Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6) in Weird Westerns

Jan 03, 2018 Sable rated it liked it

Read for the Second Best Reading Challenge, the Apocalypse Now! Reading Challenge, the High Fantasy Reading Challenge, and the Read the Sequel Reading Challenge.

This novel was nominated for the Locus Award.

I'd almost forgotten all of this one in my re-read. This is my least favourite of the Dark Tower novels. While it carries a lot of the weird mysticism introduced in the rest of the novels to their logical conclusion, and it's a necessary step in the plot, mostly it's kind of painful. Two major ...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Julie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: meta-in-your-meta, king-reads

So it only took me six days to read this one, ha. It's funny, because while apparently I ploughed through this book at a breakneck pace and obviously enjoyed it, it also felt... very empty? Very little happened. I really, really dug Roland & Eddie's adventures in Maine escaping their hit squads and puzzling out the meta, but really, only two things of note happen in this book (one in each branching storyline). Though the Susannah & Mia storyline is horrifying -- pregnancy things really weird me ...more

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Aug 28, 2014 Nick Craven rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, horror

Song of Susannah comes off mostly as filler but it's damn good filler at that!

After Susannah's pregnant body was hijacked and whisked away to 1999 New York by Mia we find our beloved Ka-Tet being violently torn apart. With Black Thirteen taken by Mia the Unfound door is quickly losing the magic that once gave it it's power. Through different means the door is opened yet again while Jake, Callahan, and Oy are whisked away to 1999, Leaving Eddie and Roland in the cave of voices til the unfound doo Song of Susannah comes off mostly as filler but it's damn good filler at that!

After Susannah's pregnant body was hijacked and whisked away to 1999 New York by Mia we find our beloved Ka-Tet being violently torn apart. With Black Thirteen taken by Mia the Unfound door is quickly losing the magic that once gave it it's power. Through different means the door is opened yet again while Jake, Callahan, and Oy are whisked away to 1999, Leaving Eddie and Roland in the cave of voices til the unfound door opens yet again to transport them to Maine in 1977.

Song of Susannah is divided up between the 3 pairs of characters: Roland and Eddie (Most interesting plot line/second shortest plot line.) Jake and Callahan (Second most interesting plot line/shortest plot line.) Susannah and Mia (Least interesting plot line/longest plot line. This is my biggest complaint. It's not that I don't like Susannah, I love Susannah! but this much time spend with her while she's essentially arguing with herself is exhausting! Through the Susannah/Mia plot line a lot of essential Dark Tower story is made more clear but it's done is such a drawn out boring way that reading it feels like a chore. Luckily this is only a 400 page book with a large chunk spent on other interesting plots. If this book was as long as Wolves of the Calla then we might have had a problem. Overall the Susannah/Mia plot was interesting and informative enough to be good and ended with a great cliffhanger that makes avoiding the final book for awhile difficult!

The Roland/Eddie plot was by far the best. Here we get back to the gunslinging basics! Starting out with a deadly trap set for Roland and Eddie I was immediately enthralled. It felt good to show off some gunslinging skills again and now with Eddie being a nearly trained gunslinger himself we see the devastating pair that Roland and Eddie can be. At the conclusion of that Eddie and Roland track down Calvin Tower to secure the rose. This part was somewhat annoying but I feel like that was mostly due to Tower in general. Finally they make a small side trip to meet a certain author...
Honestly the "twist" did not bother me as much as I thought it would. Sure it's a little cliche, a little arrogant but in a lot of ways it's pretty inventive and brave! I knew about it going in and dreaded it but it was done in a such a fascinating way that I decided to just relax and accept it! I also loved to see how much Roland and Eddie's friendship has evolved since the Drawing of the Three. You really feel like you've been with these characters on their journey from the beginning and it makes me feel very nostalgic looking back from where they were to where they are now...literally and emotionally. That's where the Dark Tower stands above other novels. "It's the journey, not the destination" and growing up with them all the way.

The Jake Callahan plot was very interesting as well! I've grown quite fond of Callahan as a character since Wolves of the Calla and am glad he's continuing as a Ka-Tet member (although seeing how their plot line ended "for how long" remains questionable). I'm still not really into Jake having the "touch" simply because that changed his character for me in some way...I don't know why but it make him seem too cliche. Maybe by the seventh book it will seem more natural. Still it's fun to see how Jake's skills and knowledge as a gunslinger have grown! The Jake/Callahan plot ended the most intensely for me and I can't wait to see what happens next!!!

In a quick summary I loved The Song of Susannah! It was tedious at a few points and almost was just a short filler book but it served it's purpose in setting up book 7 and filled in a lot of pot holes along the way. Honestly going into this I expected this to be the worst the series had to offer but I was wrong! Song of Susannah turned out great! Sorry Wizard and Glass, you're still the weakest link for me. I can't wait to read the final installment but at the same time I don't want to rush it. I'm gonna do my best to take a break and read a couple other books to drag out the series a little longer. How long? Who can tell? Until I hear the Song of Turtle or the cry of the bear calling me back! Back to the Path of the Beam! 4 out of 5 Stars! ...more

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Dec 06, 2016 Ben Myatt added it

Song of Susannah, in terms of the DT series, is what I like to refer to as a 'chess piece' book. It isn't bad in and of its own right, but it suffers for the fact that it is all about moving the characters into place for book number seven. There are intriguing parts, certainly, but it is the weakest of the series, not least because SK introduces himself as a meta-character. IF you're going to read the Dark Tower series, it is obviously essential, but as a standalone, it suffers. ...more

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