Title: Song of Susannah [amazon]
Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Donald M. Grant / Scribner
Pages: 432
Book Number: 1
My mom set me off on the path to the Dark Tower a few years ago when she bought the set with the first four books of the series in it. She did so out of, I think, two reasons: one, because she thought I would like it. Two, because after she laid out some of the plot to me, I told her I thought it sounded extremely dumb. A Western style gunslinger fellow jumping through doors in the middle of the beach which lead to other worlds and “whens”? Uhh, no thanks, I said.
As can clearly be guessed, considering I’ve now read Book number 6, I fell in love with the series. Despite it being a weird plot, I really enjoy it.
Sadly, I have to report that Song of Susannah is my least favorite out of the books I’ve read so far. It had a few things going against it right from the start. For one, Susannah has always been my least favorite out of the group of main characters. I really, really like Roland, Eddie, and Jake, but Susannah (along with all of her various incarnations: Odetta Holmes, Detta Walker, etc.) has always been at the bottom of the ladder for me. I just don’t care much for her. I started out the book not caring much for her, and then King did something that just made matters worse: he through a new character aspect into the mix, Mia. Out of all of Susannah’s different personalities, Mia was absolutely my least favorite. I downright disliked her.
In the dust jacket of the book I read that Roland and Eddie would meet Stephen King in Maine. When I read this in the dust jacket, I thought it sounded rather cool, and looked forward to reading it. When I got to that bit though, I ended up not liking it at all. I can’t pinpoint what it was about it. Maybe it was that it threw a wrench in the “suspension of disbelief”, or perhaps it was because it seemed a bit egotistical. I don’t know.
Perhaps one of the main things that tells me that this was the worst one out of the bunch is the fact that, about a week after finishing it, I’m already having trouble remembering more than a few plot points. From all of the previous books I can remember quite a bit, both plot wise and character wise. Song of Susannah seems to be slipping from my memory already. Ultimately, the best thing that this book had going for it (for me) was that it was the bridge from Wolves of the Callah to The Dark Tower.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
[...] Song of Susannah – Stephen King continues his Dark Tower series with this one. It was alright, but I certainly preferred some of the other ones more, particularly Wizard and Glass. It’s main selling point with me was that it was the bridge between book 5 and the last book of the series, The Dark Tower. [...]
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