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A group of six unlikely but doughty youngsters encounter the way of a colossal and fearsome paranormal darkness that has invaded our world from the outer limits of darkness. They have no choice but to wage a lifelong battle battling it, facing terror upon terror in the process.

A Familiar Storyline with a New Spin

This describes the premise, broadly speaking, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (a standout in his career; no arguments). It parallels of King’s son Joseph Hillstrom King’s latest chilling tome, in which six friends call forth the primordial, deeply sinister serpent the Dragon King from the Long Dark to help them defeat some baddies. As one might expect, their arcane ceremony goes awry.

Acknowledging a Family Heritage

The author started his career going to great lengths to distance himself from his famous father, publishing under the pen name he maintains to this day and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he exhibits a strong similarity to his parent). However, in his newest work, he embraces it. There are lines that intentionally mirror some of the senior author’s well-known (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a incident that brings to mind a signature King element (a battle of wits). Throughout this massive book, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and the audience revels alongside.

The Cast of the Central Figures

Focusing on the companions: the majority are scholars at the imagined this academic setting in Maine. There’s Arthur, academic and gifted, cracking historical enigmas in his free moments; another key figure, affluent, sharp, and known for crushing those who oppose him; the twin siblings; the attractive the lovely Allie. Then we have Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but assumes a vital role of their circle as they toy, somewhat credulous, partly skeptical, in arcane arts.

The Critical Summoning

Our hero becomes, as a result of external pressures, compelled to pilfer valuable volumes from his cherished academic collection by a group of neighborhood thugs. This wounds his academic spirit, especially when he’s forced to acquire the library’s most valuable and disturbing publication: the logbook of adept the historical figure (executed “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the binding is crafted from his flesh). Our Scooby gang peruse the diary, discover they could summon what the author references as a clever snake to aid our hero with his blackmail problem – and devote the remaining story facing the fallout. This ancient entity will indeed rid them of those annoying regional antagonists, but they must select a fresh offering every twelve months or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. As Arthur later puts it: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Narrative Dexterity and Creative Breadth

Covering a generation, Hill also moves with natural fluency between genres: as the companions attempt to deal with the predicament they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, picking people who are obviously evil to sacrifice, or hunting down ways to kill the dragon themselves, we move between page-turner to grim fantasy, clandestine torment to romance to fright. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, far beneath the surface below Cornwall, a section sprinkled with JRR Tolkien that was wonderfully frightening.

A Rich Canvas of Horror and Courage

We encounter trolls – those living under bridges and online ones, truly terrifying and expertly realized. We see enchanted blades and deceptions, pulse-pounding sequences of valor and instances of appalling malevolence, both human and otherworldly. It stands as a masterpiece: a chilling book that is chiefly a paean to the imagination, and to devotion and companionship. “We needed a story to believe and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says this character as the allies assemble around a surface, making preparations to call forth their dragon to life with the power of their thoughts.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “Hic sunt dracones”. Do not overlook this.