Spoiler-free book guide
Song of Susannah
Book 6 of 7 in The Dark Tower · by Stephen King
Spoilers for books 1-5 of The Dark Tower.
This page assumes you have read The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. The opening below goes no further than the first two stanzas of Song of Susannah.How it opens and who you meet earlySpoils books 1-5. Nothing past the first two stanzas of Song of Susannah.ShowHide
How it opens
The Wolves have been beaten at Calla Bryn Sturgis, but Susannah Dean has vanished, taking the magic ball called Black Thirteen with her. Roland asks Henchick, the old dinh of the Manni, to open the door in the Cave of the Voices again on the last two places it opened, and Henchick agrees to bring his men the next day. That night the ground shakes, and Roland says one of the Beams that hold up the Tower has snapped. When the Manni open the door the next day, it hurls Jake, Pere Callahan and Oy through to New York, then slams, opens again and pulls Eddie into a sunny place that smells of pine.
Who you meet early
- Roland DeschainRoland of Gilead and his ka-tet have beaten the Wolves at Calla Bryn Sturgis, but Susannah has vanished and taken Black Thirteen with her. Roland has the Manni open the door in the Cave of the Voices again, on the last two places it opened.
- Eddie DeanEddie Dean is desperate to follow his wife, Susannah, who vanished after the battle with the Wolves. He is sure she has gone to New York, but when the Manni open the door it pulls him into a sunny place that smells of pine.
- Jake ChambersJake Chambers is spattered with the blood of his friend Benny Slightman, who was killed in the fight with the Wolves, and he still has his father's Ruger in his docker's clutch. When the Manni open the door, it hurls him through to New York with Pere Callahan and Oy.
- OyOy, the billy-bumbler who travels with Jake Chambers, lets Jake hold him in his lap on the evening of the battle with the Wolves, something Roland has never seen before. Told to stay behind with Cantab when the door opens, he dashes after Jake and is hurled through with him.
- HenchickHenchick, the old dinh of the Manni of Calla Redpath, lost his granddaughter Margaret Eisenhart on the day of the battle with the Wolves. He leads the Manni who join their force to open the door in the cave again.
- CantabCantab of the Manni, who married one of Henchick's granddaughters, sits with the old man at the rectory and helps him work out how to open the door again.
- Donald CallahanPere Donald Callahan is shaken by a novel called 'Salem's Lot, by a writer he has never heard of, which tells of a town he once lived in and events he was part of. When the Manni open the door, it hurls him through to New York with Jake and Oy.
- Rosalita MunozRosalita Munoz keeps house for Pere Callahan and has taken Roland as her lover while he is in the Calla. She tells him she senses he is about to move on.
Where it sits
Song of Susannah is book 6 of 7. Read The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla first, in that order.
Previous · Book 5
Next · Book 7
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The opening on this page is written only from the first two stanzas of Song of Susannah. Character notes say where each person stands as this book opens, written only from the earlier books and those chapters.