Originally posted by dannyboy121070
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King Sorrow review:
Joe Hill seems to be so prolific, between novels, short story collections, comics, and various Amazon shorts, that I was amazed to read that it has been a full decade since his last novel, The Fireman. He seems to be trying to make up for lost time with his newest, the massive doorstop known as King Sorrow.
The length and scope of King Sorrow puts it firmly in the Stephen King wheelhouse, alongside such works as It, and 'Salem's Lot; A massive creature-feature with a largish cast of characters assembled against an enemy from our darkest nightmares.
I remain skeptical when I see such a long novel.....Will it be worth all of those pages, or will it be mercilessly padded? In this case, it was a little of both.
Hill hits the ground running, establishing the crux of the story immediately: While visiting his mother in prison, Arthur Oakes ends up on the wrong side of the wrong people, and soon finds himself being blackmailed into stealing rare books from the college library where he works. Desperate for a way out of his situation, Arthur and his close friends hatch a bizarre plot to summon a dragon to dispatch his tormentors. As anyone who has ever read a book or seen a movie knows, deals with dark forces rarely work out to your advantage.
A few Hill fans that I have spoken to had a wait-and-see attitude towards this book, believing that the inclusion of a dragon would make this a more fantasy-skewing book. While not really a horror novel, King Sorrow certainly isn't a fantasy, either. Unfortunately (Or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint), King Sorrow, the titular dragon, doesn't get much screen time at all, as Hill chooses instead to focus on Arthur and his friends as they, over decades, cope with the fact that their bargain was not a one-time thing....they have to choose a victim for the King every Easter, or become that year's victim themselves.
Hill throws in enough plot twists and time lapses to keep things, for the most part, moving briskly. The novel, at around 900 pages, seemed to take forever to progress through, one of those books that you barely seem to make a dent in, no matter how long you sit and read. When I found myself getting tired of where the story was, Hill wisely turned the plot upside-down, making it all seem fresh again.
That said, the endlessly long section of the book that takes place on a transatlantic flight nearly had me ready to give up, especially when Hill got locked into endlessly repeating a phrase that he probably thought was clever, but was really just annoying: "Dragonedy O'Clock", describing the time when King Sorrow would make an appearance. Hill's father, Stephen King, has the same tic, repeating annoying words or phrases ad naseum, but Hill really took the ball and ran with it, to the point where "Dragonedy O'Clock" made me put the book down for a few days. Magically, he never uses the phrase again after that endless section, so I assume we have pre-readers to thank for that.
And thank them I do.
King Sorrow is a perfectly good novel, just not up to the benchmark of some of Hill's other work. And sometimes perfectly good is just fine. In this case, I was expecting more, and better, but the twists and surprises, as well as the finely-crafted characters, carried the day, and made this big, sometimes sloppy, book mostly enjoyable.
Joe Hill seems to be so prolific, between novels, short story collections, comics, and various Amazon shorts, that I was amazed to read that it has been a full decade since his last novel, The Fireman. He seems to be trying to make up for lost time with his newest, the massive doorstop known as King Sorrow.
The length and scope of King Sorrow puts it firmly in the Stephen King wheelhouse, alongside such works as It, and 'Salem's Lot; A massive creature-feature with a largish cast of characters assembled against an enemy from our darkest nightmares.
I remain skeptical when I see such a long novel.....Will it be worth all of those pages, or will it be mercilessly padded? In this case, it was a little of both.
Hill hits the ground running, establishing the crux of the story immediately: While visiting his mother in prison, Arthur Oakes ends up on the wrong side of the wrong people, and soon finds himself being blackmailed into stealing rare books from the college library where he works. Desperate for a way out of his situation, Arthur and his close friends hatch a bizarre plot to summon a dragon to dispatch his tormentors. As anyone who has ever read a book or seen a movie knows, deals with dark forces rarely work out to your advantage.
A few Hill fans that I have spoken to had a wait-and-see attitude towards this book, believing that the inclusion of a dragon would make this a more fantasy-skewing book. While not really a horror novel, King Sorrow certainly isn't a fantasy, either. Unfortunately (Or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint), King Sorrow, the titular dragon, doesn't get much screen time at all, as Hill chooses instead to focus on Arthur and his friends as they, over decades, cope with the fact that their bargain was not a one-time thing....they have to choose a victim for the King every Easter, or become that year's victim themselves.
Hill throws in enough plot twists and time lapses to keep things, for the most part, moving briskly. The novel, at around 900 pages, seemed to take forever to progress through, one of those books that you barely seem to make a dent in, no matter how long you sit and read. When I found myself getting tired of where the story was, Hill wisely turned the plot upside-down, making it all seem fresh again.
That said, the endlessly long section of the book that takes place on a transatlantic flight nearly had me ready to give up, especially when Hill got locked into endlessly repeating a phrase that he probably thought was clever, but was really just annoying: "Dragonedy O'Clock", describing the time when King Sorrow would make an appearance. Hill's father, Stephen King, has the same tic, repeating annoying words or phrases ad naseum, but Hill really took the ball and ran with it, to the point where "Dragonedy O'Clock" made me put the book down for a few days. Magically, he never uses the phrase again after that endless section, so I assume we have pre-readers to thank for that.
And thank them I do.
King Sorrow is a perfectly good novel, just not up to the benchmark of some of Hill's other work. And sometimes perfectly good is just fine. In this case, I was expecting more, and better, but the twists and surprises, as well as the finely-crafted characters, carried the day, and made this big, sometimes sloppy, book mostly enjoyable.
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