The Dark Tower: The Wind through the Keyhole

Greetings, The Wind through the Keyhole is a novel that was penned by Steven King and was published in 2012. It is the eighth book in the Dark Tower saga, the saga being one of King’s main works, and it is the last novel in the series to have been written. In terms of the fictional chronology, it is takes place between the fourth and fifth books which are named Wizard and Glass and the Wolves of Calla. It is similar to previous novel, Wizard and Glass, as it revolves mostly around the adventures of the protagonist, a gunslinger named Roland, while he is still quite young. As such most of the main characters in the series have few chapters devoted to them, instead elaborating on characters from Roland’s teenage years that had only been mentioned in passing in previous books.

The plot is quiet irregular as it is made up of three different but interconnecting stories that are contained within each other. It begins with Roland and his friends travelling on their dangerous path to the Dark Tower after the events of Wizard and Glass. When they arrive at a desolate town, Roland is able to tell that a terrible storm known as a starkblast is coming their way and so they barricade themselves in at the local town hall, planning to wait out the storm that would freeze everything in its path. To pass the time Roland speaks of his past as he tells his audience that when he was a teenager he and his friend, Jamie DeCurry, where sent by his father to a little town called Debaria to solve a mysterious murder case. Reports coming from the town suggested that a Skin-changer, a supernatural creature that takes the appearance of a man and could change its form, was on a killing spree in the small settlement and that it needed to be stopped by gunslingers. The adult gunslingers were busy fighting a war at the time, a conflict that wasn’t expanded on much by King, which meant that the two teenagers had to solve the problem on their own.

When Roland and Jaime arrived in the town they uncover that there had been an attack on a local farm and that one of the victims had survived. The sole survivor, a young boy named Bill, had apparently seen the creature revert back to its human form but was unable to get much of a good view as he had only seen the creature’s feet. Roland wishes to use the boy as bait in his hunt for the monster as he hopes to lure creature out of hiding as it would have intention of killing Bill to keep its identity secret. The young Roland also tries to ease Bill’s fear of being identified by the skin-man by telling him a story from his childhood, “The Wind through the Keyhole”. It is a fable about a young boy called Tim Ross who had lost his father under suspicious circumstances, forcing his mother to marry an abusive drunk, his father’s best friend before he died. The story is somewhat complicated and is partially about Tim uncovering what had really happened to his father.

The Dark Tower is a strange series which has so far involved psychotic monorails, vampires, giant bears and witches but it is enjoyable if you can appreciate its strange mix of genres. I only have two more novels to read, Songs of Susannah and the Dark Tower, which will hopefully be posted in this blog in the coming years. There are also talks about a film coming out which should be interesting to see, starring Russel Crowe as Roland of Gilead and Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame to star as ex-drug addict Eddie Dean. I thought the book was an interesting read and wonder how King is going to end it.

Plot=8/10

Characters=8/10

Wording=8/10

Overall=8/10

Quote of the Day

Distrusting me was the wisest thing you've done since you climbed off your horse.

Petyr Baelish

Game of Thrones