🔗 Share this article

Six unlikely but resilient kids confront the way of a immense and dreadful otherworldly darkness that has infiltrated our existence from the outer limits of oblivion. They have no choice but to spend their lifetimes fighting it, experiencing one nightmare after another in the ordeal.

An Echoing Premise with a New Spin

This describes the premise, in essence, of Stephen King’s iconic book It (arguably his finest; no debate). It is also the plot of Stephen King’s offspring Joseph Hillstrom King’s latest horror doorstopper, in which a close-knit group invoke the primordial, infinitely malicious beast the Dragon King from the Abyssal Void to assist them in vanquishing some villains. As one might expect, their supernatural ritual has unintended consequences.

Embracing a Family Legacy

The author started his career striving diligently to distance himself from his famous father, using the pseudonym he still uses today and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he bears a striking resemblance to his father). However, in his newest work, he leans into it. There are lines that deliberately echo some of the senior author’s well-known (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a scene that recalls a King plot point (a riddling contest). In this whopper of a novel, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his heritage, and the audience revels alongside.

Meet the Central Figures

Focusing on the companions: five of them are scholars at the fictional the esteemed institution in this northeastern locale. First is Arthur, studious and intelligent, cracking Old English riddles in his spare time; the character Colin, rich, clever, and inclined to bulldoze those who oppose him; Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie herself. Additionally, Gwen appears, who doesn’t study with them, but assumes a vital role of their circle as they dabble, half believing, half not, in the occult.

The Critical Ceremony

The protagonist finds himself, for reasons we don’t need to go into, forced into stealing valuable volumes from his cherished academic collection by a bunch of local criminals. This devastates his scholarly soul, notably because he’s made to take the library’s most valuable and disturbing work: the logbook of occultist Enoch Crane (executed “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the book’s jacket is crafted from his flesh). The intrepid group examine the log, discover they could summon what the occultist details as a “proud worm to aid our hero with his coercion issue – and occupy the subsequent narrative reaping the consequences. King Sorrow will indeed rid them of those annoying regional antagonists, but they must select a different victim each year or become his victim themselves. As our protagonist states: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is additional horrors.”

Genre Dexterity and Inventive Breadth

Covering a generation, Hill also moves with effortless ease between genres: as the companions endeavor to address the predicament they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to sacrifice, or hunting down ways to kill the dragon themselves, we go from page-turner to shadowy tale, clandestine torment to affectionate subplot to terror. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, deep in the caves under the English county, a section sprinkled with JRR Tolkien that was magnificently horrifying.

An Expansive Mosaic of Fear and Hope

We encounter trolls – the classic variety and internet antagonists, properly scary and superbly depicted. We see enchanted blades and treacheries, pulse-pounding sequences of courage and ones of terrible wickedness, both human and supernatural. This is a remarkable achievement: a chilling book that is above all a tribute to the human inventiveness, 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 the wealthy student as the companions assemble around a surface, preparing to summon their dragon into existence with the force of their minds.

According to Joe Hill in his opening statement: “Hic sunt dracones”. Don’t miss them.