The Descent

June 28, 1999
The premise of this millennial thriller is as audacious as it is problematic: "if there can be a historical Christ," one character hypothesizes, "why not a historic Satan?" Demystification of the ultimate Bad Guy is no easy feat, but Long (Angels of Light) brings it off, if just barely, in a dizzying synthesis of supernatural horror, lost-race fantasy and military SF. From the experiences of a varied cast of characters--including Sister Ali, a Catholic nun serving in South Africa, and Elias Branch, a major with NATO forces in Bosnia--a 21st-century think tank calling itself the Beowulf Circle distills a startling theory: The biblical Satan and his devils in Hell are mythic renderings of Homo hadalis, grotesquely malformed offshoots of Homo sapiens who for centuries have surfaced from underground hideouts to prey on human beings. With the help of Ike Crockett, an escapee from 10 years of "hadal" captivity, Beowulf infiltrates the Helios Corporation's mission to explore caverns honeycombing Earth's interior. Once beneath the Mariana Trench, Beowulf discovers that Helios intends to forcefully annex the world inside the earth's crust to further its business ambitions. Meanwhile, topside, Beowulf's theologians and metaphysicians surmise that the elusive "Satan" has evolved a human form to pass secretly among mankind. Like the subterranean trail blazed by its adventurers, the narrative twists, turns, dead-ends and backtracks. Inventive scenes of underground wonders alternate with talky stretches of scientific discourse and mawkish moments of romance between Ike and Ali. Though its devils prove disappointingly to be made in the image of humans, Long's novel brims with energy, ideas and excitement. 150,000 first printing; major ad/promo; film rights sold to Warner Bros.

May 1, 1999
What if hell really existed? The premise of The Descent is just that. We first meet the protagonist of the story, Ike Crockett, as he guides a group of tourists on a Tibetan walkabout. Trapped on a mountain during a blizzard, Ike leads the group into a cave that just happens to be a gateway to hell. More hellish evidence soon emerges at sites as far-flung as Bosnia and the Kalahari Desert. Long, author of The Ascent (LJ 6/1/92), set on Mt. Everest, here chooses a subject that invites comparison to Dante--but his style is more reminiscent of early Stephen King, when characters still mattered. While some sex appears in the story, violence is a greater concern, though it does further the plot. The story is complex, with some surprising twists near the end. All in all, this is one of those compelling books that is difficult to finish but even more difficult to put down. Recommended for larger suspense/horror collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/99.]--Alicia Graybill, Polley Music Lib., Lincoln City Libs., NE

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 1999
Really good, really ambitious adventure novels are few and far between. Many writers simply recycle others' plots, hoping new settings and new character names will camouflage their stories' familiarity. Long's fourth novel is a wonderful exception to the rule. It's based on a thought-provoking premise: If there was a historical Jesus Christ, then was there also a historical Satan? Not an allegory, not a metaphor, but an actual living, breathing entity. And might hell itself be, not an idea, but an actual physical place . . . below our feet? And what would happen if the two worlds--ours and Satan's--collided? A good adventure novelist takes a way-out idea and makes it plausible (witness, for example, Ira Levin's "The Boys from Brazil"), and that's exactly what Long does here. He engages our imaginations from the get-go, asking us to consider ideas we've never thought of, proposing solutions to well-known mysteries (like the genesis of the Shroud of Turin), crafting exciting new characters--like the man who spent eight years in Hell and can't quite seem to get the hang of living in our world again. It's been a long time since an adventure novel this original, this well developed, this genuinely exciting, came along; with the help of an aggressive marketing campaign and strong word of mouth, this one could become a well-deserved best-seller. Recommend it wholeheartedly to adventure-novel fans as well as anyone who likes something different. ((Reviewed March 15, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)