Song of Susannah : The Dark Tower VI: 6 - Hardcover

Stephen King

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340827181 ISBN 13: 9780340827185

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., London, 2004

Synopsis

The sixth volume in THE DARK TOWER series - the most anticipated series of publications in Stephen King's legendary career - THE DARK TOWER VI; SONG OF SUSANNAH is a pivotal instalment in the epic saga. It provides the key to the quest that defines Roland's life.

In the next part of their journey to the tower, Roland and his band of followers face adversity from every side: Susannah Dean has been taken over by a demon-mother and uses the power of Black Thirteen to get from the Mid-World New York City. But who is the father of her child? And what role will the Crimson King play?

Roland sends Jake to break Susannah's date with destiny, while he himself uses 'the persistence of magic' to get to Maine in the Summer of 1977. It is a terrible world: for one thing it is real and bullets are flying. For another, it is inhabited by the author of a novel called SALEM'S LOT.

SONG OF SUSANNAH is driven by revelation and by suspense. It continues THE DARK TOWER series seamlessly from WOLVES OF THE CALLA and the dramatic climax will leave readers desperate to read the quest's conclusion.

About this title

Review:

Song of Susannah continues directly from the almost literally cliff-hanging epilogue to Wolves of the Calla. As ever with such series, this is not the place to begin and new readers are strongly advised to start with volume one, The Gunslinger.

Meanwhile the penultimate instalment in the Dark Tower septet follows three interlocked storylines. Roland and Eddie in New England, where they undergo the firestorm of the book’s only major action set-piece, Jake and Father Callahan hot in pursuit of Susannah in New York, and Susannah herself, together with her alter ego Mia, struggling with probably the strangest pregnancy in all fiction. Her travails certainly make the New York horrors of Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby seem almost mundane. The novel is not complete in itself, but leads to a duel climax-cliffhanger leading directly into the final volume, The Dark Tower.

While the journey itself is compelling and the finale riveting, it is Stephen King’s imaginative boldness which make this episode so remarkable. Stories about storytelling have become increasingly common in modern fiction, with books within books and fictional authors being central to such metafictions as Christopher Priest’s The Affirmation and Jonathan Carroll’s The Land of Laughs. King though takes the process further, writing himself into the saga, playing ingenious games with what the public knows of his life, even to his famous near fatal accident in 1999, and in a breathtaking achievement weaving the 34 year long writing of this series of books into its own fabric. The shocking sting in the final pages mean all bets are off for the epic final volume.--Gary Dalkin

Review:

'Superbly energetic, it's King at his best' Mail on Sunday on WIZARD AND GLASS

'This fifth instalment has all the hallmarks of classic King, fine characters, compellingly-written in a gripping well-honed plot' Daily Express on WOLVES OF THE CALLA

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., London
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0340827181
• ISBN 13: 9780340827185
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 430
• Illustrator: Darrel Anderson