Book review - The Wind Through The Keyhole by Stephen King

ROLAND Deschain, son of Steven, the last gunslinger of Gilead, is back. Do ya ken it? If those lines make no sense, then there's really very little reason to read The Wind Through The Keyhole.

ROLAND Deschain, son of Steven, the last gunslinger of Gilead, is back. Do ya ken it?

If those lines make no sense, then there's really very little reason to read Stephen King's The Wind Through The Keyhole. There are seven other books containing thousands of pages you should focus on first.

That said, the first 30 or so pages are exciting for fans of the Dark Tower series.

All your old friends from Mid-World are here: Roland and his six-shooters, his friends Susannah, Eddie and Jake and it's a real treat to meet them again as they follow the path of the beam to the Dark Tower.

King writes in the foreword that the initial action takes place between books four and five in the series.

Soon Roland and his "ka-tet" are pinned down by a monster storm and Roland tells them all about the time he and his fellow gunslinger apprentice investigated dozens of murders by a "skin-changer".

That turning-back-the-clock twist isn't so bad, but it doesn't last. Just as we settle in for a story about one of teenage Roland's first gunslinger gigs, we're dropped deeper down the wormhole into a story-within-a-story-within-a-story.

This one is what gives the book its name. King himself has called it a "modern fairytale", and there is indeed a fairy, an enchanted forest and a benevolent tiger. This so-called Dark Tower novel doesn't feel like it has much to do with the Dark Tower.

My guess is fans will be a little disappointed.

The Wind Through The Keyhole
Stephen King
Hachette, $32.99