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 ka-tet climbs to the Doorway Cave . . . and discover 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.
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'How long will the magic stay?' At first no one answered Roland's question, and so he asked it again, this time looking across the living room of the rectory to where Henchick of the Manni sat with Cantab, who had married one of Henchick's numerous granddaughters.- BEAMQUAKE, 1ST STANZA, 1
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(@HodderBooks, 1 January 2004, hardback, first edition, 430 pages, bought from @AmazonUK)
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I loved The Song of Susannah. It's one of my favourite books in The Dark Tower. This picks up right after Wolves of the Calla with Susannah gone, her body taken over at last by Mia, the demon chosen to bear Roland's son and his downfall. It's a race against time to find her and travel through time to put plans in motion to save the rose that is actually the dark tower before it falls into the hands of the gunslingers enemies. This is a rollicking read from start to finish. Towards the end of the book King actually writes himself as a character, a visionary writer and creator of worlds. He's got balls I give him that. I actually like this part of the book. I have two books to read to finish the whole series, The Dark Tower which concludes the main books and Wind Through The Keyhole, a sort of side-story. I'd recommend this.
