Song of Susannah: The Dark Tower VI

The penultimate volume in the Dark Tower series, Song of Susannah is a pivotal installment in the most anticipated series of publications in Stephen King's legendary career.

As Stephen King's seven-volume magnum opus draws to its electrifying conclusion, his hero, Roland Deschain, discovers the key to the quest that defines his life.

Susannah Dean, her body taken over by a demon-mother named Mia, has used the power of Black Thirteen to transport out of Calla Bryn Sturgis to New York City in the summer of 1999, so that she can give birth to her "chap." While Jake, Father Callahan, and Oy try to break Susannah's date with destiny at the Dixie Pig on Lexington and 63rd, Roland and Eddie use "the persistence of magic" to get to East Stoneham, Maine, in the summer of 1977. It is a frightful world that they walk in on. For one thing, it is real, and the bullets are flying. For another, it is inhabited by the author of a novel called 'Salem's Lot, a writer who turns out to be as shocked by them as they are by him.

Driven by revelation and suspense on these two fronts, Song of Susannah continues the Dark Tower saga from Wolves of the Calla; its dual climaxes create a positively distressing imperative to move on to the quest's conclusion. King's legion of ardent readers will again relish the link between the Dark Tower universe and his other books — and delight in the unfolding denouement of his magnificent serial epic.

"[B]racingly strong as it veers toward its Armageddon-like conclusion....The sixth installment of this magnum opus stops short with the biggest cliffhanger of King's career." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"King's epical Dark Tower hastens to a close, and its penultimate volume is one of the speediest....[He] keeps us on tenterhooks throughout — and leaves us there." Booklist

"[T]his penultimate volume winds its way nimbly through the time-space continuum....King has his readers where he wants them: breathlessly waiting for more." Library Journal

"[A]lmost works as a stand-alone novel, and is highly recommended for readers who enjoy the more metafictional side of King's oeuvre....Song of Susannah is by far the best of the sequence so far." Matt Thorne, The Independent (U.K.)

"Hauntingly surreal and almost supernaturally enthralling, King's Dark Tower saga is a monumental work of fantastical fiction created by a master wordslinger." Paul Goat Allen, BookPage.com

"When they call the roll of the great figures of modern American literature — Bellow, Miller, Morrison, Updike, Roth — they can now add a name: Stephen King." The New York Times

The penultimate volume in the Dark Tower series, Song of Susannah is a pivotal installment in the most anticipated series of publications in Stephen King's legendary career. 10 full-color illustrations. 13 halftones.

Stephen King

"The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah" with 10 full-color illustrations by Darrel Anderson

The next-to-last novel in Stephen King's seven-volume magnum opus, "Song of Susannah" is at once a book of revelation, a fascinating key to the unfolding mystery of the Dark Tower, and a fast-paced story of double-barreled suspense.

To give birth to her "chap," demon-mother Mia has usurped the body of Susannah Dean and used the power of Black Thirteen to transport to New York City in the summer of 1999. The city is strange to Susannah...and terrifying to the "daughter of none," who shares her body and mind.

Saving the Tower depends not only on rescuing Susannah but also on securing the vacant lot Calvin Tower owns before he loses it to the Sombra Corporation. Enlisting the aid of Manni senders, the remaining katet climbs to the Doorway Cave...and discovers that magic has its own mind. It falls to the boy, the billy-bumbler, and the fallen priest to find Susannah-Mia, who, in a struggle to cope — "with" each other and with an alien environment — "go todash" to Castle Discordia on the border of End-World. In that forsaken place, Mia reveals her origins, her purpose, and her fierce desire to mother whatever creature the two of them have carried to term.

Eddie and Roland, meanwhile, tumble into western Maine in the summer of 1977, a world that should be idyllic but isn't. For one thing, it is real, and the bullets are flying. For another, it is inhabited by the author of a novel called "'Salem's Lot, " a writer who turns out to be as shocked by them as they are by him.

These are the simple vectors of a story rich in complexity and conflict. Its dual climaxes, one at the entrance to a deadly dining establishment and the other appended to the pages of a writer's journal, will leave readers gasping for the saga's final volume (which, Dear Reader, follows soon, say thank ya).

Stephen King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the author of more than forty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are Cell, From a Buick 8, Everything's Eventual, Dreamcatcher, On Writing, Hearts in Atlantis, and Bag of Bones. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

CONTENTS

lst Stanza: Beamquake

2nd Stanza: The Persistence of Magic

3rd Stanza: Trudy and Mia

4th Stanza: Susannah's Dogan

5th Stanza: The Turtle

6th Stanza: The Castle Allure

7th Stanza: The Ambush

8th Stanza: A Game of Toss

9th Stanza: Eddie Bites His Tongue

10th Stanza: Susannah-Mio, Divided Girl of Mine

11th Stanza: The Writer

12th Stanza: Jake and Callahan

13th Stanza: "Hile, Mia, Hile, Mother"

Coda: Pages from a Writer's Journal

Wordslinger's Note