So “Doctor Sleep” has its own vivid frightscape, one that’s not too derivative of “The Shining.” And it’s scary enough to match the first book, though not better or scarier. Mr. King has in recent years created much more fully imagined characters than he did in his 100-proof horror days; “Under the Dome” was full of them. The trade-off has been a loss of bloodcurdling apparitions, like those in which “The Shining” specialized. By the way, Tony, Dan’s invisible friend, still lingers in the new book, as evidenced by the word “Redrum” scrawled on its back cover. That word still packs quite a wallop.

“Doctor Sleep” is less panic-inducingly surreal. The adult Dan is, after all, struggling to keep his mind clear and to understand exactly what his supernatural capacities are. He’s also eager to make amends for that terrible, boozy lapse involving the toddler, a memory that haunts him as much as any of this book’s otherworldly creatures do. So even when he and Abra join forces to thwart the creeps from True Knot, it’s in a rational, even heroic way. “You may have some talents, you son of a bitch, but I don’t think you have much in the way of telepathy,” Dan says, speaking in Abra’s voice. (It’s complicated.) “I think when you want to talk to your girlfriend, you use the phone.”

This sequel takes life, aging and death too seriously to be a young man’s book. The same is true of its attitude toward sobriety, which is often discussed. Mr. King’s earlier books were full of phantasms and demons, but he grows ever more adept at rooting his dark thoughts and toughest struggles in reality. And when Abra goes into warrior mode, it’s not much of a fantasy stretch. She just models herself on a character from “Game of Thrones.”

“Doctor Sleep” is on the long side, but it tells a very quick and nimble story. It makes up in suspense what it lacks in nuance, and its special effects are easy to visualize. The body-switching among characters smacks of exorcism, though it has no religious component. The red mist secreted by the dying is terrifying to imagine. And the steam of those who Shine is one of Mr. King’s best surreal inventions. He remains amazingly resourceful. He’s so good at scaring that he can even raise goose bumps when he writes about the measles.