🔗 Share this article King Sorrow by Joe Hill Review – An Dragon-Fired Horror Epic Is a Tour de Force Six quirky but resilient children fall into the trail of a colossal and fearsome paranormal evil that has infiltrated our existence from the farthest reaches of shadow. They have no choice but to wage a lifelong battle confronting it, enduring one nightmare after another in the process. A Resonant Premise with a New Approach This describes the premise, broadly speaking, of the master of horror’s novel It (arguably his finest; undeniable). It similarly frames of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s latest horror doorstopper, in which a close-knit group summon the ancient, infinitely malicious beast the Dragon King from the Long Dark to help them defeat some antagonists. Unsurprisingly, their supernatural ritual has unintended consequences. Acknowledging a Literary Legacy Joe Hill launched his profession going to great lengths to remain separate from his famous father, publishing under the pen name he still uses today and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he exhibits a striking resemblance to his parent). But in this latest novel, he fully acknowledges it. There are lines that consciously reflect some of King’s most famous (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a scene that brings to mind a signature King element (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and we delight along with him. The Cast of the Main Characters Returning to the group: five of them are scholars at the made-up this academic setting in this northeastern locale. There’s Arthur, academic and brilliant, solving historical enigmas in his spare time; the character Colin, rich, astute, and known for crushing anyone who stands in his way; the twin siblings; the attractive Allie. And there’s Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but assumes a vital role of their circle as they toy, partly convinced, half not, in supernatural practices. The Critical Summoning Our hero becomes, due to circumstances beyond his control, compelled to pilfer rare books from his cherished academic collection by a set of regional villains. This tears at his bookish heart, notably because he’s compelled to seize the library’s most valuable and chilling work: the diary of occultist the historical figure (executed “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the cover is fashioned from his hide). These young investigators read the journal, learn they can invoke what the occultist details as a cunning serpent to help Arthur out with his coercion issue – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. The dragon will certainly eliminate those troublesome local drug dealers, but they’ll have to choose 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 more dragons.” Genre Dexterity and Inventive Scope Moving through four decades, Joe Hill transitions with effortless ease between genres: as the friends attempt to deal with the circumstances they find themselves in by, variously, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to immolate, or seeking means to destroy the entity themselves, we transition from suspense to dark fantasy, black-ops torture to romance to horror. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, far beneath the surface below Cornwall, a part sprinkled with the Lord of the Rings author that was gloriously terrifying. A Detailed Tapestry of Horror and Optimism There are trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and internet antagonists, properly scary and expertly realized. There are magical swords and treacheries, heart-stopping scenes of valor and ones of terrible wickedness, both human and extraterrestrial. This is a remarkable achievement: a chilling book that is above all a tribute to the human inventiveness, and to affection and camaraderie. “We needed a story to believe and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says the wealthy student as the friends gather at the table, getting ready to invoke their serpent into being with the power of their thoughts. In the author’s own words in his epigraph: “Hic sunt dracones”. Ensure you experience it.