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Six oddball but brave youngsters encounter the trail of a colossal and terrible supernatural malevolence that has invaded our realm from the outer limits of darkness. They have no choice but to spend their lifetimes fighting it, experiencing horror after horror in the ordeal.

A Resonant Storyline with a New Spin

This describes the premise, broadly speaking, of the master of horror’s novel It (arguably his finest; no debate). It is also the plot of King’s son Joseph Hillstrom King’s new horror doorstopper, in which a band of six invoke the age-old, deeply sinister dragon the Dragon King from the Abyssal Void to help them defeat some villains. Unsurprisingly, their supernatural ritual goes awry.

Acknowledging a Literary Heritage

The author started his career going to great lengths to avoid any connection from his well-known dad, publishing under the pen name he maintains to this day and avoiding meeting his agent (he exhibits a striking resemblance to his parent). Yet with this recent release, he leans into it. Certain passages that consciously reflect some of the senior author’s well-known (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a scene that evokes a signature King element (a battle of wits). In this whopper of a novel, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and we delight along with him.

Meet the Main Characters

Back to those friends: five of them are students at the made-up this academic setting in Maine. There’s Arthur, academic and gifted, cracking ancient puzzles in his free moments; the character Colin, rich, clever, and prone to trampling obstacles in his path; twins Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie herself. Then we have Gwen, who doesn’t study with them, but assumes a vital role of their group as they toy, somewhat credulous, partly skeptical, in the occult.

The Fateful Summoning

The protagonist finds himself, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take rare books from his beloved college library by a group of neighborhood thugs. This tears at his bookish heart, notably because he’s made to take the collection’s foremost and disturbing title: the logbook of occultist the historical figure (executed “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the book’s jacket is made from his skin). Our Scooby gang read the journal, discover they could summon what the occultist details as a clever snake to help Arthur out with his blackmail problem – and spend the rest of the novel facing the fallout. The dragon will indeed rid them of those troublesome local drug dealers, but they are required to pick a new sacrifice annually or become his victim themselves. As our protagonist states: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Narrative Versatility and Creative Range

Moving through four decades, Hill also moves with seamless grace across narrative styles: as the allies strive to manage the circumstances they find themselves in by, variously, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to sacrifice, or hunting down ways to destroy the entity themselves, we go from thriller to dark fantasy, clandestine torment to affectionate subplot to terror. One particularly memorable shift was to a quest story, far beneath the surface beneath this UK region, a part tinged by JRR Tolkien that was gloriously terrifying.

An Expansive Canvas of Fear and Courage

The novel features trolls – the classic variety and digital trolls, properly scary and perfectly brought to life. The story includes mystic weapons and treacheries, pulse-pounding sequences of bravery and scenes of appalling malevolence, both earthly and otherworldly. It’s a tour de force: a chilling book that is primarily a paean to the human inventiveness, and to love and friendship. “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 sit around the table, getting ready to invoke their dragon into being with the force of their minds.

In the author’s own words in his opening statement: “Hic sunt dracones”. Do not overlook this.