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Six quirky but doughty children fall into the trail of a vast and terrible supernatural malevolence that has invaded our world from the deepest abyss of shadow. They are compelled to devote their lives confronting it, enduring one nightmare after another in the struggle.

An Echoing Premise with a New Approach

This describes the premise, roughly, of Stephen King’s novel It (arguably his finest; no debate). It is also the plot of the celebrated author’s heir Joseph Hillstrom King’s new horror doorstopper, in which six friends summon the primordial, deeply sinister dragon the Dragon King from the Endless Night to help them defeat some baddies. Unsurprisingly, their supernatural ritual backfires.

Celebrating a Family Heritage

Joe Hill launched his profession making great efforts to remain separate from his renowned parent, publishing under the pen name he still uses today and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he bears a uncanny likeness to his parent). Yet with this recent release, he fully acknowledges it. Certain passages that intentionally mirror some of King’s most famous (that classic opening line); a moment that evokes a King plot point (a riddling contest). Throughout this massive book, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and we delight along with him.

The Cast of the Protagonists

Returning to the group: five of them are scholars at the fictional the esteemed institution in the New England state. We have Arthur, bookish and gifted, deciphering historical enigmas in his leisure hours; another key figure, affluent, astute, and inclined to bulldoze those who oppose him; twins Donna and Donovan; the beautiful Allie. And there’s Gwen, who isn’t their classmate, but emerges as crucial of their circle as they experiment, somewhat credulous, half not, in supernatural practices.

The Pivotal Ritual

Arthur is, as a result of external pressures, forced into stealing rare books from his cherished academic collection by a group of neighborhood thugs. This wounds his academic spirit, particularly as he’s forced to acquire the collection’s foremost and disturbing title: the diary of occultist this enigmatic character (put to death “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the binding is made from his skin). The intrepid group read the journal, realize they are able to call forth what Crane describes as a armored demon” to help Arthur out with his extortion dilemma – and spend the rest of the novel reaping the consequences. This ancient entity will undoubtedly remove those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they are required to pick a new sacrifice each year or fall prey to the beast. In the character’s own words: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Genre Fluidity and Creative Breadth

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the friends endeavor to address the predicament they find themselves in by, variously, picking people who are obviously evil to offer up, or searching for methods to destroy the entity themselves, we go from thriller to grim fantasy, covert operations to love story to horror. My favorite genre switch was to a heroic journey, far beneath the surface under the English county, a segment infused with the fantasy maestro that was gloriously terrifying.

A Detailed Tapestry of Dread and Hope

There are trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and internet antagonists, properly scary and superbly depicted. The story includes mystic weapons and deceptions, heart-stopping scenes of valor and ones of appalling malevolence, both human and supernatural. It’s a tour de force: a horror novel that is primarily a tribute to the creative spirit, and to affection and camaraderie. “We required a narrative to trust 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, getting ready to invoke their beast to life with the power of their thoughts.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “Here be dragons”. Do not overlook this.