Rating: 
Summary: Awesome! One of the best-written books I've ever read.
Review: As an avid reader, I typically read several books at a time, and several a week. This novel has it all -- sex, gore, romance, piracy, mercenaries, world leaders, hellfire and brimstone, God, Satan, and adventure like Jules Verne never dreamed of. As good as the best of Grisham. This author has an imagination, knowledge, and depth that one seldom encounters.
Rating: 
Summary: a great summer page-turner
Review: On a recent trip to boston which included missed planes and being stuck in a tunnel during a fire, I was exceedingly glad to have this great summer page-turner with me. Yes, the book could have been longer, but I predict a sequel. I thought this was a fantastic update of dante's Inferno and HG Wells' Time Machine. The whole concept was fantastic and I felt the author made great points about our civilization without being obvious. The torturous barbarism of the dwellers below has been demonstrated by our own people during the time of the ancient Aztecs, who used body modification and torture as a religious practice (and even today, body piercing, tattooing and body modification such as fingernail removal have regained a popular stance). We shudder in horror at the killing instinct of the people below, yet we have killed thousands instantly with nuclear bombs. The terror of bosnia is quietly held up in the beginning of the novel, and the author never even mentions the Holocaust. As a reader of science fiction and horror, i can heartily recommend this hook to anyone looking for a gripping read.
Rating:
Summary: Geat Idea, Very Suspensful
Review: This book grabs you from page one and doesn't let go. I read it during my lunch hours, and each day I wanted a longer and longer lunch!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Kept my interest...but could have been better!
Review: Interesting story with great twists and turns, but there was a definite change about a third of the way through when the intriguing 50 page set-up narrative gave way to a vastly different style that gave all the pertinent facts in a three page blast! I wondered if someone else had taken over authorship!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and creepy
Review: This is a good book. I usually read history and political non-fiction, but stumbled on to this one. I didn't regret it.It is spooky at first, but then becomes more interesting as you learn more about these creatures below. I think the reader's own vision of philosophy/religion determines the extent to which the Hell of Jeff Long is the "real" hell. Most of the very critical comments here seem to come from people who are upset that Long did not write the book they wanted. Don't expect or demand anything from the story; it is probably not what you expect anyway. Just enjoy the story he HAS written, not the one you wish he wrote.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: after a great beginning, it tapered off into a "rush-through", as if the writer had to meet a deadline and didnt have time to fully develop the characters. a little more longer and deeper, this'd be a classic.
Rating:
Summary: One of a kind
Review: You can't judge a book by it's cover, nor by the publicity which proceeds it. Nor can you condemn a writer's skills because he didn't write the book you wanted him to: you can only judge it by whether the author succeeded in his purpose or not. My reading is that this is not a book about a lost tribe or a hollow earth: this is a powerful allegory about conquest and the demonization of the indigenous people requisite for conquest. The beautiful twist here is that the indigenous people are the very demons of our collective memories as a race. In this, Long succeeds masterfully in his allegory. What is astonishing are the means to this success. Long melds the elements of thriller, horror story, mystery, and science fiction into a roller coaster ride which jars you abruptly at every sharp turn and revelation. The logic of events and characters feed one another, drawing you deeper and faster, providing detailed glances at a world both foreign yet bizarrely familiar, before the relentless pace carries you on again. Bravo.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful characters and writing!
Review: The Descent by Jeff Long is far and away the best adventure novel I have read in years. From the horror of the opening chapter to the dramatic conclusion I was caught in the story. I particularly enjoyed how the author brought to life three individual characters and stories in the opening chapters and merged their paths into the depths as one intense adventure. The Hell that Long depicts in his story was not at all what I expected or how I had imagined Hell to be. A self-sustaining ecosystem much like our own, only in a world of darkness. The underground dwellers even though demonic exhibit many of the traits we see in everyday human life. At times you almost find yourself cheering for them as the barbarians from above invade their world. As all great stories do this one leaves the reader yearning for more and with a surprising twist at the end Long has quite possibly left the door open for exactly that!
Rating:
Summary: Great Premise - Hellish Writing
Review: An adventure story about the discovery and exploration of Hell. What a wonderful idea. Unfortunately after a fairly promising first fifty or so pages, the book disintergrated into a boring, badly written, snore-fest that really faltered whenever it left its two main characters. Although it could have been a truely epic tale, as written this book was at least 150 pages too long. More time should have been spent on Homo hadalis and the other neat (but underwritten) subterranean creatures and less time on all the pseudoreligeous garbage. I found many of the characters to be poorly defined, and confusingly similar.
Rating:
Summary: Great Idea; Poorly Written Book
Review: I was drawn in by a well-written first chapter and the promise of info about these new underground creatures i.e., religion, family structure, etc. These were not explored any more than the character of Satan or his city. Character development is missing along with the realities of environmentalist and nationalist groups preventing the exploitation of sub-earth. The premise of this book is exceptional. A better writer would have given us a mixture of Jules Verne exploration and H. Rider Haggard lost race adventure story that might have ranked with their best works. A waste of reading time.
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