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A group of six quirky but resilient children fall into the path of a colossal and terrible supernatural malevolence that has infiltrated our realm from the outer limits of shadow. They are compelled to wage a lifelong battle fighting it, enduring one nightmare after another in the struggle.

A Resonant Storyline with a Fresh Twist

This describes the premise, roughly, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (arguably his finest; no arguments). It is also the plot of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s recent massive horror novel, in which a close-knit group invoke the primordial, infinitely malicious beast the Dragon King from the Long Dark to help them defeat some antagonists. As one might expect, their otherworldly invocation backfires.

Celebrating a Literary Lineage

The author launched his profession making great efforts to avoid any connection from his renowned parent, publishing under the pen name he maintains to this day and avoiding meeting his agent (he exhibits a uncanny likeness to his dad). Yet with this recent release, he leans into it. Several quotes that deliberately echo some of the senior author’s well-known (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a incident that recalls a recurring theme in King’s works (a battle of wits). Throughout this massive book, the author rejoices in his lineage, and the audience revels alongside.

Meet the Protagonists

Returning to the group: the majority are students at the imagined Rackham College in this northeastern locale. First is Arthur, studious and brilliant, solving historical enigmas in his free moments; the character Colin, wealthy, astute, and prone to trampling obstacles in his path; Donna and Donovan; the beautiful Allie. Then we have Gwen, who isn’t their classmate, but assumes a vital role of their group as they dabble, half believing, partly skeptical, in arcane arts.

The Fateful Summoning

Our hero becomes, as a result of external pressures, compelled to pilfer valuable volumes from his beloved college library by a group of neighborhood thugs. This tears at his bookish heart, notably because he’s forced to acquire the collection’s foremost and chilling publication: the logbook of occultist Enoch Crane (executed “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the binding is crafted from his flesh). Our Scooby gang examine the log, discover they could summon what the occultist details as a clever snake to help Arthur out with his extortion dilemma – and spend the rest of the novel facing the fallout. This ancient entity will undoubtedly remove those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they’ll have to choose a new sacrifice every twelve months or fall prey to the beast. As Arthur later puts it: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is more dragons.”

Narrative Fluidity and Imaginative Breadth

Covering a generation, the author shifts with seamless grace between genres: as the allies strive to manage the circumstances they find themselves in by, in different ways, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to immolate, or searching for methods to destroy the entity themselves, we move between suspense to grim fantasy, clandestine torment to romance to terror. One particularly memorable shift was to a quest story, within the subterranean depths below Cornwall, a section sprinkled with JRR Tolkien that was gloriously terrifying.

An Expansive Canvas of Dread and Courage

There are trolls – the classic variety and online ones, truly terrifying and expertly realized. The story includes mystic weapons and deceptions, breath-taking moments of bravery and instances of dreadful evil, both human and supernatural. This is a remarkable achievement: a horror novel that is primarily a tribute to the human inventiveness, 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 sit around the table, getting ready to invoke their serpent into being with the power of their thoughts.

According to Joe Hill in his epigraph: “Here be dragons”. Don’t miss them.