived from Cave of the voices. They also run into a fellow named Stephen King…

We all know who King is and what his relation is with The Dark Tower series is but I don't think even he imagined that what happens in Song of Susannah would happen when he started the series…

The book ends with a fictional (at least I think so) journal by King that goes between July 12, 1977 and June 20, 1999, which has a rather surprising ending.

This time I also got a chance to look at the illustrations and I must say that even though they are quite different, they are really good. I especially like the one called …Ka comes to me (see right).

Lilja's final words about The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah:

Personally I think it feels a bit strange that King is a character in the story. I'm thorn between what I think about it. Some part of me thinks it's pretty neat and another part of me doesn't like it at all. I guess I'll have to wait for the last part (only three more months) until I decide for sure…

One thing is for sure though. The wait for the last part will be pure horror! The end of Song of Susannah really sets up the mode and tone for the last part. I'm really dying to see how it will all end!

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