The Wind Through the Keyhole: The Dark Tower

Another excellent Steven King story. It doesn't have the same feel as the rest of the Dark Tower series. It's much more stand-alone beginning-middle-end, because we aren't following most of the characters in this book through 7 novels.

I'd recommend reading this one on paper unless you're accustomed to Stephen King's narration. We were really pampered by George Guidall's vocal range. Stephen King comes across much flatter, and in the beginning his version of Roland's ka-tet can be disconcerting.

Great journey home

The creativity of it and just the whole new adventure with a great Ka-tet

Hiring a professional voice over actor. This was a major disappointment not to have the usual narrator do the story. Stephen King has shown many times he is NOT an actor. All voices are read the same tone and with no emotion at all. I am very upset by this point. I was so looking forward to this book and this part ruined it. I hope it wasn't just plain cheapness that didn't allow for a professional voice over actor or perhaps Stephen Kings ego. Very unhappy about this point.

I enjoyed the whole story from begining to end. Aside from the voice work it was great and really hope there are more adventures to come with these characters.

The "Dark Tower" series in audio has been one of my favorite all time listens; so why Stephen? You are a fantastic story teller; on paper. Let the professionals, like George Guidall, do their job.

Stephen King, you are a "WordSlinger" you are NOT a narrator. Please do another recording but this time use George Guidall.

Very monotone voice. Previous narrators were great, shouldn't have switched. There is no difference in any of the voices. I have re-listened to all of the series, I won't be on this one.

Great story for fans, afraid the narration will scare new listeners from the series.

Maybe in paper.

Already have.

Professional reader.

I love Stephen King's writing. Not so much his reading. He's OK for short stories but not anything long. I will buy this again if they use a professional reader.

Should have used George Guidall for narration like the previous Dark Tower books. They were fantastic.

No, not in audiobook format.

I'm legally blind and can no longer read traditionally, I rely solely on audiobooks for all my reading. King's narration was so monotone, robotic, and lifeless, my imagination had trouble engaging and mind would drift. Also, I could never really tell who was talking at a given moment and had to constantly rewind to remember who was talking at a given moment. If you are reading on paper, it is very easy to skim back up the page a bit to revisit who is talking, if you happen to miss it or drift off. With a professional narrator, like George Guidall, it's easier to tell who is talking by the voice/mannerisms given to the characters by the narrator.

I really don't know if the story was good or bad due to the crippling narration. Very frustrating.

This book was was extremely difficult, almost painful, to get through due to King's bad narration, which is a shame as I consider the original Dark Tower audiobook series as the greatest audiobook story of all time, by any author... ever. Disappointing to say the least.

Perhaps I should give the print version a chance to see if the story seems better to me, but I didn't find the story anywhere near the quality of ANY of the previous Dark Tower books. I wonder if this was written due to popular demand rather than some inspiration from Stephen King. While the idea of the author narrating his own book is nice [i.e. The Kite Runner!], in this case, the narration is sort of jagged and mostly quite monotone; I had a difficult time following who was "speaking" at any point in time.

Sorry...I was not able to finish the book after about 1/2 way through.

Oh well, our worst fears have come to fruition. Getting back to mid-world wasn't the best idea after all.

The story is average, and truly feels as if it has nothing to do with the 7 books we have loved for years. In hindsight, that was the intent all along, but man did I miss Eddie, Jake, Susannah, Oye, and Roland, and I still miss them.

One point I should make however - this in fact may have been a good read, but listening to King's voice (which I didn't mind in Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis, and others) really detracted from this story. All I could think about was how Frank Muller and George Guidall would have made this better

"A person's never too old for stories," Roland Deschain tells Billy, before relating a tale his Mother used to read to the young gunslinger as a child. Stephen King knows just how to capture an audience, and he does so by having the gunslinger Roland tell a story within a story to his ka-tet while they wait out a storm.

The beginning seemed a little cumbersome, falling flat as an introduction to the tale, but once Roland began relating the story of an early assignment I was thoroughly engrossed. Rediscovering the rich lore and interesting land of Mid-World, made me realize how I've missed the adventures of Roland and his ragtag group of survivors.

I listened to the audio version of the book, read by Stephen, and wonder at the reviews complaining about his narration skills versus voice actors. Personally, I enjoyed the author reading me his own tale. I'm never too old for a good bedtime story.

As a stand-alone novel it does a great job, but as an introduction to the Dark Tower series, I believe it will be confusing to first time readers as there isn't a lot of explanation of the language used and too many assumptions made within the stories being told.

I wish I could personally thank Stephen someday for his wonderful tales, and the inclusion of references from fairy tales, Disney, and other pop culture icons are always an added bonus.

A must read, or listen, for any fan of the Dark Tower series!