A group of six oddball but doughty kids fall into the way of a immense and terrible supernatural malevolence that has entered our realm from the outer limits of darkness. They must wage a lifelong battle confronting it, facing terror upon terror in the process.
This is the plot, broadly speaking, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (a standout in his career; no arguments). It similarly frames of King’s son Joe Hill’s new chilling tome, in which a band of six invoke the primordial, utterly malevolent dragon King Sorrow from the Abyssal Void to help them defeat some baddies. Unsurprisingly, their supernatural ritual goes awry.
The author launched his profession going to great lengths to distance himself from his renowned parent, publishing under the pen name he still uses today and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he bears a strong similarity to his parent). However, in his newest work, he fully acknowledges it. Certain passages that consciously reflect some of King’s most famous (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a scene that evokes a signature King element (a game of puzzles). In this epic story, Hill is delighting in his family connection, and the audience revels alongside.
Focusing on the companions: the majority are scholars at the made-up this academic setting in this northeastern locale. First is Arthur, academic and gifted, cracking Old English riddles in his leisure hours; the character Colin, affluent, sharp, and prone to trampling obstacles in his path; twins Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie herself. And there’s Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but emerges as crucial of their group as they toy, partly convinced, somewhat doubtful, in arcane arts.
Arthur is, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take prized manuscripts from his cherished academic collection by a set of regional villains. This tears at his bookish heart, especially when he’s made to take the institution’s prized and chilling publication: the journal of practitioner this enigmatic character (executed “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the binding is fashioned from his hide). These young investigators read the journal, learn they can invoke what the author references as a “arrogant beast to help Arthur out with his blackmail problem – and spend the rest of the novel enduring the repercussions. This ancient entity will indeed rid them of those annoying regional antagonists, but they must select a fresh offering annually or fall prey to the beast. As Arthur later puts it: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is additional horrors.”
Covering a generation, Hill also moves with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the friends endeavor to address the circumstances they find themselves in by, in different ways, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to immolate, or searching for methods to slay the beast themselves, we go from page-turner to grim fantasy, covert operations to romance to terror. One particularly memorable shift was to a heroic journey, within the subterranean depths under the English county, a part tinged by JRR Tolkien that was wonderfully frightening.
We encounter trolls – those living under bridges and internet antagonists, truly terrifying and expertly realized. We see enchanted blades and deceptions, breath-taking moments of bravery and scenes of terrible wickedness, both mortal and supernatural. It stands as a masterpiece: a chilling book that is above all 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 allies assemble around a surface, getting ready to invoke their dragon to life with the force of their minds.
As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “Here be dragons”. Do not overlook this.
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