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A group of six unlikely but brave youngsters fall into the trail of a vast and terrible supernatural evil that has infiltrated our existence from the outer limits of shadow. They are compelled to devote their lives fighting it, enduring terror upon terror in the process.

An Echoing Plot with a New Twist

This outlines the narrative, roughly, of the master of horror’s seminal work It (his best; no arguments). It similarly frames of Stephen King’s offspring Joseph Hillstrom King’s recent massive horror novel, in which a close-knit group call forth the age-old, deeply sinister serpent the Dragon King from the Endless Night to assist them in vanquishing some villains. As one might expect, their supernatural ritual backfires.

Acknowledging a Authorial Heritage

The author launched his profession making great efforts to remain separate from his well-known dad, using the pseudonym he maintains to this day and avoiding meeting his agent (he bears a strong similarity to his father). But in this latest novel, he embraces it. Certain passages that intentionally mirror some of his father’s iconic (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a scene that recalls a King plot point (a game of puzzles). In this epic story, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and the audience revels alongside.

Meet the Central Figures

Back to those friends: five of them are scholars at the imagined Rackham College in this northeastern locale. There’s Arthur, studious and intelligent, deciphering ancient puzzles in his spare time; Colin, affluent, astute, and inclined to bulldoze anyone who stands in his way; Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie. Then we have Gwen, who isn’t their classmate, but assumes a vital role of their group as they toy, somewhat credulous, half not, in arcane arts.

The Critical Ceremony

The protagonist finds himself, due to circumstances beyond his control, compelled to pilfer valuable volumes from his cherished academic collection by a set of regional villains. This tears at his bookish heart, notably because he’s forced to acquire the library’s most valuable and chilling work: the diary of adept Enoch Crane (executed “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the cover is made from his skin). Our Scooby gang examine the log, discover they could summon what the author references as a “proud worm to assist Arthur with his coercion issue – and devote the remaining story reaping the consequences. This ancient entity will indeed rid them of those troublesome local drug dealers, but they must select a different victim each year or fall prey to the beast. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is additional horrors.”

Narrative Dexterity and Inventive Breadth

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with seamless grace across narrative styles: as the companions attempt to deal with the situation they find themselves in by, in different ways, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to immolate, or hunting down ways to destroy the entity themselves, we transition from suspense to shadowy tale, covert operations to love story to horror. A standout transition was to a quest story, far beneath the surface under the English county, a segment tinged by the fantasy maestro that was gloriously terrifying.

A Rich Tapestry of Dread and Courage

We encounter trolls – the classic variety and internet antagonists, properly scary and superbly depicted. We see enchanted blades and deceptions, pulse-pounding sequences of courage and instances of dreadful evil, both mortal and otherworldly. It stands as a masterpiece: a frightening tale that is chiefly a tribute to the imagination, and to love and friendship. “We longed for a tale to embrace and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says the wealthy student as the friends assemble around a surface, making preparations to call forth their beast into existence with the strength of their collective will.

According to Joe Hill in his epigraph: “Here be dragons”. Do not overlook this.