The Wind Through the Keyhole

After finishing up The Death of Kings and getting back on track with my reading, I was eager to get another book to read. I was talking with Rish a few days ago, and he was mentioning how surprised he was to realize that, even though he knew all about the book, he'd never actually read Stephen King's Duma Key. He's a huge fan of Stephen King, as am I, and he's pretty much read it all, but this one had escaped him somehow.

I confessed to him that I'd never read Duma Key either, and I thought maybe I ought to rectify that too. I got on the Libby app to check it out, but there was a line and I had to put it on hold. While I was at it, I figured I should go through the list of King's books that I hadn't read, and put those on hold as well. I almost always love Stephen King's books (aside from Cujo, which I've tried to read twice, but never managed to finish), so they probably wouldn't derail my progress (unless I tried Cujo for a third time).

I went through and placed holds on more than a dozen books, and the first one that came up as available was The Wind Through the Keyhole, a Dark Tower novel. I read the Dark Tower series through to the end, but Stephen King went back and added this novel into the middle of it in 2012, so I was able to revisit my favorite characters again in an all-new adventure.

Although it didn't turn out to be quite that. There's actually precious little time devoted to Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy. The story takes place in between books four and five, and our heroes are force to take shelter from a crazy storm that blows through Mid-World and kills pretty much everything in its path that isn't sheltered away very securely and warmly.

While they shelter, Roland decides to tell them a story from his past. He weaves the tale of the time he was sent to Debaria to catch a skin-man, which is a shape shifter akin to a werewolf but that isn't limited to just one creature. It can turn into various things. Weirdly, in the middle of this tale, Roland tells another story (we're going deep here. This is the Inception of The Dark Tower. It's a story within a story within a story), this one a tall tale or a myth about Tim, who has to deal with the loss of his father and save his mother from troubles that arise by going on a long quest.

It was an odd bit of framing to make our way through all these nested stories, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Rish, I gather, is not a fan. Probably because there's no real consequence to the tale, since Roland and the others aren't really a part of it. I didn't mind it. I found it fun. 

Not only that, but I managed to make my way through it in only a few days. I stayed home sick from work last Wednesday, and while home, I decided to put up as much of my Christmas toy decorations as I could. I had the audiobook playing the whole time that I worked, and I burned through a huge portion of the book in that one day, only doing a tiny amount before on Tuesday and after on Thursday to finish it. That's always cool to jam through a full-length novel so quickly. It feels like an accomplishment for some reason.

My only gripe was that the finale of the story was kind of weak. Gunslingers are just to capable with their shots, so there wasn't a lot of drama about it, and, of course, since it's a prequel, there's no actual danger to the characters. That's the ultimate problem with prequels. We know damn good and well that the character is going to survive just fine.

It's already time for another book. This time, Stephen King's book that he wrote as Richard Bachman came up as the next thing available. So, in a few, I'll be back to talk with you about Roadwork. I thought I'd read all the original Bachman books, but this one doesn't sound familiar at all, so we'll see how it goes.