Thursday, June 10, 2004
Book Review: Song Of Susannah
So after a furious read of Dark Tower 6: Song of Susannah and a little reflection time, comes the first review that matters. Two caveats, however, must be put forth. 1) I haven't read any of the first five books more than once, and 2) it depends a good amount on Dark Tower 7
But here's my one sentence review. It's the best book in the series.
King gets back to the roots of what made the first books so compelling and the last one so not: cool action scenes interspersed with good character development. And now he actually writes a little better than when he was 25 (not expected but still sometimes surprising).
King manages to pay homage to Being John Malkovich, Pale Fire, Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai, Fight Club (sorta) and somehow makes them all work, even the oddly-out-of-place pop culuture references that didn't work in Wolves of the Calla but somehow all fit much better together in this one. I am not going to give anything away to those who want to read it later, but my whole complaint about Book 5 might be nullified by Book 6.
And the action is great, recapturing the gunbattles of the first two. And all the while still laying down all the philosophical and religious head-turning riddles and questions. There's also something about splitting the whole team up that just makes it even more edgy and interesting as they all hurtle towards the final book and conclusion of the story.
The bottom line is that King seems to have returned to grace, and he really seems to want everyone to believe that this is his masterpiece and swan song. He's convinced me, at least.
But here's my one sentence review. It's the best book in the series.
King gets back to the roots of what made the first books so compelling and the last one so not: cool action scenes interspersed with good character development. And now he actually writes a little better than when he was 25 (not expected but still sometimes surprising).
King manages to pay homage to Being John Malkovich, Pale Fire, Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai, Fight Club (sorta) and somehow makes them all work, even the oddly-out-of-place pop culuture references that didn't work in Wolves of the Calla but somehow all fit much better together in this one. I am not going to give anything away to those who want to read it later, but my whole complaint about Book 5 might be nullified by Book 6.
And the action is great, recapturing the gunbattles of the first two. And all the while still laying down all the philosophical and religious head-turning riddles and questions. There's also something about splitting the whole team up that just makes it even more edgy and interesting as they all hurtle towards the final book and conclusion of the story.
The bottom line is that King seems to have returned to grace, and he really seems to want everyone to believe that this is his masterpiece and swan song. He's convinced me, at least.
# posted by Stuart @ 9:41 PM 
