Rating: 
Summary: Goblins in the basement
Review: If you grew up in a house with a cellar, do you remember imagining what horrors lurked in the dark among the cobwebs under the stairs until you turned the light on at the top? THE DESCENT elaborates on that fear, but on a far grander scale. The boogiemen, in this case, are of the species Homo hadalis, an ancient offshoot of Homo erectus, on a co-existing evolutionary track with man. The "hadals" live in an Earth-encompassing network of caverns and tunnels extending miles below the surface. And sometimes not so deep. (Let's just say I won't be digging myself a bomb shelter anytime soon.) The hadals aren't our jolly cousins either; the mother-in-law from hell would be better company on Thanksgiving. During an underground survey expedition, humans find:"A giant skeleton - possibly a human freak - lay in shackles solid with rust. The forensic anthropologist thought the deeply incised geometric patterns on the giant's skull had been made at least a year before the prisoner's death. Judging by the cut marks around the entire skull, it seemed the giant had been scalped and kept alive as a showcase for (the hadals') artwork." Author Jeff Long has crafted a riveting sci-fi epic that is not easily put down. Early on in the storyline, Mankind learns of the hadals' existence and fights the underground war by which the latter are ostensibly eradicated. Then, the Helios mega-corporation sends a survey team to cross underneath the Pacific Ocean's floor in order to lay claim to undiscovered riches outside international boundaries. In hindsight, maybe that wasn't a good idea. The two main characters in THE DESCENT are Ike Crockett and Ali von Schade. Ike, a former mountain guide, has been rescued from hadal slavery after more than a decade of torment. Ali is a Catholic nun whose passion is researching proto-languages. Both accompany the Helios expedition. Meanwhile, back on the surface in a parallel subplot, a priest leads a committee of scholars on a worldwide search for the historical Satan's physical embodiment, literally. THE DESCENT has its grisly moments that may appall the squeamish since the hadals torture captives with relish. However, Long's description of the underground spaces, including imaginative flora, fauna, and a bustling subsurface Helios company town, is mesmerizing. (He also throws in what appears to be a slick explanation for the Shroud of Turin, but what do I know?) Though I thought the book perhaps fifty pages too long, and it wasn't until the conclusion that I saw the need for the pursuit of Satan digression, THE DESCENT tidies up nicely into a crackerjack thriller. One last thought. Beware of tricky Jesuits.
Rating:
Summary: Slow to start, great at the end
Review: I felt that the book was too slow at the beginning and rather confusing in areas. There were several small story lines introduced throughout the book that did not get carried through. However, they added to the overal intrigue of the book's main story. At the end, the tension and action built to a nice crescendo and a great ending.
Rating: 
Summary: What could have been very promising was tedious and boring!
Review: I beg to differ with many of the reviewers of Jeff Long's "The Descent" who raved about "this epic novel". This was a book that practically grabbed me by the collar as I read the back cover, yet unfortunately, left me wanting more - a lot more after I read it! Now, don't get me wrong, I really wanted this novel to work!Long's plot of an underground race of subhumans known as the Hadals (possibly responsible for all of the sightings of beings like Sasquatch and little green men"), was extremely intruiging. He failed to deliver the "goods" however, and turned a promising concept into a book I couldn't wait to stop reading. In addition to being dozens of pages TOO LONG, "The Descent" is filled with characters that you don't really care about. Long spends too much time trying to develop these characters and because of his wordiness, it's too easy to become disinterested and confused. Had Long spent more time building some action into the plot and developing the Hadal creatures, then I think he would really have had quite a novel! In my humble opinion, I would recommend that you stick to James Rollins, Michael Reisig, or Jeff Rovin if you enjoy novels about this kind of fantastic adventure. Each of these writers are effective in character development and write in a tight, page-turning manner!
Rating: 
Summary: darkness and light
Review: I came to this book via Long's latest novel, Year Zero, which has nothing to do with The Descent...but maybe everything. Year Zero starts (and ends) with a manhunt for the historical Jesus, and now I see, to my delight, that The Descent is about a manhunt for the historical Satan. Talk about epic journeys, and smart, too. Between heaven and hell on earth, where will Long go from here? I can't wait for his next one.
Rating: 
Summary: A 200 page novel that takes 570 pages to finish
Review: There is a basis for an excellent adventure story somewhere in this novel. Demonic creatures living beneath the earth's surface. Sporadic fighting between both worlds. A teams quest to explore the 'underworld'. However, what lets this piece of story-telling down dramtically is, to be blunt, the way the story is told. The author's style of writing is not exactly easy-to-read, for example, even the simplest character tasks can take 3 or 4 pages to accomplish. If the author had spent this extra effort giving the characters well, more 'character', and the story a more compelling dialogue instead, this would be a first-rate rip-roaring adventure novel. As it stands, it's a 200 page novel that takes 570 pages to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but Ultimately Unsatisfying
Review: Like many of the other reviewers I found myself almost unable to put this book down. However, in the end I felt that it could have been much better.
The action was very compelling and the small details about mountaineering and other issues added much to the story, but I feel that the same attention to detail should have been paid to the development of the characters. They all seemed very one dimensional and it was difficult to understand their true motivations. Maybe the original draft was longer and was pared down so that casual readers wouldn't be daunted about reading such a long novel.
In any case I would recommend it to anyone who likes compelling action and thought provoking ideas about some of the basic and deep seated legends of humanity.
Rating: 
Summary: Journey to the Center of the Girth
Review: This is a great, sprawling, epic mess of a book, with a great deal to recommend it even though it makes no sense as a whole. It bites off way more than it can comfortably chew, its reach far exceeding its grasp. There's enough material in here for at least a dozen different books, but it fails as a unified piece. A subterranean race of demon-people, notorious for abducting their surface-dwelling homo sapiens cousins for breeding and slavery, become detected in the modern age and all but wiped out in a massive, worldwide war. Some of them are still down there, though, and surface industrialists are anxious to begin exploiting the underground resources once protected by the subterraneans. An expedition below is mounted, and lots of unpleasantness ensues. The problem with this book is that it is over-ambitious, under-researched, disjointed, inconsistent, and so episodic it is difficult to follow. If the reader can take the book not as a novel, but as a series of loosely connected short stories centered around a basic theme, he might enjoy The Descent immensely. It is good reading, just flawed for all the aforementioned reasons.
Rating:
Summary: Want to be scared of the dark?!?
Review: The Descent by Jeff Long was an excellent attempt to reproduce a world within a world. The descent into hell has always intrigued man and Jeff Long did an excellent job introducing the world of the underworld to those of us on the topside. While The Descent is filled with disturbing pictures of gruesome details and frequent reference to certain male parts, the story itself was worth the read. I actually began to look in the shadows at night wondering if a Hadel was there lurking about. Long does and excellent job in describing the underworld and his character development was worthy. The only complaint I had outside of gruesome details and sexual undertones was the ending and is why I rated this story only 3 stars instead of 4 or even a 5. Like a great horror movie that end badly, Long after producing a great story appeared to have ran out of steam. It was like a child hoping for a new bike at christmas only to receive a chunk of coal. The Descent just ended, no tremendous climax. While I got the feeling there was sequel coming, the anti-climax was disappointing after 500 pages of a great read. I would recommend this book, but if your easily distrubed or afraid of the dark try a Dr. Suess book instead.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best and most intriguing suspense novels
Review: Incredible is the term I use for this action novel that far surpasses expectations. The concept of a hollow earth has been discussed on late night radio programs, but this story of the mutated Hadals living in caves deep underground is intriguing and this story never drags and is never boring. The characters are well drawn, three dimensional and they are people you care for as the story progresses. I was amazed at how this book kept the suspense which is very difficult with a book so long but this one is never tedious and keeps you up long into the night reading it. The evil Hadals, the underground cities and this concept of Satan not to mention the underground captives and the journey to the very bowels of the earth is a great tale. You get everything in this one: evil beings, suspense, a journey, and not to mention, new discoveries all along the way. Jeff Long is a great writer who I hope to see write more and more books. This one firmly establishes him as one of the best of his genre. This is a book that doesn't ever disappoint and its one to check out. It will draw you in and frighten you and now I always wonder what could lurk underneath the ground. Brilliant. A "Journey to the Center of the Earth" for our times.
Rating:
Summary: EXCEPTIONAL HIGH ADVENTURE
Review: I find it harder and harder every year to find books that are actually worth finishing. So many books published these days are terribly written, cloddishly plotted, and filled with characters so thin you could jimmy a motel room door with 'em. Let me tell you, this book is not one of those. Jeff Long has written one of the best flat out adventure novels I've read in probably more than a decade. THE DESCENT starts with a clever premise and runs full tilt, dragging its characters and the reader along as it becomes more audacious, more artful, more epic, chapter by chapter. Read it if you like high adventure. It's good.
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