My Rating: 
Author: Stephen King
Narrator: Stephen King
Length: 9 hrs 49 mins.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
My Review: As a long time fan of the Dark Tower series I found myself immediately intrigued to learn that there was more to the story.
I knew without a doubt that I would be experiencing this book in the audiobook format so I immediately looked to see who would be narrating. I had made the assumption that George Guidall would be the obvious choice so I was surprised and a little disappointed to learn that Stephen King was narrating it himself. In general I’m not a big fan of books narrated by the author. (Notable exceptions are books written by Malcolm Gladwell and Neil Gaiman) So I had to talk myself into going ahead with this audiobook. I told myself that it would prove to be very interesting to hear this story directly from the author’s mouth. It would be a unique opportunity to hear the language of Mid-World as Stephen King has always imagined it.
As the book began it seemed to feel a little weird to pick up Roland’s ka-tet in the middle of their journey. The ka-tet is travelling along The Beam when Oy starts acting funny. His odd behavior turns out to be an early warning system for one hell of a storm. When Roland, Eddie, Jake, Susannah and Oy take shelter they ask Roland to tell them a story to pass the time.
Roland begins his story and you go back further in time to when Roland was just a teenage gunslinger. The story that unfolds here is a fascinating look into Roland’s history. His experiences here tracking the shape shifter are classic Mid-World lore and fits perfectly with everything that you already knew about gunslingers. Basically they are bad asses.
As much as I enjoyed this section of the book I have to admit that my favorite section was the story that the teenage Roland tells to the young witness of the shapeshifter’s murderous escapades. This story, from the Magic Tales of Eld is basically a Mid-World fairytale that blurs the edges of time and space. Familiar characters and themes are there to be found within this tale.
This story, within a story, within a story seems a little disorienting when the stories begin and end. While they are being told though I tended to completely forget about the story I had just left and found myself completely engrossed by what adventure I was just dropped into. As the fairytale ended I knew that things were starting to draw to a close. I have to admit that I was a little depressed. I kept wondering will this be my last trip to the Dark Tower series?
Finally we find ourselves back with our ka-tet after they had just rode out the storm. Roland’s story seems to have helped take everyone’s mind off the storm and it also seems to have had a cathartic effect on himself as well. Knowing what is in store for Roland as he travels down The Beam, it was nice to see that he was able to find a little bit of closure on one of the most stressful experiences in his life.
Audio Production: Stephen King is not a great narrator. This audiobook isn’t one that I would recommend to a first time audiobook listener but it certainly is one that I would recommend to long time Stephen King fans who love audiobooks.
Overall: The Wind Through The Keyhole is a fascinating trip back to Mid-World. King’s narration is a bit of a double edged sword. Audiobook newbies won’t be converted into audiobook lovers based upon his performance. However, long time fans of King’s work will be able to find simple enjoyment of listening to the world of Roland Deschain and his ka-tet unfold directly from the master storytellers lips.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this audiobook from the publisher
I am a great fan of King’s books, but he is a terrible narrator. I listened to a sample of his narration and I think I will pass on this one. I am disgusted with the arrogant assumption that an author can add value to an audio book when he has a terrible voice.
Love the review and totally agree. It’s weird, because I expected to hate SK’s narration, but I think that the fact this was the first Dark Tower book I did in audio, it helped me. In some ways, for me, since I read the novels, they were always in Stephen King’s voice.
I read several of these books when I was younger.. then I went back and listened to them all on audio. So the bar had been set pretty high by Frank Muller and George Guidall. Unfortunately, King’s narration isn’t anywhere near that quality.
It does make you wonder what the reasoning was behind having King narrate this novel. Do people flock to this audiobook when they hear that he is narrating? Is it the “celebrity narrator” effect?