Monday, March 19, 2007

The Descent

From the cover of Jeff Long's The Descent: "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..."

This is a hollow earth novel, like Journey to the Center of the Earth, which explores the idea of an underground world. Most of the 572 page paperback follows two explorations. One is that of a group of scholars who call themselves Beowulf Circle. They believe Satan exists in a the form of one of the Homo hadalis, grotesquely malformed offshoots of Homo sapiens, who has somehow managed to walk among us undetected for years. The other exploration group is sent underground by the Helios Corporation ostensibly to explore, but actually to claim the inner earth under their ownership.

The Descent really was a fast paced novel and I didn't feel like the paced lagged while reading it. There were a few ideas that Long took from the Descent and carried over into Year Zero, although you might not notice them if you had a longer break between novels. I did enjoy this book, but I also realize it's not going to be everyone's first choice in fiction. (Apparently a movie was made, but from the descriptions I'm not convinced that it held true to the book.)

Note to my husband: Honey, this book truly captures the idea of Deathlands: Pilgrimage to Hell. You'll like it.

2 comments:

just me said...

On Coast to Coast a.m. they say the earth is hollow . . .

Lori L said...

On coast to coast they also talk about squirrel migration... Oh wait. That's a fact.