The Dark Tower #6

Song of Susannah

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The Wolves have been defeated, but our tet faces yet another catastrophe. Susannah Dean’s body has been usurped by a demon named Mia who wants to use Susannah’s mortal form to bear a demon child. Stealing Black Thirteen, Mia has traveled through the Unfound Door to 1999 New York where she plans to give birth to her chap, a child born of two mothers and two fathers who will grow up to be Roland’s nemesis. With the help of the time-traveling Manni, Roland and Eddie plan to follow Susannah while Father Callahan and Jake will find Calvin Tower, owner of the vacant lot where a magical rose grows: a rose that must be saved at all costs. But despite our ka-tet’s intentions, ka has its own plans. Jake, Callahan, and Jake’s bumbler companion are transported to New York to follow Susannah, while Eddie and Roland are tumbled into East Stoneham, Maine, where they are greeted by Eddie’s old enemy, the gangster Balazar. But it isn’t just bullets that Roland and Eddie must brave. Soon they will meet their maker, in the form of a young author named Stephen King.

544 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 8,2004

Literary awards

This edition

Format
544 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
June 1, 2006 by Pocket Books
ISBN
9781416521495
ASIN
1416521496
Language
English
Characters More characters

About the author

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Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
34(34%)
4 stars
35(35%)
3 stars
30(30%)
2 stars
0(0%)
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99 reviews All reviews
April 17,2025
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` — Bueno, pues después de conocer a uno de esos tipos en persona, se interesó por el fenómeno. Escribió varios artículos sobre ello, aunque decía que ninguna revista famosa lo publicaría sin importar lo bien documentados que estuvieran los hechos. Dijo que escribir sobre los visitantes del oeste de Maine le había enseñado algo que jamás había esperado aprender a esa avanzada edad: que hay cosas que la gente no cree, ni aunque pueda probarlas. Solía citar un verso de un antiguo poema griego: El pilar de la verdad tiene un agujero´

`En la tierra de la memoria, el tiempo siempre es ahora. En el reino de Tiempo Atrás, los relojes marcan las horas… pero las manecillas se mueven. Existe una puerta ignota (oh, perdido) y la memoria es la llave que la abre. ́

Hasta ahora, ha sido el volumen más flojo de la saga. No he dejado de tener la sensación de que todo avanzaba a paso lento, pero a la vez demasiado precipitado sin llegar a una conclusión clara. Estirar el chicle más de lo necesario, sería la sensación acertada. A pesar de ello, sí que tiene algún que otro capítulo memorable, como el hecho de que nuestros personajes conocen a Stephen King. Este hecho le da una conexión real con nuestra realidad, por así decirlo nos da el punto de visión desde el que debemos de mirar hacia el universo de Stephen King.
La mezcla de cultura popular, junto a la fantasía o el terror y,por supuesto, la construcción de personajes sin parangón de King hacen de esta saga de las mejores jamás escritas, al menos hasta la fecha de publicación. Prácticamente, la carrera de King se ha basado, sin quererlo, en construir un metaverso en el que el destino de todo, y de todos está estrechamente conectado. No me deja de sorprender la capacidad de crear mundos a este nivel.
El mundo de Roland es uno de tantos, pero a su vez cada estilo de la rueda gira en torno a una lógica diferente, aquí, en esta saga es donde se desarrolla toda la capacidad imaginativa del autor, sinceramente, convirtiéndose esto en una verdadera obra de gigantes. Una saga ambiciosa, un eje principal que conecta toda justificación de King para crear mundos. Aunque se hubiese retirado después del siguiente tomo a este como pretendía, nos hubiera dejado un volumen titánico de obras conectadas, pero como escritor incansable y excelente nunca se ha cansado, su trabajo, poner toda su imaginación al poder de quien lo lee, King, un género en sí mismo.

3`5

April 17,2025
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I liked this installment mostly for the fast pace and the action that kept it as a page turner. I read it a lot quicker than I have some of the others because of this.

I was a little worried about how the 'visit to Sai King' would be handled, but I liked it fine.

Now I am excited to read the final installment...although I think I will miss them all when I am done1
April 17,2025
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This book definitely has some fun moments but in the grand scheme of the Dark Tower it's just not up there with the rest. Still a good book but I didn't love it.
April 17,2025
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King you almost had it, you really did. This series could have been something special. Pure Fantasy Western that echoes numerous cultural references and King's works themselves. A true magnum opus that bridges all his works.

Well he certainly did it but not in the great subtle way he should have done, wouldn't that have made a great series.
"The man in black moved through the desert and the gunslinger followed"

King starts off this series with these words. It's pure. It spells out the whole series. King spends the next few books fleshing it out, the characters and world growing organically. By this point in the series King decides to take an axe to his creation and sour that purity.

Instead of creating a great web referencing the popular culture that inspired the series as well as links to his other works in any number of subtle ways he decides to wave the whole fucking thing in your face.

Having the characters become obsessed by their own bizarre references, at worst having them put on red shoes and repeat theres no place like home. YES I'M REFERENCING WIZARD OF OZ just incase i didn't spell it out enough I'll have the characters mention it every chance I get.

King continues to do this getting more bizarre referencing 19 and 99 and 1999 for what reasons he only knows. He seems to think it all fits nicely to together but to me it just becomes more ridiculous and annoying.

King then decides to completely remove any possible pure immersion in this world by screaming at you THIS IS A BOOK. A made up one. want proof? Okay I'll include myself at a main character and have me writing it. SEE. now even the characters are questioning whether they are real. (they're not by the way I'M WRITING ABOUT THEM)

I really didn't want for this rant to exist, but it does and damn if I need to get some of it out my system.
I don't usually get angry with writers. People write good books and thats great and people write bad ones and that doesn't upset me. Here King created something I loved and here decides to tear the thing apart in the most frustrating way.

I still love this series, I love The characters, The feel of the world. The reason I'm so bothered by the direction King goes in because he really could have had something. Something that to me would have been Fantasy at it's best and most pure. I'm no writer so maybe I shouldn't balk at the direction King was 'driven' to go in but damn if I don't feel he really missed a trick.

This is a reread so I know where the series is going and King does pull it back quite a bit with the finale. But in this one he really decides to tumble down the rabbit hole and to me taint the series in a way that can't be undone.
April 17,2025
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3.5 stars rated relative to the other books in the series

I agree with other reviewers that this is probably the weakest book of the series, but that isn't saying much considering the incredibly high standard we are talking about. No, there isn't a ton of action; yes, there is a lot of internal mono/dialogue. That doesn't ultimately matter though because King still conjures that ineffable substance that makes anything he writes worth reading. Like the previous books in the series, Song of Susannah gets to your heart, your hopes, and your dreams for our band of travellers both cursed and blessed.

In the Land of Memory, the time is always Now.

In the Kingdom of Ago, the clocks tick . .. but their hands never move.

There is an Unfound Door
(O lost)
and memory is the key which opens it.
April 17,2025
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I can't describe how happy certain events in this one has made me. It's SO good. I never expected early on that it'd go in this direction, and I love it. This literally could've only ever been written by Stephen King, and within the exact time frame that he wrote it in. There are still so many ways he could take this, and I can't wait to see how it all plays out in the next one. If you've just begun this series, or are thinking about starting it - DO IT AND KEEP GOING! Looking back, the earlier books are even better because of what I know now, what's happening now. I love everything about this.
April 17,2025
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Canción de Susannah

Estamos ya en el sexto libro de La torre oscura, el final se va acercando.
***** SPOILER****
Si no has leído esta serie quizás sería bueno que no siguieses leyendo esta reseña. Cuento ciertas cosas que es mejor encontrárselas al leer el libro, no antes.

Después del enfrentamiento con los lobos para defender a los pobladores de Calla, todo el equipo debe trasladarse al mundo real para intentar encontrar a Susannah, secuestrada por Mia.

Durante toda la serie hemos visto como se turnaban entre el mundo medio de Roland y el mundo de sus amigos. Este episodio su desarrolla en el mundo de estos, donde encontraran a viejos conocidos.

En este paso, el grupo se divide viviendo cada uno su propia aventura, pero en épocas diferentes. En otro dónde y otro cuando. Mientras que Susannah/Mia están en 1999 en Nueva York, al igual que Jake y el padre Callaghan, Roland y Eddie pasan a 1977 en Maine.

Especialmente espectacular la llegada de El pistolero y Eddie que tienen que hacer frente a una gran bienvenida. Como siempre en la serie, la presencia de Roland es presagio de buenos momentos y más cuando se ve en la necesidad de usar su arma.

Hay que resaltar que desde el anterior libro el nombre de King aparece cada vez más en los comentarios de los protagonistas. En este, hay un capítulo dedicado a Stephen King que hace como una parodia de sí mismo. Es muy curioso como el propio Roland junto a Eddie van a visitar al escritor en su propio rancho y este los recibe confesando que está escribiendo la serie de La torre oscura. La serie le ha llevado tantos años escribirla que ha improvisado mucho. El camino hacia la torre lo tendría claro desde el principio, pero no lo que se iban a encontrar los protagonistas en su ruta.

Para finalizar, hay una transcripción de un diario del propio King. Una auténtica maravilla imperdible por los seguidores del autor. En él cuenta desde que empezó a escribir esta serie de la torre oscura, las dudas y las influencias que iba teniendo, además de otros libros que escribía en esos años.
April 17,2025
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So close to the end I can taste it. I really enjoyed reading this installment of the epic quest. Not a whole lot of backstory in this one either. All the action made it so exciting. Can't wait to see how it all ends!

May 2022 reread

This book was way more fun to read the second time around! There's so much action and it makes this book unputdownable. I wasn't super impressed when I read this book the first time. It just didn't seem to grab hold of me the way the other books did. I had a completely different experience this time around! I enjoyed the style this book was written in. It really does seem like the different parts of a song. I loved the writers journal at the end! I'm sure a lot of it was fictional but I still thought it was really cool and entertaining to read!

Only one more book to go and then my second journey to the Dark Tower will be complete!
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