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A group of six quirky but doughty kids confront the way of a vast and fearsome paranormal malevolence that has entered our world from the farthest reaches of darkness. They are compelled to spend their lifetimes confronting it, facing horror after horror in the ordeal.

An Echoing Plot with a Distinctive Spin

This is the plot, broadly speaking, of the master of horror’s novel It (arguably his finest; undeniable). It similarly frames of the celebrated author’s heir Joe Hill’s latest chilling tome, in which a close-knit group invoke the ancient, infinitely malicious serpent the Dragon King from the Abyssal Void to aid them in overcoming some villains. Unsurprisingly, their otherworldly invocation backfires.

Embracing a Literary Lineage

Joe Hill started his career making great efforts to remain separate from his well-known dad, using the pseudonym he continues to employ and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he exhibits a strong similarity to his father). But in this latest novel, he fully acknowledges it. There are lines that consciously reflect some of his father’s iconic (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a scene that brings to mind a recurring theme in King’s works (a riddling contest). In this epic story, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his family connection, and readers share in the joy.

Meet the Central Figures

Back to those friends: the majority are pupils at the fictional Rackham College in this northeastern locale. There’s Arthur, academic and brilliant, deciphering ancient puzzles in his free moments; Colin, affluent, sharp, and inclined to bulldoze obstacles in his path; the twin siblings; the attractive Allie. And there’s Gwen, who doesn’t study with them, but assumes a vital role of their band as they toy, half believing, somewhat doubtful, in the occult.

The Fateful Summoning

The protagonist finds himself, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take prized manuscripts from his beloved college library by a set of regional villains. This wounds his academic spirit, notably because he’s forced to acquire the collection’s foremost and unsettling work: the diary of occultist this enigmatic character (put to death “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the cover is fashioned from his hide). These young investigators examine the log, learn they can invoke what the occultist details as a armoured devil” to aid our hero with his extortion dilemma – and spend the rest of the novel reaping the consequences. The dragon will undoubtedly remove those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they’ll have to choose a different victim every twelve months or become his victim themselves. As our protagonist states: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is additional horrors.”

Stylistic Dexterity and Creative Range

Moving through four decades, the author shifts with effortless ease across narrative styles: as the companions endeavor to address the situation they find themselves in by, variously, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to sacrifice, or searching for methods to slay the beast themselves, we go from suspense to dark fantasy, clandestine torment to romance to terror. One particularly memorable shift was to a adventure narrative, deep in the caves under the English county, a segment infused with the fantasy maestro that was magnificently horrifying.

An Expansive Canvas of Fear and Optimism

The novel features trolls – the classic variety and digital trolls, truly terrifying and superbly depicted. The story includes mystic weapons and treacheries, heart-stopping scenes of valor and instances of dreadful evil, both earthly and extraterrestrial. It’s a tour de force: a frightening tale that is chiefly a tribute to the imagination, and to devotion and companionship. “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 allies gather at the table, making preparations to call forth their dragon into existence with the strength of their collective will.

As Hill puts it in his opening statement: “Here be dragons”. Don’t miss them.