The Wind Through the Keyhole

The Dark Tower

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Stephen King

In his New York Times bestselling The Wind Through the Keyhole, Stephen King returns to the spectacular territory of the Dark Tower fantasy saga to tell a story about gunslinger Roland Deschain in his early days.

The Wind Through the Keyhole is a sparkling contribution to the series that can be placed between Dark Tower IV and Dark Tower V. This Russian doll of a novel, a story within a story within a story, visits Roland and his ka-tet as a ferocious, frigid storm halts their progress along the Path of the Beam. Roland tells a tale from his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death. Sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape-shifter, 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, “The Wind through the Keyhole.” “A person’s never too old for stories,” he says to Bill. “Man and boy, girl and woman, we live for them.”

And stories like The Wind Through the Keyhole live for us with Stephen King’s fantastical magic that “creates the kind of fully imagined fictional landscapes a reader can inhabit for days at a stretch” (The Washington Post).

Stephen King's narration isn't all that bad...

Would you consider the audio edition of The Wind Through the Keyhole to be better than the print version?

I tend to prefer when an author narrates his or her own work; if it is an author that I admire. Professional narrators are good also, they give character and feeling to the story, but since the stories in this novel don't deal much with Roland and his ka-tet, I don't mind Stephen King narratin. Getting back to the point of the question, I always prefer to read as opposed to listen to a novel but sometimes it's nice to have a story told to me.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Wind Through the Keyhole?

My favorite part of the novel had to do with the wind through the keyhole story. I enjoyed the character Maerlin, who wound up leaving me with more questions than answers about his character. And, of course, the tax collector added exactly the kind of flavor that I would expect from Stephen King. His character always causes me to wonder when or where I will see him again. In fact, the entire story was very well done, in my opinion. If anybody was expecting to have another full journey of the ka-tet then they hadn't paid much attention to what Stephen King stated in the past. Roland telling stories about his childhood was exactly what I expected from this book since the Dark Tower series is over unless King decides to start over from scratch back in the desert, which I have little doubt would ever happened.

What does Stephen King bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The main reason I prefer when an author reads his or her own work, is that one understands the inflections and meanings of things better, or at least as the author would have you see them.

Okay story. Horrible narrator.

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

Not one of the better books of the DarK Tower series but entertaining nonetheless.

How could the performance have been better?

Stephen King should have picked someone else to narrator this audio. Would have gave this a four in overall if it would have been narrated by some else.

Bad direction.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would change the narration, who ever was directing this production should be fired. I used to listen to Stephen King read the Dark Tower, Drawing of the three, and Wastelands, on tape. All were well read and entertaining, but this one lead much to be desired. I don't think it's Stephen's fault, again fire the director, he/she didn't do their job.

What did you like best about this story?

Re-visiting Roland's world.

What didn’t you like about Stephen King’s performance?

He was poorly directed, many things could have been improved.

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

I don't think that this book would lend it self well to a movie.

Any additional comments?

I would not recommend this audio production to anyone. (Unless you're a die hard fan like me, and can look past the performance.)

Wonderful story!

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

This was the the first fiction audio book I ever completed. I loved the experience and will continue to enjoy audiobooks.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Wind Through the Keyhole?

The transitions between the stories made it much easier to follow where you were in the over all process. There were two additional stories embedded into the main story which was Roland telling another tale from his past.

What does Stephen King bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Having the story read to you especially by the author allows you to float and get totally lost in the world King is so good at creating. I felt the emotion and care he had for teh characters he created.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were parts that were very emotional to me. When Tim was delaing with how is mother was treated by his step father touched me and had me in tears at some points.

King is a great story writer, but reader...

King is a bit bland in his reading abilities, other guy was a lot better. Still a great book.