Stephen King's The Dark Tower 4.5: The Wind Through The Keyhole - 2012

[Rob V]

The Susan flashback tale was my favorite of the lot... sounds like I'll like this one too. I was going to read it regardless.

[Ephemeral_Life]

I just finished the book and enjoyed it quite a bit for what it is.

Tone spoiler, gives away basic structure of the book

Spoiler:

The "bookend" of the book felt very "comfortable" to me, like it was straight out of Dark Tower II or III. The flashback story reads a little like book IV, although not nearly as elaborate and "deep". I am not sure, but I believe this is the longest section in the Dark Tower series that Roland narrates in first person. The fairytale is much more like Dark Tower V-VII.

Continuity spoiler

Spoiler:

It's been a while since I've read/listened to the series, but characters and events from the later books are foreshadowed, hinted at, and in at least one case explicitly named. I don't recall Roland or his ka-tet expressing familiarity with these events/characters in Wolves, even though they should. It'll be interesting to re-read the series with Winds in its proper place to see if this really is a continuity error or not.

[Tom Banjo]

Originally Posted by Ephemeral_Life

Continuity spoiler

Spoiler:

It's been a while since I've read/listened to the series, but characters and events from the later books are foreshadowed, hinted at, and in at least one case explicitly named. I don't recall Roland or his ka-tet expressing familiarity with these events/characters in Wolves, even though they should. It'll be interesting to re-read the series with Winds in its proper place to see if this really is a continuity error or not.

I decided to continue on and read 5-7 again since I haven't read them since the initial publication. And yes, the continuity between 4.5 and 5 is a bit jarring. A couple of reasons in spoilers:

Spoiler:

First of all, the first couple of chapters of 5 is pretty clear about their path since the end of 4, and I didn't feel like there was really a gap in the narrative there. The second big one, in 4.5 it is very clear from Roland's tale that he knows that Walter/Marten is NOT the same person as Maerlyn. However, it is mentioned more than once in 5 that Roland is not sure whether or not they're all the same person. None of this is major, but it is very noticeable if you read 5 right after 4.5.

[movie diva]

Originally Posted by Rob V

The Susan flashback tale was my favorite of the lot... sounds like I'll like this one too. I was going to read it regardless.

To me the Susan flasbacks were my least favorite, I liked Eddie or Jake, to me the Odetta voice was not true. But I too will read, being the Stephen King Ho that I am

[Supermallet]

Didn't realize this was already out. Just ordered a copy from Amazon. I might have considered getting it for my Kindle, but I refuse to pay $13 for an ebook.

[Rob V]

Originally Posted by movie diva

To me the Susan flasbacks were my least favorite, I liked Eddie or Jake, to me the Odetta voice was not true. But I too will read, being the Stephen King Ho that I am

Not Susan /Odetta --- I like Roland's Susannah. Sorry - should have clarified.

[Geofferson]

For some reason, I'm not too eager to read this. Not sure why since I loved the Dark Tower series. Saw it on the shelf the other day and didn't feel like paying $18 for it or whatever. I'll likely wait until it shows up in the bargain bins/used bookstores.

[Dash]

I just read the book over the weekend, it was a great read. doesnt bring too much to the greater arc, but I love me some young Roland stories.

[silentbob007]

It was an interesting read ... inconsequential to the rest of the story, of course, but nice to revisit with some of the characters.

A thought ... seeing as the latter DT books incorporated pop culture (wolves having snitches and light sabers), is it safe to assume that a "starkblast" is reference to Game of Thrones?

[Xander]

Just finished it yesterday. Overall, I liked it, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Maybe I missed something in the description, but

Spoiler:

I wasn't expecting fully half the book to be a story about completely different characters. I liked the story, I just would have preferred another "early Roland" tale. I did like the young Roland/Jamie part of it too.

I really didn't like the book-ends with Roland, Jake, Eddie, etc. It felt like someone else writing King's characters. The dialogue was weird and it just didn't click for me.

[Rob V]

I have about 20 pages to go and I just can't bring myself to finish. The story wasn't bad but this certainly had NOTHING to do with the ka-tet. It also appears to leave options open to write about the kid who searched out Maerlyn... which I don't think I'd bother with. Overall I'm disappointed.

[drunkrob]

I enjoyed the 'Inception' idea of a story within a story. King maybe used the Dark Tower series to sell this but maybe it was just a clever way to get the story out there.