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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Deeper doesn't mean Better, January 13, 2008
Jeff Long is an interesting writer. From what I understand from his bios, cadged from the back of books, he is an adventurer who likes to write about adventure. His heroes are manly men, who scale mountains, transverse canyons, explore depths. When he writes science fiction, its pretty good. For example, Year Zero was a great book about the release of a pathogen from a holy relic. It was a vial of blood that contained a virus that hadn't been seen for 2000 years and for which we no longer have any antigens. So, they start cloning people from those holy relics, looking for someone who successfully survived the original virus to fashion a cure. Of course, that means they're cloning saints and (maybe) Jesus. Good stuff. There were some other books in there, The Reckoning, The Wall, The Ascent, none of which I thought were amazing like Year Zero and The Descent. Descent posited the notion that the Earth is full of tunnels, caves, depths inhabited by 'primitives.' It is Hell and its apparently ruled over by Satan ('Older Than Old') and a war stirs between the surface and the depths. Sure enough, it sings. Strong stuff, a great thriller. Before you know it, its over and you're missing it. Now, Deeper comes along, a direct sequel to The Descent starring many of the same characters and plunging deeper (naturally) into the depths and history of the underground. First, this is not as good as The Descent. I won't spoil it, but the scientific basis proposed in the first book is abandonned in the second. There is a Satan and he IS 'Older Than Old' and he's just kidnapped a whole mess of children from the surface. The novel is about finding them, bringing them back up atop. There's a lot of internal dialogue going on and, as it turns out, the depths are haunted by the dead. Ali, a nun with a talent for language and trouble in the first book, is now agnostic carrying around the ghost of a dead daughter. There's another mother who's daughter is among those below, Ike from the first book who has changed unbelievably (unforgiveably), a military sniper and a film producer. All these characters are a bit confusing and each of their stories interlock, intersect, depart from each other. To say its not as good as the first book isn't a terrible review. There aren't a lot of books out there as good as the first one. This is a good thriller and I hope Long returns to the underground again so I can actually figure out what happened at the end.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What a disappointment....., October 27, 2007
Jeff Long is a terrific writer, and I have enjoyed several of his novels. After reading THE DESCENT and telling everyone it was the best book I'd read in years, I was thrilled to discover this so-called sequel. After just finishing DEEPER, I am not only disappointed but almost....mad! This book was obviously whipped out as the much-anticipated sequel, but if you've read THE DESCENT, this is more like a long, drawn-out short story.........or even a lost chapter from the original story. It goes on and on and........usually inside the characters' heads. ("Hush, baby...." over and over.) Occasionally, there was some quick, gratuitous gore. (Please.....not the little kids......!) Long's "Satan?" (the really, really bad guy) was the most interesting character, though even he seemed to struggle with his purpose in the story. If you loved THE DESCENT, don't bother with DEEPER. If you have read neither, put THE DESCENT at the top of your must-read list!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't provide the same rush as its predecessor, but it certainly is no slouch, November 1, 2007
DEEPER by Jeff Long is the sequel to 1999's THE DESCENT. Notwithstanding its heartstopping conclusion, THE DESCENT did not scream for a follow-up, and given the interval between the publication of the two books, there may be a bit of confusion. 2006 marked the unfortunate release of an arguably wretched film titled The Descent, which was not based on Long's novel, even though it bore some plot similarities. The bottom line is that you may want to read THE DESCENT before getting DEEPER, if you will, into Long's netherworld model for hell on earth. THE DESCENT concerned the discovery of a civilization beneath the earth's crust that had provided the basis for Hell, with a real Satan as well as lesser demons known as hadels. It concluded with an invasion of that underworld by surface dwellers and the apparent eradication of all who lived beneath. The world in DEEPER is somewhat different. The subplanet, as the area below the crust is called, is being colonized, mined and generally exploited for all it is worth. China and the United States are the main players in a spitting contest for subplanet territory. The hadels, apparently surviving the Holocaust, return the favor, invading the U.S. and kidnapping children. An official rescue mission might seem in order, but surface tensions between the U.S. and China mitigate against it. Two very different unsanctioned missions commence. One is led by the mother of one of the kidnapped children, a populist crusade peopled by a disparate group of mercenaries, would-be tough guys and ringer Armed Forces veterans. The other is a party of two, consisting of linguist Ali von Schade and her student and erstwhile companion. Von Schade, whose own child is dead, has lost her lover to the subplanet, and has nothing to lose by going below and trying to persuade the hadels to release the children by peaceful means. What no one realizes is that Satan, believed to have been killed in THE DESCENT, is in fact very much alive and manipulating events in an attempt to effectuate his own release from the subplanet. Even if DEEPER doesn't provide the same rush as its predecessor, it certainly is no slouch. Long has had nearly 10 years and the benefit of a visit to Bosnia to think up new horrors, and he does so with the horrific imagination of a contemporary Bosch. He gets bogged down occasionally when he attempts to make DEEPER a parable critical of contemporary U.S. foreign policy, but it's been overdone and overwrought in the thriller genre to the point where the kvetching is unfortunately tiresome at best and tedious at worst. Long truly shines, however, when he slowly and steadily sets up Satan's machinations, and saves the ultimate horror for last, letting it settle quietly and with great subtlety. Let us hope that we don't have to wait another decade for the third volume of what is now described as a trilogy. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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