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Six unlikely but doughty youngsters fall into the trail of a immense and fearsome supernatural evil that has invaded our existence from the outer limits of oblivion. They have no choice but to wage a lifelong battle fighting it, experiencing one nightmare after another in the process.

An Echoing Storyline with a Fresh Approach

This is the plot, broadly speaking, of the master of horror’s novel It (his best; no arguments). It is also the plot of King’s son Joseph Hillstrom King’s new chilling tome, in which six friends invoke the age-old, infinitely malicious dragon King Sorrow from the Abyssal Void to help them defeat some antagonists. Needless to say, their otherworldly invocation backfires.

Embracing a Authorial Lineage

The author launched his profession going to great lengths to avoid any connection from his famous father, using the pseudonym he still uses today and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he possesses a uncanny likeness to his parent). Yet with this recent release, he fully acknowledges it. Several quotes that intentionally mirror some of the senior author’s well-known (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a moment that recalls a King plot point (a riddling contest). In this whopper of a novel, Hill is delighting in his family connection, and the audience revels alongside.

Meet the Protagonists

Focusing on the companions: most are pupils at the fictional Rackham College in Maine. We have Arthur, bookish and intelligent, cracking Old English riddles in his spare time; another key figure, wealthy, astute, and inclined to bulldoze anyone who stands in his way; Donna and Donovan; the beautiful Allie herself. Additionally, Gwen appears, who isn’t their classmate, but assumes a vital role of their band as they dabble, somewhat credulous, partly skeptical, in the occult.

The Fateful Summoning

The protagonist finds himself, for reasons we don’t need to go into, compelled to pilfer prized manuscripts from his cherished academic collection by a bunch of local criminals. This wounds his academic spirit, especially when he’s forced to acquire the library’s most valuable and unsettling publication: the logbook of practitioner Enoch Crane (put to death “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the cover is crafted from his flesh). The intrepid group examine the log, realize they are able to call forth what the occultist details as a armored demon” to help Arthur out with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative enduring the repercussions. The dragon will indeed rid them of those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they’ll have to choose a new sacrifice every twelve months or become his victim themselves. As Arthur later puts it: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is additional horrors.”

Stylistic Versatility and Imaginative Scope

Covering a generation, the author shifts with seamless grace through various literary forms: as the companions endeavor to address the predicament they find themselves in by, in different ways, choosing undeniably wicked targets to immolate, or searching for methods to kill the dragon themselves, we transition from page-turner to shadowy tale, covert operations to love story to fright. A standout transition was to a quest story, far beneath the surface under the English county, a segment infused with the Lord of the Rings author that was magnificently horrifying.

An Expansive Canvas of Dread and Hope

We encounter trolls – those living under bridges and internet antagonists, properly scary and superbly depicted. The story includes mystic weapons and treacheries, heart-stopping scenes of bravery and scenes of appalling malevolence, both mortal and supernatural. It stands as a masterpiece: a frightening tale that is above all a tribute to the imagination, and to affection and camaraderie. “We longed for a tale to embrace and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says Colin as the companions gather at the table, preparing to summon their beast into existence with the force of their minds.

As Hill puts it in his epigraph: “This is dragon territory”. Ensure you experience it.