🔗 Share this article The Dragon's Curse by Joe Hill Review – A Fiery Horror Saga Delivers Masterpiece-Level Thrills A group of six quirky but doughty children encounter the path of a colossal and dreadful otherworldly malevolence that has entered our realm from the outer limits of oblivion. They are compelled to devote their lives battling it, experiencing horror after horror in the process. A Familiar Storyline with a Distinctive Twist This describes the premise, roughly, of Stephen King’s novel It (a standout in his career; no debate). It similarly frames of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s new horror doorstopper, in which a band of six call forth the ancient, infinitely malicious beast the Dragon King from the Long Dark to assist them in vanquishing some villains. As one might expect, their otherworldly invocation has unintended consequences. Celebrating a Family Legacy Joe Hill launched his profession going to great lengths to distance himself from his well-known dad, publishing under the pen name he continues to employ and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he exhibits a striking resemblance to his father). But in this latest novel, he fully acknowledges 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 brings to mind a King plot point (a game of puzzles). In this epic story, 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 fictional this academic setting in the New England state. There’s Arthur, studious and gifted, solving ancient puzzles in his free moments; Colin, affluent, astute, and inclined to bulldoze those who oppose him; Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie. And there’s Gwen, who doesn’t study with them, but becomes a key part of their band as they dabble, somewhat credulous, half not, in arcane arts. The Fateful Ceremony Our hero becomes, as a result of external pressures, compelled to pilfer prized manuscripts from his cherished academic collection by a set of regional villains. This wounds his academic spirit, especially when he’s forced to acquire the library’s most valuable and chilling work: the diary of occultist Enoch Crane (condemned “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the cover is fashioned from his hide). Our Scooby gang read the journal, learn they can invoke what the occultist details as a “arrogant beast to assist Arthur with his coercion issue – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. King Sorrow will undoubtedly remove those annoying regional antagonists, but they’ll have to choose a different victim each year or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. In the character’s own words: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is more dragons.” Genre Versatility and Inventive Scope Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the allies endeavor to address the situation they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, picking people who are obviously evil to offer up, or searching for methods to destroy the entity themselves, we transition from suspense to dark fantasy, clandestine torment to romance to terror. One particularly memorable shift was to a adventure narrative, far beneath the surface under the English county, a segment sprinkled with the Lord of the Rings author that was magnificently horrifying. A Detailed Mosaic of Horror and Hope We encounter trolls – the classic variety and online ones, genuinely frightening and expertly realized. There are magical swords and betrayals, breath-taking moments of courage and instances of dreadful evil, both mortal and otherworldly. It’s a tour de force: a frightening tale that is primarily 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 this character as the companions sit around the table, making preparations to call forth their dragon to life with the force of their minds. According to Joe Hill in his epigraph: “This is dragon territory”. Don’t miss them.