The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

This is the penultimate Dark Tower volume, and it does something rare: it puts the author inside his own story. King writes himself into the myth as a conduit, not a creator, which turns the whole series into a meditation on where stories come from and who gets to end them. Read it if you're following Roland's quest to the Tower, or if you love metafiction that still delivers gunfights, demonic bargains, and a birth scene gone horribly wrong.

1. 1

   Act 1

   The Demon's Bargain

   Susannah Dean is trapped in her own mind by Mia. Mia, the former demon who took control of their shared body after the battle against the Wolves of Calla Bryn Sturgis, is now mortal and heavily pregnant. Susannah-Mia escapes Doorway Cave through the magic door with the help of Black Thirteen, the evil maht crystal (wizard's glass), leaving the rest of the ka-tet behind. Mia tells Susannah she made a Faustian bargain with Richard Sayre, trading her demonic immortality for the ability to bear a child. Mia explains the child is biologically the offspring of Susannah Dean and Roland Deschain: Roland's seed was passed to Susannah via an elemental demon (incubus) that mated with both of them. Mia doesn't care about parentage. What she cares about is the Crimson King's promise: sole charge of raising the boy, Mordred, for the first part of his life, before the critical destiny the King foresees for him arrives.

2. 2

   Act 2

   The Door Splits the Ka-tet

   The remaining ka-tet—Roland, Eddie, Jake, Oy, and Father Callahan—enlist the Manni, a religious sect that worships the doorways between worlds, to open the magic door inside Doorway Cave. The door splits the ka-tet due to ka, sending them to two different times and places. The magic door sends Jake, Oy, and Father Callahan to New York City in 1999, where they follow Susannah-Mia to save her from being delivered into the hands of the Crimson King's henchmen. Roland and Eddie Dean are sent to Maine in 1977 with the goal of securing ownership of a vacant lot in New York from its owner, Calvin Tower. The gunslingers believe a rose growing in the vacant lot is a secondary hub of the universe, perhaps a representation of the Dark Tower itself, and that the Tower will fall if the rose is harmed. Calvin Tower is hiding in Maine from Enrico Balazar's men, who have been strong-arming him to sell them the vacant lot; Tower has resisted with Eddie Dean's help.

3. 3

   Act 3

   Maine, 1977: Ambush and the Author

   Roland and Eddie are ambushed in Maine by Balazar's men headed by Jack Andolini after Mia tipped off the gunmen, hoping they would dispose of the gunslingers as threats to her child. Roland and Eddie escape the ambush with the help of John Cullum, a local man they deem a savior placed by ka. Roland and Eddie accomplish their primary goal: the vacant lot is deeded to the Tet Corporation. Afterward they learn that Stephen King lives nearby in Maine and decide to visit him, having come to know his name from a copy of 'Salem's Lot found in the Calla. King's presence and his relationship to the Dark Tower make the reality around his Maine town 'thin,' and strange creatures called 'walk-ins' begin emerging and plaguing the community, mostly appearing on King's own street, though King has never seen one. Roland hypnotizes Stephen King and learns that King is not a god but a medium through which the story of the Dark Tower transmits itself. Roland implants in King the suggestion to resume writing the Dark Tower series, which King has abandoned; the gunslingers believe major forces are trying to prevent King from finishing it, and that their quest's success depends on his writing the story.

4. 4

   Act 4

   The Dixie Pig and the Birth in Fedic

   In 1999 New York, Jake and Father Callahan prepare to assault the Dixie Pig, where Susannah-Mia is held by the Crimson King's soldiers. Jake and Callahan discover the scrimshaw turtle that Susannah left behind for them, which gives them faint hope of success. Jake and Callahan enter the Dixie Pig with weapons raised. Susannah-Mia gives birth to Mordred in Fedic, a town in Thunderclap, under the care of the Crimson King's men. Mia realizes she has been deceived about her role in raising Mordred and dies shortly after the birth; the newborn Mordred, a spider-like creature, immediately kills and consumes her. Susannah regains full control of her body after Mia's death and faces the newborn Mordred, who rapidly matures into a monstrous form. She uses Black Thirteen's empty bag to create a makeshift door and escape from Fedic, leaving Mordred behind. Segments of Stephen King's diary spanning 1977 to 1999 are shown, detailing his writing of the first four Dark Tower books, a process that stops when he dies on June 19, 1999, the date of the accident that interrupts his writing.

• SSusannah DeanA gunslinger of the ka-tet whose body is hijacked by Mia; trapped in her own mind, she watches her captor's bargain unfold, then reclaims herself after the birth and escapes Fedic alone through a makeshift door.
• MMiaA former demon turned mortal, heavily pregnant, who traded her immortality to Richard Sayre for a child; promised motherhood of Mordred by the Crimson King, she is deceived and devoured by her newborn son.
• RRoland DeschainThe last gunslinger, biological father of Mordred through the elemental demon's passage of his seed; he secures the rose's lot, hypnotizes Stephen King, and sets him back to writing the story that keeps the quest alive.
• EEddie DeanRoland's apprentice from 1980s New York, who once helped Calvin Tower resist Balazar's strong-arm tactics and now lands in 1977 Maine to finish the job, surviving an ambush and deeding the lot to the Tet Corporation.
• JJake ChambersThe young gunslinger sent to 1999 New York with Oy and Callahan; he recovers Black Thirteen, hides it beneath the World Trade Center, and storms the Dixie Pig to save Susannah.
• FFather Donald CallahanThe disgraced priest from 'Salem's Lot, now a gunslinger's man; he follows Susannah-Mia to New York, recovers the wizard's glass, and enters the Dixie Pig with weapons raised.
• OOyThe billy-bumbler loyal to Jake, split with him to 1999 New York, where he joins the assault on the Dixie Pig.
• MMordredThe child of Susannah and Roland's seed, born in Fedic as a spider-like creature who devours his mother Mia within moments of birth and rapidly matures into a monstrous form.
• SStephen KingThe author himself, living in Maine in 1977; hypnotized by Roland, he learns he is a medium for the Dark Tower's story, not its god, and is compelled to resume the series he abandoned.
• CCalvin TowerThe owner of the New York vacant lot holding the rose, hiding in Maine from Enrico Balazar's men; his signature deeding the lot to the Tet Corporation protects the Tower's anchor.
• JJohn CullumA Maine local who helps Roland and Eddie survive Andolini's ambush; they take him for a savior sent by ka, and he becomes their ally.
• EEnrico Balazar and Jack AndoliniThe mobster and his enforcer, whose men strong-arm Calvin Tower for the vacant lot and ambush Roland and Eddie in Maine after Mia tips them off.
• TThe ManniA religious sect that worships the doorways between worlds; their rituals reopen the magic door in Doorway Cave, and ka splits the ka-tet through it.

The rose

Growing in Calvin Tower's vacant lot, the rose is believed by the gunslingers to be a secondary hub of the universe, perhaps a representation of the Dark Tower itself, fated to fall if harmed. Deeding the lot to the Tet Corporation is the ka-tet's way of fencing a world: protecting one small flower to protect everything.

Black Thirteen

The evil maht crystal, a wizard's glass, opens the door for Mia's escape and later lies in a storage locker beneath the World Trade Center, where the September 11, 2001 collapse will destroy or forever bury it. Its arc runs from active evil to sealed evil, and its empty bag becomes Susannah's makeshift door out of Fedic.

The magic door

Opened by the Manni in Doorway Cave, the door obeys ka rather than its users, splitting the ka-tet across 1999 New York and 1977 Maine. It stands for the book's rule that passage between worlds costs unity: every crossing scatters the travelers into separate trials.

The scrimshaw turtle

Susannah leaves the turtle behind for Jake and Callahan, a small carved sign that she is still fighting inside her occupied body. It gives them faint hope before the Dixie Pig assault, a token that the prisoner has not surrendered.

Walk-ins

Strange creatures emerging around King's thin Maine town, mostly on his own street though he has never seen one. They mark what happens when a story's medium lives too close to the tale: the border between fiction and reality wears through, and things cross it.

The ending is a double severance. Mia, who sold her immortality for motherhood, is devoured by the child she was promised, which reads as the book's verdict on every bargain struck with the Crimson King's side: the fine print always eats you. Susannah's escape through the makeshift door made from Black Thirteen's empty bag is quieter and stranger, because she leaves her son behind, a monster rapidly maturing, and the book does not mourn with her. Meanwhile King's diary stops on June 19, 1999, the date of the accident that interrupts his writing, which reframes the whole novel as a story racing its own author's mortality. One reading: the gunslingers saved the rose and the teller, so the quest can continue. Another: they only bought time, and the diary's silence is the real cliffhanger. It lands because the stakes are now meta: if the medium stops, the world stops.

1. 1.Is Stephen King's portrayal of himself as a medium rather than a god a humble statement about authorship, or a clever dodge of responsibility for the story's cruelty?
2. 2.Mia's bargain trades immortality for a child she never gets to raise. Compare her Faustian deal with Richard Sayre to the gunslingers' own sacrifices: is anyone in the novel allowed to keep what they pay for?
3. 3.The diary's writing process stops on June 19, 1999, the date of the accident that interrupts it. How does dating the story's survival to a real event change what the fictional quest means?

Readers continuing Roland's quest who want the penultimate volume's split-world structure and the shock of King writing himself into his own myth. Also for fans of metafiction that still delivers mob ambushes, demonic bargains, and a birth scene that goes monstrously wrong.

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