The Descent

The Descent
by Jeff Long

List Price: ~~$7.99~~
Our Price: $4.17
You Save: $3.82 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.92 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Compare Prices for The Descent

Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Jeff Long
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2001-11-01
ISBN: 051513175X
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Jove

Book Reviews of The Descent

Book Review: Humanity is not alone!
Summary: 3 Stars

PLOT: Tibet, Bosnia, the Kalahari Desert - all over the world people learn about prehistoric passageways, network of tunnels and chambers around the globe - all well marked and constantly improved over several thousand years. Deep underneath humanity another species always existed: the Hadals, creatures resembling the devils and gargoyles of mankind's legends. Now that the path of human beings and Hadals finally cross war erupts deep inside the earth. Parallel to the war a global race ensues as nations, armies, religions and industries rush to colonize and exploit the subterranean frontier for resources and territories. And their scientists want to know how life could develop in the abyss. Even if the Hadals seem to be of very low intelligence quite the contrary is true and it becomes evident that humanity and the Hadals share a past. Are these creatures part of mankind's evolutionary family tree and could their leader be the legendary Satan? Only one thing is for sure: Miles inside the earth, evil is very much alive...

First of all this book has nothing to do with the horror movie "The Descent" that was released in 2007. It is not about the survival of some women lost in underground tunnels. Instead this is a story about world-wide war, adventures, scenes of underworld wonders, scientific discourses and romantic moments, narrative twists, turns, dead-ends and backtracks. Overall the book contains a lot of energy, ideas and excitement. And the book features an interesting wide variety of interacting main characters such as a Catholic nun, a major with the NATO forces, an escapee from years of Hadal captivity, theologians and metaphysicians from a (religious) 21st-century think tank etc.
Sounds promising? I am almost sorry to say that the story also has flaws.

Basically the book can be divided in 3 parts: 1) The first sightings and crossing paths, 2) the war and 3) the journey.
In the first part (almost a quarter of the book long) several characters stumble over caverns of the Hadals all over the world. This part is told in ample words and at the end one of the book's main characters is rescued after being held prisoner for over 10 years. Unfortunately the readers never learn what really happened to him during those years and nothing is said about the first weeks after his rescue. Instead there is a sudden time gap of 3 years. So the moment when the story becomes even more interesting the book is cut way too short.
As might be expected there are some holes in the logic of the book that kept bothering me: finding life forms and scenery as described up to 18 miles below ground is just utterly unbelievable! Also quite ridiculous is the idea that the Hadals have lived underground for over 15,000 years and represent the earliest human life form while also being highly intelligent. You wonder WHY anybody should live underground who is that skilled and intelligent. That does not make any sense at all and no explanation is offered.
Sometimes there are short chapters that only portray a quick scene of violence or sexual assaults of Hadals on humans. Here a lot of gore and ample gruesome descriptions might turn your stomach occasionally. These passages are out of context and contribute nothing to the main focus of the story (the expedition underneath the earth). Are these scenes really necessary? Are they used as a wake up call for the reader because the story is not as thrilling and fast paced as had to be expected?

Hell is an existent place with a quasi-human species living in it. This is a great basic thought. Also the idea of history mixed with religion is very interesting. If you can overcome the logical aspects the book is worth reading. In parts it might be regarded as a modern version of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth".
On the other hand there is a book called "Subterranean" by James Rolling which follows the similar idea of life forms underneath the earth. In comparison I would rate "Subterranean" higher because there is less gore but more adventure and it is more entertaining.
Neverthelss I plan to read other books from Jeff Long.

Write your own review

All The Descent Customer Reviews

Summary of The Descent

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

"Long's smart and epic tale takes the reader into a Dantesque world, a journey to the center of the earth for the new millennium. And what is found there is both horrific and entrancing: a system of tunnels that network beneath the earth, and homonid relatives of Homo sapiens evolved to live in the depths of what appears to be hell." (Baltimore Sun)

"A return to the fantastic epics readers associate with H.G. Wells or Jules Verne." (Chicago Tribune)

"As frightening and exhilarating as anything in heaven or hell." (Denver Rocky Mountain News)

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 and linguist 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 under-world 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. A scientific expedition is launched westward to explore beneath the Pacific Ocean floor, both to catalog the riches there and to learn how life could develop in the sunless abyss. Is there a natural explanation, as the scientists hope? Or is there a true supernatural basis? Are the "demons" part of our evolutionary family tree? Is their enigmatic leader merely a freak genius, or could he be the legendary Satan? Fathom by fathom, Ike guides the expedition -- and Ali -- deeper into the deadly stone 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 archaeological digs, museums, artifacts, and rare texts for clues to Satan'sexistence. Is he lurking in wait for the expedition, or is he roaming the earth? Or is he dead? One thing is certain: Miles inside the earth, evil is very much alive. In the tradition of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, The Descent is an epic adventure through fantastic landscapes, among creatur

Horror Books

Book Subjects

Most talked about in Great Books that no one should be without

The Gingerbread Girl
by Stephen King
Simon & Schuster Audio; Published: 2008-05-06; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $10.17
Price in other shops: ~~$19.95~~

Blaze: A Novel
by Richard Bachman
Pocket; Published: 2008-01-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops: ~~$9.99~~

It (Signet Books)
by Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1987-08-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.44
Price in other shops: ~~$7.99~~

Duma Key: A Novel
by Stephen King
Scribner; Published: 2008-01-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: ~~$28.00~~

The Darkest Evening of the Year
by Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2007-11-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.67
Price in other shops: ~~$27.00~~

In Odd We Trust
by Dean Koontz
Del Rey; Published: 2008-06-24; Comic; Book
Best price: $5.77
Price in other shops: ~~$10.95~~

The Descent
by Jeff Long
Jove; Published: 2001-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops: ~~$7.99~~

Deeper: A Novel
by Jeff Long
Atria; Published: 2007-08-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops: ~~$25.00~~

The Beach
by Alex Garland
Riverhead Trade; Published: 1998-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.85
Price in other shops: ~~$15.00~~

M Is for Magic
by Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins; Published: 2007-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.74
Price in other shops: ~~$16.99~~

Similar Books and other products

The Judas Strain: A Novel
by James Rollins
William Morrow; Published: 2007-07-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops: ~~$25.95~~

The Wheel of Darkness
by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Vision; Published: 2008-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.55
Price in other shops: ~~$7.99~~

Blasphemy
by Douglas Preston
Forge Books; Published: 2008-01-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.43
Price in other shops: ~~$25.95~~

Lucifer's Hammer
by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Del Rey; Published: 1985-05-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.26
Price in other shops: ~~$7.99~~

Deep Storm
by Lincoln Child
Anchor; Published: 2008-02-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops: ~~$7.99~~

Antarktos Rising - A Novel
by Jeremy Robinson
Breakneck Books; Published: 2007-06-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.92
Price in other shops: ~~$14.99~~

The Wall: A Thriller
by Jeff Long
Atria; Published: 2006-01-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.11
Price in other shops: ~~$24.00~~

The Reckoning: A Thriller
by Jeff Long
Pocket Star; Published: 2005-04-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.20
Price in other shops: ~~$7.99~~