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Six oddball but brave youngsters fall into the path of a colossal and terrible otherworldly darkness that has invaded our realm from the deepest abyss of oblivion. They must wage a lifelong battle confronting it, facing terror upon terror in the struggle.

A Familiar Premise with a New Approach

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s novel It (arguably his finest; undeniable). It is also the plot of the celebrated author’s heir Joseph Hillstrom King’s latest massive horror novel, in which a band of six call forth the age-old, deeply sinister serpent the Dragon King from the Long Dark to aid them in overcoming some antagonists. Unsurprisingly, their otherworldly invocation goes awry.

Acknowledging a Authorial Lineage

The author started his career making great efforts to avoid any connection from his well-known dad, using the pseudonym he still uses today and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he possesses a strong similarity to his dad). But in this latest novel, he fully acknowledges it. Certain passages that consciously reflect some of his father’s iconic (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a incident that evokes a recurring theme in King’s works (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, the author rejoices in his lineage, and the audience revels alongside.

Meet the Central Figures

Back to those friends: the majority are students at the made-up Rackham College in this northeastern locale. We have Arthur, studious and brilliant, solving Old English riddles in his spare time; the character Colin, affluent, clever, and prone to trampling those who oppose him; the twin siblings; the beautiful Allie. Additionally, Gwen appears, who isn’t their classmate, but emerges as crucial of their circle as they dabble, half believing, half not, in supernatural practices.

The Critical Summoning

The protagonist finds himself, as a result of external pressures, forced into stealing valuable volumes from his beloved college library by a group of neighborhood thugs. This tears at his bookish heart, notably because he’s made to take the institution’s prized and unsettling publication: the logbook of adept this enigmatic character (put to death “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the book’s jacket is made from his skin). Our Scooby gang peruse the diary, discover they could summon what the author references as a cunning serpent to aid our hero with his extortion dilemma – and devote the remaining story enduring the repercussions. King Sorrow will undoubtedly remove those annoying regional antagonists, but they’ll have to choose a new sacrifice each year or fall prey to the beast. In the character’s own words: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is additional horrors.”

Genre Dexterity and Creative Breadth

Covering a generation, Joe Hill transitions with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the friends endeavor to address the predicament they find themselves in by, in different ways, picking people who are obviously evil to sacrifice, or hunting down ways to destroy the entity themselves, we move between thriller to grim fantasy, black-ops torture to romance to horror. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, within the subterranean depths below Cornwall, a part tinged by the fantasy maestro that was gloriously terrifying.

A Detailed Canvas of Dread and Courage

The novel features trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and internet antagonists, properly scary and perfectly brought to life. The story includes mystic weapons and treacheries, breath-taking moments of valor and scenes of dreadful evil, both earthly and otherworldly. It stands as a masterpiece: a horror novel that is primarily a tribute to the human inventiveness, and to affection and camaraderie. “We longed for a tale to embrace and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says Colin as the friends assemble around a surface, preparing to summon their dragon into existence with the strength of their collective will.

According to Joe Hill in his opening statement: “This is dragon territory”. Ensure you experience it.