Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

Cafe Society
21

I finished last night! Here are my thoughts, or at least my initial thoughts …

I really enjoyed reading this, not quite as much as Wolves of the Calla, but it was definitely up there. To me, it seemed to read as a bridge book – the emotional thrust goes up and up, and instead of coming down, here we are again waiting for the next (and last!) Dark Tower book.

Okay, Stephen King, here’s a question …

Are you trying to make me have a nervous breakdown or what? There were so many mentions of impending death and doom, I was biting my nails through the whole book! When it is mentioned that death comes between Eddie and Roland … Pere Callahan giving Jake last rites … even when Jake starts yelling at the cabbie, I was convinced Oy had met up with a bad fate. As we all know, SK has dropped many hints about the idea that it is quite possible that not all of our ka tet will make it to the Tower. I have a bad feeling about the next book, in terms of the health and well-being of these characters. As a general rule, SK kills off the characters I like the most, which means I’m especially worried about Jake, Oy and Eddie.

Probably the biggest surprise in the book was …

Having SK show up as a character. Personally, I love this sort of thing. I know others find it very annoying. I had a moment while I was reading where I seriously wondered if SK thinks that a visit from Eddie and Roland might have really happened. The other sad thing is that my first thought was … “that would be cool.”

I was completely confused …

At the end, where it seems like Susannah and Mia have two bodies again? Are they both pregnant? Are they both going to deliver babies, or what? What’s going on here? It was pretty late when I finished reading, and I had to get up early and go to work today, so I think I need to read this over again to get the logistics down.

A few things on a personal note …

[spoiler] I was glad someone finally cleared up the Co Op City issue, as a New Yorker, that’s been driving me nuts for years.

Doesn’t Eddie mention the movie The Shining somewhere in one of the earlier books … where he talks about a movie about a creepy old hotel up in the mountains? I think it’s interesting that if so, in his world, there is no Stephen King but someone else made a movie like The Shining.

I’m not sure how I feel about the references to the WTC. Some of the artwork, IMHO, struck me as deliberately similar to the Twin Towers, which I thought was kind of freaky. And unneccesary. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I thought that before I even got to the part about Jake and Black 13 and the lockers. [/spoiler]

22

I started it this morning and I’m about halfway done.

Damn this book reads fast.

Must go read more.

23

Ah! How could I have missed this?

And June 8 is my wedding anniversary, and all my husband got me was some lousy flowers!

Going to B&N tomorrow!

(Really, the flowers are wonderful, and he writes the best cards ever. But why, oh why did I have to invite company over this weeked?)

24

Just bought it today!
(giggle)

Must…resist…reading …spoilers… :eek:

25

Yeah, don’t do it. I’m not coming into this thread again, simply because I can’t stand the suspense. I was out all night last night, and couldn’t finish it, and the only thing holding me together is the fact that I have no plans for the weekend.

26

Okay.

I finished it this morning.

Some thoughts:

Stephen King showing up was brilliant. At first I thought “oh crap, he’s lost it like Kurt Vonnegut”, but the way it was written was perfect. I don’t think it could have been done any other way. I was fucking PISSED when I thought Oy was dead by a TAXI of all things. I just about quit reading. I think everyone but Eddie will die, but all will do it in the service of the tower.

Delphica,The two towers thing was deliberate. Read the “wordslinger’s note” at the end. Also, there was a Stephen King in Eddie’s world, but he never went back and picked up the mouldering manuscript of the Dark Tower after putting it away when he was 19.

If you liked the art, which I loved, here’s a link to some more of his stuff. http://www.braid.com/papereye-site/Anderson-Ai-0.htm

27

I think that…

Remember the “fax machine” analogy? I think Mia had a body in the Dogan the whole time, and the baby was being transmitted to that body all along the way. But in the end, they had to bring Susannah and Mia together to finish the process. There’s only one baby, but it was at least partially in both bodies, which is why they were both in labor. I agree that it wasn’t presented terribly clearly.

The question I had, that someone could look up for me if they wanted, was…

How accurate was the journal at the very end of the book? I mean, obviously, King didn’t die on the day that he was hit by the van in our world. But what about the rest? Did he really release limited edition preliminary versions of the first book or two back in the 80s? I hadn’t heard anything about that, but I really haven’t read any of his stuff until this series.

28

Screw the budget. I want this book way more than I want car insurance.

29

Smeghead, thanks for your input on my question re: Susanna and Mia, that makes sense…

… as I had lost track of the fact that they end up in the dogan, so to speak, where Mia has a body of her own.

And (I don’t think this is a spoiler), the Gunslinger stories did originally appear in a magazine, and then small runs of the books were first published by Donald M. Grant, with the snazzy artwork. If memory serves, the first three came out via Grant, and there was a long wait before the books were published in a mass market format. Grant also does special, collectable type editions of the other books, which usually come out a very short time before the wide release. Not to make this sound too mercenary, but to me, it seems like the motivation behind the first three was along the lines of “oh, here are some quirky SK books that might not appeal to a wide audience, so let’s publish them in a small publishing house for a fairly reasonable price for those few folks who might appreciate them” and by the time they got up to Wizard and Glass, this had changed to “hoo boy, here’s a cash cow, let’s release all sorts of special things for collectors and sit back while the money rolls in.” Needless to say, I would love to get my hands on first edition copies of the entire series!

Anyway, back to Song of Susannah.

Filmgeek, I had read the author’s note at the end …

[spoiler]… and while he does mention the lack of lockers at the WTC, I still can’t really figure out if I’m reading too much into it. Is he trying, in a fictional way, to create some sort of causal link between the events in the books and 9/11? I’m a little paranoid about this anyway. I guess we’ll have to see what happens in the last book.

Oh, and the Stephen King in Eddie’s world who lost his manuscript – he must not have become famous, because Eddie has never heard of him. Granted, Eddie did spend a few years in a heroin induced haze, but he’s definitely a reader, and I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have heard of a Stephen King who wrote the The Shining and Carrie. Maybe losing his Gunslinger manuscript somehow resulted in his throwing in the towel as a writer and becoming an accountant or something?[/spoiler]

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I’m assuming that the journal was mostly factual and based on his recollections of his state of mind at various stages of the writing process. As for the first two books, yes they were released in very limited editions, or at least, the first one was. I’m pretty sure the second one was, too. I remember seeing paperback versions of both of them (both trade and mass market) in the bookstores in the late '80s and early '90s, but I never laid eyes on a hardcover edition of any of the Dark Tower books until 1992, when The Waste Lands was published. I didn’t start reading the books until about seven years after that.

31

Wow. I checked this thread at about 8 last night, realized the book was out, ran to B&N, brought it home, and read it through in one shot. I can’t believe there’s really only one more book left.
Mood: optimistic, at least for the time being, seeing as how

the Tet Corporation kept the rose alive until '99, at least

One thing I’m just starting to mull over now is

the “real world” idea - that the world where King is writing the DT books - is the “only one that matters”. OK, I’m with ya there. But his journal at the end, where King dies as a result of his accident - he’s obviously NOT dead in our “real world” - is he implying that our world isn’t the one that matters, like Eddie’s version of NY?

Or am I reading too much into what was probably intended as a down note for the end of the story - uh-oh, our heros are really in trouble now?
Forgive me, I’m weary from a 4 hour reading jag. I’ll try to post more coherently on the subject tomorrow. All in all I wasn’t disappointed a whit with SoS and look forward to deconstructing it a bit more before DTVII comes out.

32

Oh, this is so sad. I got home with the book about 3 this afternoon, was gone for five hours with a friend, and have already finished the thing. I’m such a pathetic Tower junkie.

I’m not sure if I like this whole Stephen-King-as-character bit or not. I guess I’ll have to wait until September and see where he’s going with it before I can really make up my mind.

33

To me, Steven King in the book reminded me of Steven King appearing in movies based on his books. It was kind of a minor thing, and well handed imho.

Steven King “dieing” in the coda, I think he is separating himself from himself. Making himself more of a character in a fictional book than just injecting the real person into the book.

I also loved…

Eddie Dean. He was my favorite character before, and I like him even more now. Between the dressing down of Calvin Tower (who really did deserve to be shot) and the Tet Corporation idea, he makes Roland look like a punk.

And I’m really looking forward to…

the upcoming shoot out in the dixie pig. Jake and Callahan have the turtle, a sack full of oriza plates, one handgun, and Pere Callahans refound faith to go against a restaurant filled with low men and vampires. That is going to be sweet. :smiley:

34

Yes, the original “The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger” was released as a limited edition back in… '82 or '83, as I recall, with illustrations by Michael Whelan. I did not buy one because at the time I didn’t have $25.

Still kicking myself for that one.

35

YES!
Well, I know what my next purchase shall be.

bamf

36

Really? I have that one… from the early 80s. Go mom!

37

ARRRGH! YES! BUT…

it should have been in this book! My God! We can only have Butch and Sundance head out the door to meet the Bolivian Army so many times, ESPECIALLY if there’s not going to be a resolution until September! :smack: (Eddie and Roland ariving in Vermont struck me the same way. At least we got to read that one))

38

Hmmm, maybe I’m the first on the block to have read it and think that it wasn’t all that good.

I thought:

The whole messy tale of how Susannah got knocked up with Roland’s child only shows me how much SK is struggling with this series. Nothing about the Mia/Susannah situation worked - the visits to the Dogan, finding a turtle in an extra compartment in the luggage… eh.

Then again, Susannah is my least favorite character in the series… less of her splitminded stuff is more… and the book is called Song of Susannah.

Oh well. Still looking forward to the next book… this one just seemed to be a build-up to a cliffhanger, though.

It is interesting that SK dies in this book… I think it does indeed imply that our world isn’t the key after all.
I am quite sure that the next book will mention 9-11, and as a result of increased security the ka-tet of 19 will find that black 13 has been taken out of the locker.

39

How exactly would that work? The locker was under the World Trade Center.

40

Oh, I’m sure the last one will mention 9-11, but I think Black Thirteen will get broken when the two towers collapse. As they’ve pointed out before, even enchanted glass has a way of breaking. Especially when there’s a big-ass building falling on it. And of course, you have to keep in mind that breaking Black Thirteen is a big step toward saving the Dark Tower, so there would be a certain…poetic justice, I guess, to the destruction of those towers being the salvation of the Tower. I could certainly see Stevie going there.

This is certainly my least favorite of the series so far, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. It just…wasn’t up to par with the rest of them. It seemed like nothing really happened, and I don’t just mean that the quest didn’t really seem to advance. Their quest didn’t really advance in Wizard and Glass, either, but it was still one of my favorite books in the series. Heck, it’s one of my favorite books he’s ever written. This one just seemed like a lot of buildup for not much payoff.