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A group of six quirky but doughty children confront the trail of a vast and dreadful otherworldly malevolence that has infiltrated our world from the outer limits of oblivion. They have no choice but to spend their lifetimes fighting it, enduring terror upon terror in the struggle.

A Familiar Plot with a New Approach

This outlines the narrative, in essence, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (his best; no debate). It is also the plot of Stephen King’s offspring Joseph Hillstrom King’s recent chilling tome, in which six friends summon the primordial, utterly malevolent serpent the Sorrowful Monarch from the Long Dark to help them defeat some villains. Needless to say, their supernatural ritual goes awry.

Celebrating a Family Legacy

The author launched his profession making great efforts to remain separate from his renowned parent, adopting the nom de plume he continues to employ and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he exhibits a strong similarity to his parent). However, in his newest work, he fully acknowledges it. Several quotes that consciously reflect some of his father’s iconic (that classic opening line); a moment that evokes a King plot point (a game of puzzles). Throughout this massive book, Hill is delighting in his heritage, and we delight along with him.

Introducing the Protagonists

Back to those friends: five of them are pupils at the fictional the esteemed institution in this northeastern locale. There’s Arthur, studious and brilliant, solving Old English riddles in his leisure hours; the character Colin, wealthy, sharp, and prone to trampling anyone who stands in his way; Donna and Donovan; the beautiful Allie. Then we have Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but assumes a vital role of their group as they experiment, somewhat credulous, half not, in arcane arts.

The Pivotal Ritual

Our hero becomes, as a result of external pressures, obliged to take valuable volumes from his treasured institution’s archives by a bunch of local criminals. This tears at his bookish heart, especially when he’s compelled to seize the collection’s foremost and unsettling publication: the logbook of adept this enigmatic character (executed “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the book’s jacket is made from his skin). The intrepid group peruse the diary, realize they are able to call forth what the occultist details as a cunning serpent to help Arthur out with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. King Sorrow will certainly eliminate those annoying regional antagonists, but they’ll have to choose a different victim every twelve months or fall prey to the beast. In the character’s own words: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is additional horrors.”

Stylistic Dexterity and Imaginative Scope

Spanning forty years, Joe Hill transitions with natural fluency through various literary forms: as the friends endeavor to address the situation they find themselves in by, variously, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to sacrifice, or hunting down ways to destroy the entity themselves, we transition from suspense to grim fantasy, black-ops torture to affectionate subplot to horror. One particularly memorable shift was to a heroic journey, deep in the caves beneath this UK region, a part tinged by the fantasy maestro that was magnificently horrifying.

A Detailed Canvas of Dread and Hope

There are trolls – the classic variety and internet antagonists, properly scary and superbly depicted. The story includes mystic weapons and betrayals, breath-taking moments of bravery and instances of dreadful evil, both mortal and supernatural. This is a remarkable achievement: a frightening tale that is chiefly a ode to the human inventiveness, and to love and friendship. “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 dragon into existence with the force of their minds.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “This is dragon territory”. Don’t miss them.