Book description
For readers new to
The Dark Tower
, THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE is a stand-alone novel, and a wonderful
introduction to the series. It is a story within a story, which features
both the younger and older gunslinger Roland on his quest to find the
Dark Tower. Fans of the existing seven books in the series will also
delight in discovering what happened to Roland and his ka tet between
the time they leave the Emerald City and arrive at the outskirts of
Calla Bryn Sturgis.
This Russian Doll of a novel, a story within a story, within a story,
visits Mid-World's last gunslinger, Roland Deschain, and his ka-tet as a
ferocious storm halts their progress along the Path of the Beam. (The
novel can be placed between Dark Tower IV and Dark Tower V.) 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, 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 Magic
Tales of the 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 these, they live for us. 'Classic King, fine characters,
compellingly written in a gripping, well-honed plot' 'At the age of 19
Stephen decided he would like to write an epic similar to The Lord of
the Rings
. The 'spaghetti Westerns' of that time [specifically The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly
] and a poem written by Robert Browning, 'Childe Roland to the Dark
Tower Came', became the inspiration for his magnum opus. The series
written and published separately over a period of 22 years consists of
seven books and the short story, 'The Little Sisters of Eluria'
published in his short story collection, EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL.' From
the author's website
.
