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Title:
Song of Susannah Author:
Stephen King Hardback: 411 pages Publisher: Plume (2004) Amazon: Instant Look Up Appraising Eyeballs: |
About the Book (From Publishers Weekly):
From
Publishers Weekly
There's something about a crippled, black, schizophrenic, civil rights
activist-turned-gunslinger whose body has been hijacked by a white, pregnant
demon from a parallel world that keeps a seven-volume story bracingly strong as
it veers toward its Armageddon-like conclusion. When Susannah Dean is
transported via a magic door on the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis (the scene
of much of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla) to
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved. --This text refers to
the Hardcover edition.
Bruce’s
Appraisal: It’s
like Highlander without the
flashbacks. Song of Susannah rings “The end is near” clearer than Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar in The Stand, and the
action never lets up from the opening twist to the final scene…which is not a
conclusion so much as just the place where the tale goes on hiatus while book
seven gestates. Jericho Hill gets a
single mention, and Cuthbert gets a single nod, but only in reference to
Eddie. This tale looks one direction
only, and that’s forward, and it puts the hammer down. It
doesn’t deliver everything, but what it does serve up comes in grand helpings
full of steam and vigor. While this
book takes a divide-and-conquer approach to cope with the ever-expanding
cast, the characters all face suitable challenges, and the concept of Ka—now
fully overblown as King’s creative license to screw with whoever, however he wants—justifies all of the
mystifying turns and cartwheels in the plot. Of
course, new characters continue to appear, from Trudy on the street in As
always, though, the strength of the Finishing
this book with a lump in my throat, we’ve got heroes ready to go out with
heroes’ endings. Jake had to have
rocked Callahan’s world with his preparations before going into the Dixie
Pig, but Callahan rocked mine by
administering the last rites before those doors swung open. And then there’s the final coda, where we
find out what happened to Roland’s creator in the one world that
matters. Going into book seven, and
all bets are off. Delightful. |