Product Description

The penultimate volume in Stephen King's phenomenal bestselling fantasy series, THE DARK TOWER, becomes available for the first time . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #697804 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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

Sunday Express
'Pulse-poundingly engaging'
Sunday Express

Independent on Sunday
`Join the quest before it's too late'
Independent on Sunday

Customer Reviews

A proper dark Tower book
I'll make this brief. The Wolves of The Calla was a big let down for me. Overlong, slow paced and ponderous. Took me an age to finish. However the last 200 or pages of that book made me want to carry on with the next in the series. It is a return to the Dark Tower of old. Fast paced, inter-twining stories, a cliffhanger ending and characters you care about. As a lot people had commented on King including himself as a character. Didn't really bother me, just another character in the book, didn't feel like you spent too much time with, though he is relevant to the plot.
If you thought about ditching after Wolves, give this a read and then see if you've got the minerals for the last in the series.

I really enjoyed it!!!!
I have to say I really enjoyed this book! It had a similar energy to "The drawing of the three". It's fast paced and before you know it, your onto the next book. Regarding SK including himself in the book, well who's to say Roland and Eddie didn't actually visit him, it's possible!!! A great read!

Such a shame
'Song of Susannah' continues the mistake made at the end of 'Wolves of the Calla' when King finally introduces himself as a main character in his own novel.

This is an act of supreme arrogance, not to mention completely unnecessary. He could have been entirely cut out, and it would have made no difference to the story.

This book is more of a bridge between 'Wolves of the Calla' and the final volume, and it shows. The pace quickens in this from that of the previous books, but unfortunately King has now done so much damage to the series that it will never take its place next to the other epics. For a while, especially just after 'Wizard and Glass', it had the potential to be up there with 'The Lord of the Rings', but has unfortunately fallen short. Despite its flaws, 'Song of Susannah' is worth reading, simply because it is part of the Dark Tower series, which has some spectacular components, but don't expect the last three books, so eagerly awaited, so over-hyped, to satisfy you.