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Six quirky but resilient children encounter the way of a vast and dreadful otherworldly malevolence that has entered our world from the deepest abyss of oblivion. They must spend their lifetimes confronting it, experiencing horror after horror in the struggle.

A Resonant Plot with a Distinctive Approach

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s iconic book It (a standout in his career; no debate). It is also the plot of Stephen King’s offspring Joseph Hillstrom King’s latest chilling tome, in which a band of six call forth the ancient, deeply sinister beast King Sorrow from the Long Dark to aid them in overcoming some antagonists. As one might expect, their arcane ceremony backfires.

Acknowledging a Literary Lineage

The author launched his profession striving diligently to distance himself from his renowned parent, using the pseudonym he maintains to this day and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he possesses a uncanny likeness to his father). Yet with this recent release, he embraces it. There are lines that deliberately echo some of the senior author’s well-known (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a incident that recalls a signature King element (a game of puzzles). Throughout this massive book, Hill is delighting in his family connection, and the audience revels alongside.

Introducing the Main Characters

Back to those friends: most are students at the imagined Rackham College in this northeastern locale. There’s Arthur, bookish and gifted, cracking ancient puzzles in his free moments; another key figure, rich, astute, and prone to trampling anyone who stands in his way; the twin siblings; the stunning the lovely Allie. Additionally, Gwen appears, who remains outside their academic circle, but assumes a vital role of their group as they dabble, somewhat credulous, somewhat doubtful, in supernatural practices.

The Critical Ritual

Arthur is, for reasons we don’t need to go into, compelled to pilfer valuable volumes from his cherished academic collection by a group of neighborhood thugs. This devastates his scholarly soul, especially when he’s made to take the institution’s prized and disturbing publication: the logbook of occultist Enoch Crane (put to death “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the cover is crafted from his flesh). Our Scooby gang peruse the diary, discover they could summon what the author references as a cunning serpent to aid our hero with his coercion issue – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. King Sorrow will certainly eliminate those annoying regional antagonists, but they must select a new sacrifice every twelve months or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is additional horrors.”

Narrative Fluidity and Creative Scope

Spanning forty years, the author shifts with effortless ease through various literary forms: as the friends attempt to deal with the situation they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to offer up, or hunting down ways to destroy the entity themselves, we transition from page-turner to shadowy tale, black-ops torture to love story to horror. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, far beneath the surface under the English county, a section tinged by the fantasy maestro that was magnificently horrifying.

A Rich Canvas of Horror and Optimism

There are trolls – the classic variety and digital trolls, truly terrifying and perfectly brought to life. The story includes mystic weapons and treacheries, heart-stopping scenes of courage and instances of appalling malevolence, both human and supernatural. This is a remarkable achievement: a frightening tale that is primarily a ode to the creative spirit, 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 this character as the friends sit around the table, getting ready to invoke their serpent into existence with the strength of their collective will.

As Hill puts it in his opening statement: “Hic sunt dracones”. Don’t miss them.