Bill Sheehan
…an epic fantasy unlike anything else in its overcrowded field…[the] interlocking narratives address a number of King's recurring themes: families in crisis, imperiled children, the burdens of guilt and grief and the possibility of forgiveness. The structure of the book—a tale within a tale within a larger, ongoing tale—underscores another of its central points: the consolation to be found in stories. In Roland's words, "A person's never too old for stories…Man and boy, girl and woman, never too old. We live for them." King's entire career, one that has resulted in an ocean of narrative, is a fitting monument to this belief. At his characteristic best, King creates the kind of fully imagined fictional landscapes that a reader can inhabit for days at a stretch. In The Wind Through the Keyhole, he has done this once again.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
King returns to the Mid-World of his Dark Tower series in this gory but hopeful set of nested tales. As gunslinger Roland Deschain and his companions quest toward the Dark Tower, Roland tells a story of his early days as a gunslinger, hunting down a murderous shape-shifter on a rampage. Within that tale is a fairy tale Roland tells to a young boy about Tim, a very brave boy tricked into a dangerous quest by an evil man. Tim’s adventure is pitch-perfect, capturing both the feel of Mid-World and the perilous nature of a fairy story. Its placement within the quest works beautifully, and it propels the story of the shape-shifter and the child who holds the key to its identity. Even those who aren’t familiar with the series will find the conclusion both satisfying and moving. This gripping novel is sure to put King back on the bestseller lists. Agent: Chuck Verrill, Darhansoff & Verrill. (May)
Publishers Weekly - Audio
With his dry, New England accent, Stephen King would never be mistaken for a professional narrator. But that hardly matters when he’s reading his own work, especially a novel as flat-out entertaining as his new addition to the Dark Tower series. Covering events that take place between the fourth and fifth books, this installment follows gunslinger Roland Deschain of Gilead and his pals as they sit out a storm on their journey to the Dark Tower. While they wait, Roland tells them a story about when his father sent him to hunt down a shape-shifter and a legendary tale about a boy named Tim Stoutheart and his adventures with a wizard and magic tiger. King’s narration is so effective, especially when evoking some of the colorful characters—like gruff cowboys or otherworldly critters—that listeners will assume he’s picked up some technique from the pros who’ve narrated his many books over the years.The audiobook includes a bonus: King reading the first chapter of Doctor Sleep, his forthcoming sequel to The Shining.A Scribner hardcover. (Apr.)
Esquire
Vivid and precise . . . A genre mash-up of horror/western/detective fiction, in which our hero rides into town to wade through gore, solve a mystery, and bring justice to an unruly frontier town.
Vulture
A fairy tale of great adventure and beauty.
San Francisco Chronicle
Each nested narrative delivers its fair share of suspense, action and solid character work. King knows this fictional universe intimately, and his love for it shines through every page.
The Washington Post
It’s both a pleasure and a surprise to encounter The Wind Through the Keyhole, a new, largely independent narrative set in a previously unexplored corner of Roland’s universe.
USA Today
Masterful . . . King shows himself to be an ace storyteller yet again, spinning yarns like a favorite relative about a hero and his adventures in a world like our own but just slightly skewed.
San Francisco Chronicle
Each nested narrative delivers its fair share of suspense, action and solid character work. King knows this fictional universe intimately, and his love for it shines through every page.
USA Today
Masterful . . . King shows himself to be an ace storyteller yet again, spinning yarns like a favorite relative about a hero and his adventures in a world like our own but just slightly skewed.
MAY 2012 - AudioFile
Stephen King knows how to write great prose. With his in-depth descriptions, the listener sees, feels, and tastes every detail he describes. However, the Dark Tower series is exceptionally robust, and the print version may be a better choice for keeping up with this story. King reads his own work with confidence and does a thorough job with the characters’ accents. However, his vocal timbre is not a good match for the protagonist, Roland Deschain. While King does a commendable job navigating the listener through some important and interesting details in this adventure, sometimes reading a book in print works better than having it read aloud—even when the narrator is the author. P.S.F. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
The bestselling novelist scales down his literary ambition with a return to the Dark Tower series. Though King has expanded his thematic terrain and elevated his critical reputation in recent years (11/22/63, 2011 etc.), he remains a master of fantastic stories spun from a very fertile imagination that seek to do nothing more (or less) than entertain. Some readers might be surprised at this return to the narrative that King had apparently concluded with the massive The Dark Tower (2004), the seventh book in the series. Yet rather than extend and revive the plot in this installment, he mines a seam from earlier in the series, suggesting that "this book should be shelved between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla...which makes it, I suppose Dark Tower 4.5." He also makes a point of reassuring readers new to the series that they can start here, that the novel can be understood as a stand-alone title (with just a little contextual background, which he summarizes in a couple of paragraphs). Short by King's standards, the novel draws inspiration from tales of knighthood and Old West gunslingers, as its story-within-a-story (within a story) details the rite-of-passage heroism of Roland Deschain, who saves a terrified boy in Mid-World from a shape-shifting marauder. "These tales nest inside each other," explains Roland at the outset, as he prepares to recount a story through which its characters drew courage and inspiration from a story. If it weren't for the profanity which liberally seasons the narrative, it could pass as a young adult fantasy, a foul-mouthed Harry Potter (with nods toward The Wizard of Oz and C.S. Lewis). It even ends with a redemptive moral, though King mainly concerns himself here with spinning a yard. Will more likely serve as a footnote for the many fans of the series than a point of entry to expand its readership.
