Dark Tower Series: The Wind Through The Keyhole

[maniacalpha1-1]

Anyone got this yet? Supposedly it's a February release. Or maybe it's only Feb for limited editions and April for regular editions, not sure.

 

[bobdole369]

WTF? After the abortion the last book was, and the utter rubbish he spewed for book 5 and 6 I shudder to think what this is. I loved the hell out of book 4 though.

 

[Skel]

I was under the impression that he finished the book series with the last one. I only read the first two, and never got around to the rest. I have read the prequel comics, but those were written by someone else.

 

[bobdole369]

I was under the impression that he finished the book series with the last one. I only read the first two, and never got around to the rest. I have read the prequel comics, but those were written by someone else.

For the love of Roland read books 3 and 4!

 

[silverpig]

I read 1-4 back to back just after 4 came out. I only got 1/3rd of the way through 5...

 

[bobdole369]

Dear Constant Readers,

At some point, while worrying over the copyedited manuscript of the next book (11/22/63, out November 8th), I started thinking—and dreaming—about Mid-World again. The major story of Roland and his ka-tet was told, but I realized there was at least one hole in the narrative progression: what happened to Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah, and Oy between the time they leave the Emerald City (the end of Wizard and Glass) and the time we pick them up again, on the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis (the beginning of Wolves of the Calla)?

There was a storm, I decided. One of sudden and vicious intensity. The kind to which billy-bumblers like Oy are particularly susceptible. Little by little, a story began to take shape. I saw a line of riders, one of them Roland’s old mate, Jamie DeCurry, emerging from clouds of alkali dust thrown by a high wind. I saw a severed head on a fencepost. I saw a swamp full of dangers and terrors. I saw just enough to want to see the rest. Long story short, I went back to visit an-tet with my friends for awhile. The result is a novel called The Wind Through the Keyhole. It’s finished, and I expect it will be published next year.

It won’t tell you much that’s new about Roland and his friends, but there’s a lot none of us knew about Mid-World, both past and present. The novel is shorter than DT 2-7, but quite a bit longer than the first volume—call this one DT-4.5. It’s not going to change anybody’s life, but God, I had fun.

-- Steve King

 

[bobdole369]

Sorry it was specifically the sort of bullshit convenient "magic" that made me actually shake in rage as King took my beloved world and fucked its skull as if he were Lumberg from officespace.

 

[corwin]

Wow...last one I read was wizard and glass and that was ages ago, someone bought me the rest of the series a couple years ago but I haven't bothered to read any of them yet, from some of your comments I don't know that I should

 

[bobdole369]

I'm hoping others will pipe up too - I would tell myself to leave them unread if I had a deLorean that went 88 mph and I could actually do so.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Tower-Book/dp/1880418622

I'm not alone. Spoilers in there.

 

[Jaiguru]

He probably got too much criticism on how he ended the series that he decided to throw in one more book to try to redeem himself.

I'm still convinced that books 5 and 6 were written by a ghost writer.

 

[JJ650]

He probably got too much criticism on how he ended the series that he decided to throw in one more book to try to redeem himself.

I'm still convinced that books 5 and 6 were written by a ghost writer.

I kind of had that impression too. Those 2 books didn't have the same feel as the others.

 

[Delita]

I enjoyed all 7. Although King's strong suit has never been endings, the journey there is always fun. The book is out in April, but there is a small excerpt available on the tor website.

http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/12/the-dark-tower-the-wind-through-the-keyhole-excerpt

 

[Possessed Freak]

I can tell you the exact spot where I stopped reading this series... when he actually wrote himself into the book. I was hoping he wasn't, I saw hints, I thought... no he couldn't. Then he did.

 

[surfsatwerk]

I enjoyed them, the guy's no Hemingway so I don't expect read War and Peace when I pick up his books.

 

[Andy22]

I think the difference was that books 1-4 were so masterful you could tell they just flowed out of him. Then...after so much time he just lost the story. The rest of the books felt like he had to force himself to write them. Wizard and the Glass to this day remains one of my favorite all time books and I think it could stand on its own as a great movie.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I reread the entire series once every couple of years it seems, and there's a definite falloff in the last 3 books. I think king had written the first three books when I started reading the DT series as a young child, so I basically spent my formative years anxiously awaiting each entry after devouring the last. I sort of have to read anything else he writes about Mid-World.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

Leave well enough alone. Damn.

 

[Born2bwire]

I reread the entire series once every couple of years it seems, and there's a definite falloff in the last 3 books. I think king had written the first three books when I started reading the DT series as a young child, so I basically spent my formative years anxiously awaiting each entry after devouring the last. I sort of have to read anything else he writes about Mid-World.

I'm probably in the minority in that I'm okay with the very end of the series. I can't really think of a better way to close out the saga with what Roland finds in the Tower and more importantly, how could one even provide an ending that gives Roland closure? Everything leading up to that, the Crimson King included, was terrible.

I agree, the last three books really started a downtrend. Among the things I really did not like was his reintegration of his other works into the book and

Spoiler

having himself be play a role, Jesus Christ.

The Wolves of Calla would be fine (really, the gunslingers needed their own "Meiji story," it's just part of the mythology that King's built around them) if he kept out that Salem's Lot stuff but by the last two books he's permanently enmeshed the various plots together. Bah!

 

[alent1234]

i read them all in the last half of last year but each one gets more ridiculous than the last. the part where Roland and Eddie meet Stephen King is the peak

based on his ending of DT he should have called this the orgasm revisited

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

This book is out now, anyone reading it? My copy is waiting for me when I get home this weekend.

 

[cKGunslinger]

I think I'll wait for paperback. I'll re-read Wizards and Glass once again in the meantime..

 

[alent1234]

I might buy it after I finish fifty shades of grey

 

[nageov3t]

I'll never understand the Wizard and Glass love.

I read the whole thing in an impatient rage wanting him to get back to the story of Jake, Eddie, and Susannah, not Roland's dead strangerbitch friends who I had no connection to whatsoever.

 

[cKGunslinger]

I'll never understand the Wizard and Glass love.

I read the whole thing in an impatient rage wanting him to get back to the story of Jake, Eddie, and Susannah, not Roland's dead strangerbitch friends who I had no connection to whatsoever.

First reading, I agree - the plot did not advance at all (got past the palace - in a pretty stupid way) and I was a bit bummed.

But the story itself was fantastic. Well told, well paced (not always King's strongpoint,) with amazing character development. And the way it painted Roland's backstory was fantastic.

Spoiler

I mean the guy, as a young teenage boy, saw and heard his first girlfriend being burned alive as she cried his name. Jesus Tap-dancing [Hume ]Christ - no wonder he's was so cold!

And he actually wrote a decent battle/fight scene for once!

I thought it was a great sub-story - certainly better then all the books to follow, sadly.

 

[sixone]

I'm probably in the minority in that I'm okay with the very end of the series. I can't really think of a better way to close out the saga with what Roland finds in the Tower and more importantly, how could one even provide an ending that gives Roland closure? Everything leading up to that, the Crimson King included, was terrible.

I didn't like the end, when I read it.

But now that I'm a few years wiser about people, I realize how great it is. It captures human nature to a T.

Not sure I'll ever read the whole series again. The older I get, the less I enjoy the darkness of his writing.