The Descent [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Jeff Long (Author), Boyd Gaines (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

In Tibet, while guiding trekkers to a holy mountain, Ike Crockett discovers a bottomless cave. When his lover disappears, Ike pursues her into the depths of the earth....In a leper colony bordering the Kalahari Desert, a nun named Ali von Schade unearths evidence of a proto-human species and a deity called Older-than-Old....In Bosnia, Major Elias Branch crash-lands his gunship near a mass grave and is swarmed by pale cannibals terrified of light....

So begins mankind's realization that the underworld is a vast geological labyrinth riddling the continents and seabeds, one inhabited by brutish creatures who resemble the devils and gargoyles of legend. With all of Hell's precious resources and territories to be won, a global race ensues. Nations, armies, religions, and industries rush to colonize and exploit the subterranean frontier.

Fathom by fathom, Ike guides an expedition -- and Ali -- deeper into the deadly wilderness. In the dark underground, as humanity falls away from them, the scientists and mercenaries find themselves prey not only to the savage creatures, but to their own treachery mutiny, and greed. Meanwhile, on the surface, a band of aged scholars scours for clues to Satan's existence. Is he lurking in wait for the expedition, or is he roaming the earth? One thing is certain: Miles inside the earth, evil is very much alive.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a high Himalayan cave, among the death pits of Bosnia, in a newly excavated Java temple, Long's characters find out to their terror that humanity is not alone--that, as we have always really known, horned and vicious humanoids lurk in vast caverns beneath our feet. This audacious remaking of the old hollow-earth plot takes us, in no short order, to the new world regime that follows the genocidal harrowing of Hell by heavily armed, high-tech American forces. An ambitious tycoon sends an expedition of scientists, including a beautiful nun linguist and a hideously tattooed commando former prisoner of Hell, ever deeper into the unknown, among surviving, savage, horned tribes and the vast citadels of the civilizations that fell beneath the earth before ours arose. A conspiracy of scholars pursues the identity of the being known as Satan, coming up with unpalatable truths about the origins of human culture and the identity of the Turin Shroud, and are picked off one by bloody one. Long rehabilitates, madly, the novel of adventures among lost peoples--occasional clumsiness and promises of paranoid revelations on which he cannot entirely deliver fail to diminish the real achievement here; this feels like a story we have always known and dreaded. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The premise of this millennial thriller is as audacious as it is problematic: "if there can be a historical Christ," one character hypothesizes, "why not a historic Satan?" Demystification of the ultimate Bad Guy is no easy feat, but Long (Angels of Light) brings it off, if just barely, in a dizzying synthesis of supernatural horror, lost-race fantasy and military SF. From the experiences of a varied cast of charactersAincluding Sister Ali, a Catholic nun serving in South Africa, and Elias Branch, a major with NATO forces in BosniaAa 21st-century think tank calling itself the Beowulf Circle distills a startling theory: The biblical Satan and his devils in Hell are mythic renderings of Homo hadalis, grotesquely malformed offshoots of Homo sapiens who for centuries have surfaced from underground hideouts to prey on human beings. With the help of Ike Crockett, an escapee from 10 years of "hadal" captivity, Beowulf infiltrates the Helios Corporation's mission to explore caverns honeycombing Earth's interior. Once beneath the Mariana Trench, Beowulf discovers that Helios intends to forcefully annex the world inside the earth's crust to further its business ambitions. Meanwhile, topside, Beowulf's theologians and metaphysicians surmise that the elusive "Satan" has evolved a human form to pass secretly among mankind. Like the subterranean trail blazed by its adventurers, the narrative twists, turns, dead-ends and backtracks. Inventive scenes of underground wonders alternate with talky stretches of scientific discourse and mawkish moments of romance between Ike and Ali. Though its devils prove disappointingly to be made in the image of humans, Long's novel brims with energy, ideas and excitement. 150,000 first printing; major ad/promo; film rights sold to Warner Bros. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audioworks; Abridged edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671045687
• ISBN-13: 978-0671045685
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (342 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,416,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Books on Cassette > Horror

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An "Other World" book at it's best, November 26, 2002

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Descent (Mass Market Paperback)

I love being sucked into new worlds created by great authors, and this is one of them. This is the first Jeff Long book I have read, and I will be reading Year Zero soon.
Long's underground world and underground society are very well described in this book. The subterranean journey far beneath even the ocean floors is fantastic, scary, and interesting. The psychological changes the parties go through is true to form. He even had me looking over my shoulder for the Hadals.
I won't give anything away, but there are some very startling moments in this book that just blew me away and kept me reading through the night.
With a Himalayan mountain guide who goes into the abyss and returns scarred in every way, a beautiful nun teetering on the brink of faith, a group of Philosophers who begin to gather more frequently across the globe in search of Satan himself, an evil corporate head and his fiendish step son, a fanatical mercenary, an Army pilot who falls from grace through disfiguration, and of course the Hadals (underground tribes) all seeking their own prize from the sub planet, Mr. Long has brought a novel to us that you will be unable to put down until you finish it.
I highly recommend this book as an "all-nighter".

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best adventure book I've read in twenty years., August 9, 1999

By A Customer

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This review is from: The Descent: A Novel (Hardcover)

What makes a great adventure book? Is it the plot? THE DESCENT is daringly plotted and full of surprises from start to finish. The twists and turns are audacious. But author Jeff Long pulls them off because he writes with clarity, authority and a great deal of vivid and specific detail. There's lots of science in this book; but instead of sounding like reader-feeder, the cool logic of facts makes an expedition to the center of the earth in search of Satan actually believable. Do great characters make great books? If so THE DESCENT is a winner. Ike and Ali are far from typical hero and heroine yet I found myself committed to the story of their survival thousands of fathoms below sea level, reading way after midnight several nights in a row. For the most part, the secondary characters are also strong though occasionally the villains come close to twirling their moustaches. These lapses are rare, however. Besides character and plot points, this book scores ten for writing style. It's popular fiction and there's no chance of THE DESCENT winning the New York Book Critics. But compared to most action adventure stories it is written with elegance and grace. This book deserves a spot high on the best seller list.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An exciting thrill ride with a different perspective, August 27, 2003

By 

Michael Erisman (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Descent (Mass Market Paperback)

First, the world created in this book simply stretches the imagination! Combinations of JRR Tolkien like mythology and Steven King horror woven into a modern day tale of archeological discovery and intrigue.

The book starts out as a frightening thriller about a variety of interactions with unknown creatures and situations. It all comes together when it is discovered that an entire world exists beneath the surface populated by an unknown species. Is this Hell?

The best aspect of the book is the vivid and remarkable creation of a world below the surface. The depictions of new species, and discoveries are painted with such detail that the reader is taken along on the journey with the characters. The depictions of several of the main characters are also well done. The pace and suspense keep the reader engaged throughout, eager to see what comes next.

The theological issues often lack depth, but frame an interesting sub plot. In the end, several ideas are postulated but not really closed out, leaving much to the imagination. This is much more effective than trying to tie up all loose ends, as it depicts a more realistic mystery.

Overall, I would say that this is a great story but the book is not for everyone. Fans of sci-fi, fantasy and Steven King type thrillers will not be disappointed at all, as it is extremely well written. I agree with the other reviewers here in that this has the potential for being a great film. An excellent addition to the fantasy genre.