The Wind Through the Keyhole

The Dark Tower

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Stephen King

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

For those discovering the epic best-selling Dark Tower series for the first time—and for its legions of dedicated fans—here is an immensely satisfying stand-alone novel and perfect introduction to the series.

Beginning in 1974, gaining momentum in the 1980s and coming to a thrilling conclusion when the last three novels were published in 2003 and 2004, the Dark Tower epic fantasy saga stands as Stephen King’s most beguiling achievement. It has been the basis for a long-running Marvel comic series.

Now, with The Wind Through the Keyhole, King has returned to the rich landscape of Mid-World. This story within a story within a story finds Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, in his early days during the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death. Sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape-shifter, a "skin-man", Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, a brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast's most recent slaughter. Roland, himself only a teenager, calms the boy by reciting a story from the Book of Eld that his mother used to read to him at bedtime. "A person's never too old for stories," he says to Bill. "Man and boy, girl and woman, we live for them."

Sure to captivate the avid fans of the Dark Tower epic, this is an enchanting introduction to Roland’s world and the power of Stephen King’s storytelling magic.

Please Note: This audio edition of The Wind Through the Keyhole ends with a short preview of Stephen King's The Dark Tower VII, read by George Guidall, followed by a brief introduction and the first chapter of King's Doctor Sleep, both read by the author.

©2012 Stephen King (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

A Constant Reader Delight

Stephen King has once again given the Constant Reader an excellent story through an addition to the Dark Tower Series. This is a must read/listen!!! It does not matter if you have not read the Dark Tower Series. This story can stand on its own. The story is told by Roland and provides answers to some of the questions that readers have been asking since the completion of the Series.

Great addition to the Dark Tower series

It was great revisiting our intrepid heroes of the Dark Tower and spending a bit of time with them after all these years. And the story within the story within the story trick was ambitious and well done. Great yarn in the end. My only complaint is that Mr. King probably would do better by letting someone else read his books. Not much inflection, characters run together, and raspy. The only pleasant part of his voice was the memories of my heavy smoker grandfather who told lots of stories when I was younger.

let down

Stephen King's narration is such a let down after the great narrator of previous books.

Weakest in the Series

What did you like best about The Wind Through the Keyhole? What did you like least?

This is thoroughly a Dark Tower story, and so I'm willing forgive King for returning to the allegedly finished setting. That said, it's easily the weakest. It's very short, for a Dark Tower novel, and spends so much time on the framing device and the fairy tale in the center that there's very little meat to the story. What is set up as a great mystery like Wolves of the Calla is instead resolved like an episode of a TV show, lasting only a single day in-story.

Would you ever listen to anything by Stephen King again?

King's narration isn't quite as pleasing as many of the professional readers, but was perfectly fine. It was interesting to hear how he pronounced various proper names in the series.

Which scene was your favorite?

The fairy tale that takes up the middle hours of the book is really quite good.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I'd see a movie of the fairy tale. The actual story about going to Debarria would be more like an episode of a TV show.

Any additional comments?

Perhaps it's because it's been a few years since I read the main series, but the dialect used in the story strikes me as an attempt to imitate William Faulkner more than anything else. Its inconsistencies (characters can't seem to make up their minds on they should say "thee" versus "you," for example) and tendency to change common words ("anyway" becomes "anyroe," etc.) can be a big jarring and break the immersion that it was no doubt intended to foster.

Part of me loves hearing Uncle Stevie narrate

Where does The Wind Through the Keyhole rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Middle quintile.

What did you like best about this story?

That it was a Dark TOwer story.

Did Stephen King do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Part of me really loves hearing Uncle Stevie narrate......however I think maybe he'd be best leaving it to others who are more adept at altering their voices for different characters. I always get a jolt realizing he's the one who wrote the great words... but sometimes it's distracting and keeps you from getting into the story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

N/A

Stephen King should stick to writing

The story is great! And having listened to the first 4 stories with a proper narrator, this was such a struggle to listen to, mostly cause Stephen King... He tries to do a few voices, but for the most part he falls short. I'm not even close to done and I want to quit, the only thing carrying me through is knowing he doesn't narrate the next one!

Author narration is great, sometimes

I haven’t finished the book yet but great so far. I’m just disappointed that Frank Muller isn’t narrating like in the first four books. I probably would have been fine with the author narrating, but he doesn’t do the voices anything like the previous books. It is making it harder to get into. Especially when the four main characters each had such a distinctive voice in the previous performances.

Over 30yrs w/Dark Tower_how could I not buy it?

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'd recommend this book to everyone who has been a fan and reader of the Dark Tower series since it was first published in the late 1970s. Fans would know that nearly everything King wrote had some ties to this series. I think it's honestly just a short story to get his name back into the mainstream again. Perhaps even recover some of his fans he lost since he's been writing in or about Florida instead of Maine. As the title I wrote says...after all this time its almost necessary to add in this story about some strange weather phenomenon that never once occurred or discussed in over 30 years. Oh and yet another story of Roland as a young teen gunslinger in a town with a big problem. Also more bits never mentioned in a single "palaver" in over 30 years.

What did you like best about this story?

It was short by King standards, we got to meet Merlin and what he thinks of Martin, and the Crimson King. And what I liked best was the backstory expanded about the "Billy Bumblers" and why they were killed off as well as another ability they have beyond those told.

Merlin seems to say that the Crimson King has much more power than he does. Why? No idea, but I thought that was interesting mixing mythologies as the whole saga always compared Roland and the Gunslingers as a sort of Knight, even some modified reference to the line of "Eld" who is supposed to be Arthur - as in King Arthur, Merlin, Camelot, etc., etc.

Did Stephen King do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

King did what King does. I'm a huge fan, but I honestly think even he has discovered that without those voices form the Dark Tower in his head, most of his newer stories are lacking what made him famous a terrific storyteller. The only thing different about the characters were that they were huddled up in a stone building trying to stay safe from the "weather". Oi was the most interesting character in this portion of the story in my opinion.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The same as the opening line...The man in black went across the desert and the gunslinger followed. I might have misquoted exactly, but you get the idea.

All I can hope if there would be any type of big project based around this entire story is that it be handled like Lord of the Rings with that much depth and accuracy to the real written story. Or perhaps set it up like Game of Thrones in being done as the CABLE TV program so that the entire story can be told as long as the ratings hold out.

If this were to be done like most of king stories - it would be a tragic waste of his life's work. AND for god sake, PLEASE make certain that Frank Daramont was the director/producer!! he seems to be the ONLY director that understands how king stories should be made and has proven he can do them very well.

I absolutely loved it.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I already have. I think it's some of Stephen King's best.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved revisiting the characters from the Gunslinger and hearing about Roland's youth and dropping into Roland's mythology. The stories within stories was a fun device that could be clunky, but wasn't. I observe that many think Stephen King shouldn't be the reader, but I always opt for him reading when I can. I vastly prefer the "direct" communication from storyteller rather than performance.

Please do this again with George Gridall

Very excellent story. But all due respect to the author, as a narrator King is not on par with George Gridall.