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The descent

Jeff Long

1999374 pagesabout 6–9 hours
1999
first published
  • 1999Crown Publishing Group, The · 374 pages · ENGISBN 9781299071490
  • 1999Orion Publishing Group, Limited · 415 pages · ENGISBN 9780752814056
  • 1999Gollancz · 450 pages · ENGISBN 9780575068612
  • 1999Crown Publishers · 450 pages · ENGISBN 9780609602935
  • 2000Orion · 561 pages · ENGISBN 9780752834238
  • 2000Millennium Publications · 561 pages · ENGISBN 9781857989298
  • 1999Audioworks · ENGISBN 9780671045685

In a cave in the Himalayas, a guide discovers a self-mutilated body with a 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: the underworld is a vast geological labyrinth populated by another race of beings. 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. A scientific expedition is launched westward to explore beneath the Pacific Ocean floor, both to catalog the riches there and to learn how life could develop in the sunless abyss. But in the dark underground, as humanity falls away from them, the scientists and mercenaries find themselves prey not only to the savage creatures, but also to their own treachery, mutiny, and greed. One thing is certain: Miles inside the earth, evil is very much alive

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