The Descent, Jeff Long
The Descent, Jeff Long
1 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
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The Descent

Author: Jeff Long

Narrator: Boyd Gaines

Abridged: 6 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/01/1999


Synopsis

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.

About Jeff Long

Jeff Long is the New York Times bestselling author whose novels include The Wall, Year Zero, and The Descent. He is a veteran climber and traveler in the Himalayas and has worked as a stonemason, journalist, historian, screenwriter, and elections supervisor for Bosnia’s first democratic election. He lives in Colorado.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Melynda on February 06, 2008

This is the second book I had to put in the microwave in order to get to sleep. Because we all know that if you leave a scary book, a pants-shittingly scary book by your bedside, as you sleep the monsters inside will ooze from between the pages and come into full being beside you and eat your face w......more

Goodreads review by Jemma on March 19, 2015

I am just going to come out and say it; I loved this book. And yet, I fully understand why others didn’t. Let me explain. For the entirety of their existence, humans have not been alone. Unbeknownst to the surface world, an unfathomable subterranean domain lies beneath their feet; and it is not uninh......more

Goodreads review by Karl on February 07, 2025

I give this 5 stars not because it was perfect, but because it did what any good book should do – it made me want to keep reading. One night I read it until 3.30am, I just couldn’t stop. Other times I would find time to read a chapter rather than do something else. Only a minority of books have this......more

Goodreads review by Martin on December 26, 2016

El Descenso es un libro que nos va a narrar como el mundo entero descubre que hay unos seres que habitan dentro de La Tierra, quienes al parecer tienen intenciones muy hostiles con la raza humana. La población mundial se da cuenta de esto debido a que comienzan a suceder casos aislados en varios pun......more

Goodreads review by Gavin on August 18, 2021

Tragic. That's my sole assessment of how rarely I see this novel cited by horror fans. Jeff Long's modern take on the Verne-esque hollow Earth subgenre of science fiction seems to bear more resemblance to a contemporary Divine Comedy, where Hell is portrayed not as a metaphorical, supernatural, or int......more