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Six oddball but doughty youngsters confront the path of a immense and fearsome paranormal darkness that has invaded our existence from the outer limits of oblivion. They must devote their lives confronting it, enduring terror upon terror in the struggle.

A Resonant Storyline with a Fresh Spin

This is the plot, broadly speaking, of Stephen King’s novel It (his best; no arguments). It similarly frames of the celebrated author’s heir Joe Hill’s latest massive horror novel, in which a close-knit group invoke the ancient, infinitely malicious dragon King Sorrow from the Long Dark to help them defeat some antagonists. As one might expect, their arcane ceremony backfires.

Embracing a Literary Lineage

Joseph Hillström King launched his profession making great efforts to remain separate from his well-known dad, publishing under the pen name he still uses today and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he exhibits a strong similarity to his parent). Yet with this recent release, he embraces it. There are lines that consciously reflect some of his father’s iconic (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a moment that brings to mind a signature King element (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, the author rejoices in his heritage, and the audience revels alongside.

The Cast of the Main Characters

Returning to the group: most are scholars at the imagined Rackham College in Maine. First is Arthur, academic and intelligent, cracking Old English riddles in his free moments; another key figure, affluent, astute, and prone to trampling anyone who stands in his way; Donna and Donovan; the stunning the lovely Allie. Then we have Gwen, who isn’t their classmate, but assumes a vital role of their band as they dabble, half believing, half not, in arcane arts.

The Critical Summoning

The protagonist finds himself, as a result of external pressures, obliged to take valuable volumes from his beloved college library by a group of neighborhood thugs. This devastates his scholarly soul, particularly as he’s compelled to seize the institution’s prized and unsettling title: the logbook of practitioner Enoch Crane (condemned “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the book’s jacket is fashioned from his hide). The intrepid group read the journal, discover they could summon what the occultist details as a clever snake to aid our hero with his extortion dilemma – and devote the remaining story reaping the consequences. King Sorrow will undoubtedly remove those annoying regional antagonists, but they’ll have to choose a different victim every twelve months or fall prey to the beast. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is additional horrors.”

Stylistic Fluidity and Imaginative Range

Spanning forty years, the author shifts with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the allies strive to manage the circumstances they find themselves in by, variously, choosing undeniably wicked targets to sacrifice, or hunting down ways to destroy the entity themselves, we move between thriller to shadowy tale, covert operations to affectionate subplot to terror. A standout transition was to a quest story, far beneath the surface under the English county, a section tinged by the Lord of the Rings author that was magnificently horrifying.

A Detailed Canvas of Horror and Courage

We encounter trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and digital trolls, truly terrifying and expertly realized. We see enchanted blades and deceptions, pulse-pounding sequences of courage and instances of terrible wickedness, both human and extraterrestrial. It stands as a masterpiece: a horror novel that is primarily a tribute to the creative spirit, 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 this character as the allies sit around the table, making preparations to call forth their beast to life with the strength of their collective will.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “This is dragon territory”. Don’t miss them.