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Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6)
by Stephen King, Darrel Anderson
by Stephen King, Darrel Anderson
** spoiler alert **
Excellent story, pacing, writing, and characters...as usual. But King loses a star for stooping to the most ridiculous self-indulgence I've ever encountered in a book.
In Wolves of the Calla, King not only introduced a character from another of his books (Father Callahan from 'Salem's Lot), but played with the concept by having Callahan discover a copy of the book and wonder about who this Stephen King guy was and why he knew all about his life. I thought it was clever and amusing, mostly because I assumed it would stop there.
Not even close.
In Song of Susannah, Roland and Eddie actually travel to Stephen King's house and have a conversation with him about how Stephen has to return to his Dark Tower manuscript and finish the series, how he must prevail as a "wordslinger" even though the forces of the Crimson King are desperately trying to stop him. And to make it worse, Roland and Eddie spend the long car trip there hypothesizing about the true nature and power of Stephen King. Is he God? Is he a Beam? Is he the source of all that is wonderful, a twin of the Rose? If he becomes famous, how much will those already expensive copies of 'Salem's Lot become?
Good grief.
I love interplays between author and character (I thought Stranger than Fiction was brilliant, for example) and I also love when King writes about his inspiration and his process. But the way he did it here just did not work for me at all, especially since he dragged it on for so long. Keep yourself and your process in the supplementary material where I love to read it, I wanted to scream, and then he added insult to injury by ending with notes from a journal... which were a blend of fact and fiction.
AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
Again, such a thing can be done well, but here... it was just too much.
Fortunately the story that didn't involve King himself was excellent and made me eager to read the final installment. I'm just praying that it doesn't let me down.
In Wolves of the Calla, King not only introduced a character from another of his books (Father Callahan from 'Salem's Lot), but played with the concept by having Callahan discover a copy of the book and wonder about who this Stephen King guy was and why he knew all about his life. I thought it was clever and amusing, mostly because I assumed it would stop there.
Not even close.
In Song of Susannah, Roland and Eddie actually travel to Stephen King's house and have a conversation with him about how Stephen has to return to his Dark Tower manuscript and finish the series, how he must prevail as a "wordslinger" even though the forces of the Crimson King are desperately trying to stop him. And to make it worse, Roland and Eddie spend the long car trip there hypothesizing about the true nature and power of Stephen King. Is he God? Is he a Beam? Is he the source of all that is wonderful, a twin of the Rose? If he becomes famous, how much will those already expensive copies of 'Salem's Lot become?
Good grief.
I love interplays between author and character (I thought Stranger than Fiction was brilliant, for example) and I also love when King writes about his inspiration and his process. But the way he did it here just did not work for me at all, especially since he dragged it on for so long. Keep yourself and your process in the supplementary material where I love to read it, I wanted to scream, and then he added insult to injury by ending with notes from a journal... which were a blend of fact and fiction.
AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
Again, such a thing can be done well, but here... it was just too much.
Fortunately the story that didn't involve King himself was excellent and made me eager to read the final installment. I'm just praying that it doesn't let me down.
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Reading Progress
| 12/11/2010 | page 219 |
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53.0% |
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Jaime
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rated it 4 stars
Mar 03, 2011 11:20pm
I feel exactly the same way! King putting himself in the story is bothersome, annoying at times, but does not ruin it for me. The series is outstanding, but this is the reason (for me) that the first five are five star ratings and this only four...
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Exactly. I eventually decided that if inserting himself into the story was the only way he could finally finish the series, then I would have to roll with it, because I do think it's a beautiful, masterful collection overall, so I'm glad it's a complete one. I do wonder how those early conversations with his editor went, though; even if you're Stephen King and clearly in control of your book's destiny, that had to be a crazy decision to explain...
