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Six unlikely but doughty children fall into the path of a vast and fearsome supernatural evil that has invaded our world from the deepest abyss of darkness. They must spend their lifetimes confronting it, enduring terror upon terror in the process.

An Echoing Premise with a Fresh Twist

This is the plot, broadly speaking, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (a standout in his career; undeniable). It parallels of the celebrated author’s heir Joseph Hillstrom King’s new massive horror novel, in which a band of six summon the age-old, infinitely malicious beast the Dragon King from the Long Dark to aid them in overcoming some baddies. Unsurprisingly, their otherworldly invocation goes awry.

Embracing a Family Lineage

Joseph Hillström King launched his profession going to great lengths to remain separate from his well-known dad, using the pseudonym he still uses today and avoiding meeting his agent (he bears a strong similarity to his dad). Yet with this recent release, he leans into it. There are lines that deliberately echo some of his father’s iconic (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a moment that brings to mind a King plot point (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and readers share in the joy.

Meet the Main Characters

Focusing on the companions: the majority are students at the fictional Rackham College in Maine. There’s Arthur, bookish and brilliant, deciphering historical enigmas in his free moments; Colin, affluent, sharp, and known for crushing obstacles in his path; Donna and Donovan; the stunning Allie. Then we have Gwen, who isn’t their classmate, but becomes a key part of their group as they toy, somewhat credulous, somewhat doubtful, in the occult.

The Fateful Ceremony

Arthur is, as a result of external pressures, obliged to take valuable volumes from his cherished academic collection by a group of neighborhood thugs. This wounds his academic spirit, particularly as he’s compelled to seize the collection’s foremost and chilling title: the diary of occultist this enigmatic character (executed “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the cover is fashioned from his hide). The intrepid group peruse the diary, discover they could summon what the occultist details as a “proud worm to assist Arthur with his blackmail problem – and devote the remaining story reaping the consequences. The dragon will certainly eliminate those troublesome local drug dealers, but they’ll have to choose a fresh offering every twelve months or fall prey to the beast. As our protagonist states: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Genre Fluidity and Inventive Range

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with effortless ease through various literary forms: as the companions strive to manage the situation they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, picking people who are obviously evil to offer up, or searching for methods to destroy the entity themselves, we go from suspense to dark fantasy, clandestine torment to love story to fright. A standout transition was to a quest story, deep in the caves below Cornwall, a section tinged by the Lord of the Rings author that was gloriously terrifying.

An Expansive Tapestry of Horror and Hope

The novel features trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and digital trolls, properly scary and expertly realized. The story includes mystic weapons and treacheries, breath-taking moments of courage and ones of terrible wickedness, both earthly and extraterrestrial. It stands as a masterpiece: a frightening tale that is chiefly a tribute to the imagination, 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 Colin as the allies gather at the table, getting ready to invoke their serpent to life with the force of their minds.

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