Song of Susannah: The Dark Tower VI

This series just keeps getting better as the pages pass... now we have revealed the ultimate writer's paradox, a story that takes on it's own life - whose character's ask the writer to keep writing! I, for one, don't want this series to ever end. In this book, Stephen King (with the help of his characters) starts to pull all of the loose strings together. You won't want to miss this one. However, you can't start with this book - read the previous 5 first or you will be lost for sure!

A very interesting and incredibly different book in the series. A lot of reviews are either a 1 or a 5 for this book. Many of the one's seem to involve the fact that there is little action, which was my original gripe with this book as well, just too much dialog. But it does finish very strong so my rating is closer to a "5". I would give it 4.5 if I could.

I groaned at the end of DT5 when SK was hinted as a pivotal character in the series and this book adds to that a great deal. But it is also very cleverly handled to not be annoying, well not too annoying anyway.

The Susannah / Mia conflict is very pivotal in the book (hey, look at the title). Be prepared for some bizarre stuff, I'm still not sure I understand her pregnancy after this book...

I think this book would get a 2 or 3 if I didn't know that DT7 was just around the corner because this ends just too abruptly.

Give it a chance, you may hate it, but I think if you don't mind a little psychology and philosophy that you'll come out thinking it was ok afterall, in fact it might even be pretty dang good.

Overall, with the Gold plan this series was a great buy, I saved at least $100 over the itunes price and got over 100 hours of listening. Great value.

This, for me, was the worst book in the series. Stephen King writing himself into the series ruined it for me because it messed up my suspension of disbelief. It's hard to care about characters that even the narrative imples are not "real".

It's true, as others have noted, that there is too much introspection in this book, and the plot plods along slowly. I don't mind that so many new types of characters were added.

The last book redeems the latter part of the series somewhat for me, but it was downhill for me as soon as SK added himself to the book.

I've seen complaints about George Guidall's narration of this series, and I think the complaints are unwarranted. There is only one Frank Muller, and it is understandable that some people are going to judge Guidall against Muller's impossibly lofty standard. But that's not fair to Guidall.

I've listened to V and VI now, and I have grown quite fond of Guidall's narration. Sure, he doesn't delineate voices as beautifully as Muller did, but there is something to be said for his more understated approach. In fact, I rather prefer Guidall's rendition of Susanna/Odetta/Detta, especially Detta; Muller's Detta was a bit overdone, in my opinion. And I really loved Guidall's "Andy" in Wolves of the Calla.

As for the story, it is classic King: compelling to the point where you can't put it down! I wonder exactly HOW he's going to tie up all these loose ends in VII, but we'll see.

I do feel that some of King's plot twists are cop-outs. I mean, it almost seems as if he's constructed huge elaborate subplots just to explain a few mistakes in the earier volumes (e.g. Co-op City being in Brooklyn, not the Bronx.) It seems like he's always trying to explain away some contradiction in the "rules of the world" he's created.

It leads me to believe that this story, which spans over 30 years of King's own life, has gotten away from him, and he's spending most of his time trying to reel it back in.

Or maybe VII will resolve all and it will make perfect sense in the end. We'll see...

Read/Listen to The Talisman & Black House before you listen to this story for some rewarding Tie ins!

After listening to this through twice, I'm really happy I did. It gave a great insight into the Susannah/Mia plotline but also brought the author into the story. If you take what he says in the "diary" into account, I think the next book is going to be very interesting...

But I have to ask, did any of the negative reviewers even LISTEN to the whole story?? Didn't you get any of it? It doesn't appear so, given some of the questions being asked here. Did you really think that was King's actually diary? Heh? Uh, did you notice what the very last section was about?? The dates? Hello?

Anyway, can't wait for the last book...

Mr. King offers a nice diversion in this edition of the Dark Tower
series. We can finally see the end near. Constant reader will be interested in his latest twist, and the ending, though not final is worth every minute spent on this novel.

I've really enjoyed the Dark Tower series up until the last two books. While Wolves of Calla was still clever and a decent story, King seems to have no idea what to do with these characters any more. Song of Susannah was hugely self-serving casting King as a god-like character in his own book. Really disappointing. I'm almost afraid to see how it ends.

This series seems to be a great idea that has lost its focus. King sometimes has a real problem letting go and ending a book (or series). This series drones on and on like he doesn't want it to end. The map seems incomplete in his mind and this is just filler. If you've gone through the others in the series, you have to go through this one as well. Just don't expect too much

As others have said, lots of fill, not enough story. I just recently D/L'd the entire series. And I have to say this one kind of drags and could have been about 10hrs shorter. I loved the earlier books and the earlier narrator also..
This guy reading it now doesnt really try to change his voice much when switching between people. Skip this book..