The Descent [Mass Market Paperback]

Jeff Long (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 1, 2001

We are not alone…In a cave in the Himalayas, a guide discovers a self-mutilated body with the warning--Satan exists. In the Kalahari Desert, a nun unearths evidence of a proto-human species and a deity called Older-than-Old. In Bosnia, something has been feeding upon the dead in a mass grave. So begins mankind’s most shocking realization: that the underworld is a vast geological labyrinth populated by another race of beings. Some call them devils or demons. But they are real. They are down there. And they are waiting for us to find them…

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Jove; Reissue edition (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 051513175X
• ISBN-13: 978-0515131758
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (355 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 42 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 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

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".

28 of 33 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

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Descent" ascends my expectations! October 3, 1999

By Shawn

Format:Hardcover

If you're looking for a book to read which is a page-turner and very different from anything you've read recently, this is for you! When I first ordered "The Descent" off of amazon, I wasn't sure what to expect. But the book kept me enthralled for countless days and nights. Jeff Long does an excellent job of character development (there are enumerous players in the story, but the ones that matter, you realy start to feel for). Best of all is perhaps Ali, the nun in search of both her way and for the origin of human language. Several readers have remarked on the great start the story has. I would agree; the first four chapters were fantastic. The book takes a brief fall, however, after this as the discovery of hell under earth and its human reaction is quickly blazen through in several pages which somehow encompasses global war and the deaths of millions. The book recovers nicely afterwards though, and you will find yourself deeply interested as The Jules Vernes Society searches for their knowledge, Ali searches for her word, Ike searches for his meaning, and The Beowolf Circle searches for their Satan. This is recommended reading for a twist of something different, and I look forward to more coming from Jeff Long.