Author: Stephen King
Year: 2012
For those of you who are familiar with the Dark Tower, I assume you know your King and the depth of his magnum opus. Well, The Wind Through the Keyhole is simply another tale from that universe, another piece to the larger puzzle, mostly for fans who have already ventured there. Like Book 4, Wizard and Glass, this is a story-within-a-story, but no less fascinating and important because of it’s look at the past. Dark Tower fans will take whatever they can get from this world, and in this book they are lucky; it’s also independently excellent.
The Wind Through the Keyhole is Book 4.5, inserting itself between two other volumes as both a prequel to the final action and an added tale to help us understand Roland’s past & world even better. On the path toward the Dark Tower, our heroes seek shelter from a terrible storm, holing up for a couple days to wait out the chill. There, Roland tells them a tale; two tales actually, a true story of his first mission as a Gunslinger and the story he told a young boy on that mission. Revealing his past reveals his heart, and all of Roland’s companions understand him better for it.
This is an awesome tale (three, in a way), with little details that will send you right back to the world you enjoyed in the Dark Tower books, while also giving you even more depth of narrative. If you, like me, loved Book 4, then you will love 4.5, which is a return to that style of storytelling and just more insight into a wonderful character. The two stories Roland tells are excellent, one within the other, just so captivating and complex, with all the language & custom that King created for this universe, down to the smallest words, terms, landmarks, and figures. This book is definitely for established Stephen King fans, but I think it could also serve as a sample of what to expect if you decided to take on the journey to the Dark Tower for the first time.
My rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★