The Griffin or the Agate

    As a reviewer I find that sometimes I need to take a break before putting my thoughts to (virtual) paper about a book I've just read. In certain instances it's better to take some time to digest what I've just read; to try to understand what the author was trying to say, or at least my interpretation; to reconsider before gushing out an overly praise-filled love fest.
    Or, in this case, to keep from unloading both barrels on one of the world's most successful authors. Simply put, I was angry when I finished Song of Susannah, angry and disappointed. The Dark Tower series was so different from King's usual works, an interesting melding of our wold and others, of a knight wearing six-shooters on a quixotic quest with an unlikely crew of partners. It was where King had been doing some of his best writing, especially recently; Wizard and Glass was a powerful and emotional trip into Roland's past and Wolves of the Calla managed to rise above its formulaic Seven Samurai mechanics to produce a work filled with character growth and numerous twists. No doubt I was not along looking forward to the next, and penultimate, installment of the series.
    My enthusiasm was tempered somewhat when I learned of the title. I know, I know, don't judge a book by the cover, but Susannah has always been the weakest of the group, or ka-tet. Her multiple personalities, revealed in her debut in The Drawing of the Three, always seemed a hackneyed plot devise, and I breathed a sigh of relief when that thread was dismissed with the forging of her new, 'superior' personality, one that was supposed to be smarter, stronger, and tougher.
    Pah. Susannah spends most the book being bosses around my Mia, an invader of her body and the would-be mother of her not-human child. Fleeing after the big battle against the Wolves, Susannah/Mia find themselves in New York City, planning to meet up with the Crimson King's henchmen and give birth to the child, one the extremely stupid Mia has been told she can mother.
    The fact that the tough-as-nails Susannah is regularly defeated and imprisoned in her own body by the demonic interloper does not ring true. In fact, when convenient for the plot Susannah manges to surge forth and take momentary control, but only until King needs her under wraps again. That a supposedly intelligent woman like Susannah would have ever let it get to this point strains incredulity – this is a woman who knows she's been charged with being part of a mission to save all of existence yet she can't deal with the idea of ridding herself of a child that isn't hers and who poses a threat to all that is? Come on, now. Weak. Very weak.
    Still, that didn't bother me first as when a new character has a meeting with Roland and Eddie, another of the gunslingers – Stephen King. Holy Breakfast of Champions! The Tower, Roland's Holy Grail, is currently supported by only 2 of the mystical beams; one tied to a rose that the ka-tet is trying to protect, and the other is King himself, a young writer whose works are bleeding through worlds and shaping events. King is thinking over giving up on his Dark Tower writings, and Roland and Eddie have to convince him otherwise.
    This is where the whole being really pissed thing comes in. When I was first finished the whole chipping away at the 4th wall thing annoyed me. This was such a nice, clever little bit of fantasy; why go along and muck it all up? To make matters worse, the encounter between the three is terrible. Clumsy, awkward, and goofy, King tries way too hard to come off as an 'aw-shucks' kind of guy and fails miserably. Look, I don't know the man, maybe he really is an 'aw-shucks' kind of guy but his words fail him here, leaving the scenes as artificial and plastic. I also hated the BIG TWIST ENDING at first, which led to much of my post-reading grumblings, but the more I thought about it the more I could understand where he was going with it and what it meant to the series in general. It was acceptable.
    Doesn't make Song of Susannah that much less of a disappointment. It has a thrown-together quality, disjointed and choppy, and seems rather short for the works of this series. In fact, if the incoming final chapter is as short as this one I'd be very suspicious that someone in the publishing house said, “Hey, why finish up with one 800 page book when we can have two 400 page ones?” Whatever the case may be, the scheduled release for The Dark Tower is a little over a month away. Normally I'd be excited by such a quick follow up – but now there's a little trepidation as well. C'mon, Steve. Get back to your roots and serve up a winner.   §

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