The Descent Author:Jeff Long "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." (Baltimo... more »re 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)« less
The Descent is about the struggle between two races of beings, human and hadal. Much of the story takes place below the surface of the earth. It is a long book, 572 pages, and it took me a week to read it.
This book has many themes, good versus evil, war, science, some biblical references of Satan and hell, science fiction, and a romance between two of the main characters.
The main thread in the book is about a science/business probe into the caverns of the earth, to discover and map the underside of the Pacific Ocean from South America to Asia. The events and struggles of this company, the hardships of the terrain, the war between the hadals and the humans, and their struggle to survive and return to the surface of the earth with the information they were sent to obtain, is the main focus of the story.
I did think the book was too long. However, I did read the whole thing, it kept my attention, and kept drawing me back to finish it. I do not always read a whole book, if it does not have enough “juice” to keep my attention; I just get a different book to read. The Descent had enough juice to keep me reading. While I was reading the book, I felt like I was in a cave the whole time. Under the earth, there is a completely different world. Instead of a blue or gray sky, it is black; this surrounded by rock feeling colored my whole week.
I liked reading this book; it absorbed much of my thoughts while reading it. The material was thought provoking. The idea of a race of humans living under the earth that explains the “myth” of Hell and Satan was interesting. So on the main, much of the book was interesting.
What a unique, imaginative idea for a book! I loved the story and the characters. Things got a little predictable at the end but not disappointingly so.
Very good book. Just waiting for book two to be posted. The storyline was just complicated enough to keep me pulling it out whenever possible, to get a litter more reading time in. loved it.