The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

With Sweeney bringing his journey through King’s magnum opus to a close, I thought it about time I do the same. I mean, after all, I have started this series years before both Sween and Marissa - I don’t want to end it years after them as well. OK, let us dive in.

I can absolutely agree that this book is the worst in the series (keeping in mind that I still have one more to go). “But wait Trevor, didn’t you just rip into Sweeney that Wizard & Glass stood at the forefront at being the worst novel?” I can already hear you asking. Truth. I do like to tear into W&G for sidetracking me from my journey to reach the Dark Tower, but - in all honesty - it was a rather entertaining tale with a very grim, empowering ending. Song of Susannah, however, was not as entertaining. Some good gun fights, sure. But lackluster as a whole. Now, I won’t lead on about the plot to those who are still waiting to read it; it just kind of sucks. Not much transpires in this book. It seems the novels purpose was to just get everything into place in preparation for the last book. Our heroes seem to agree with this idea by their constant commentary about how close they feel to the end without any of them actually being at the end.

**SPOILER ALERT**

The one thing that was actually pretty cool about the book was Stephen King introducing himself as a character. Having yourself - the author - sitting down to a cup of coffee with the characters from your book that you still haven’t even finished writing (yet, we’re reading it) was an ingenious concept. Although I believe many authors have done this before (Kurt Vonnegut for example), it’s still a complete mind-fuck and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also, 19. I get it. Nineteen. It’s the special number (19). Must he mention - 1919 - that blasted number everywhere he sees fit. NINETEEN NINETY NINE! It’s just overkill.

19