The Descent (novel)

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The Descent is a novel by author Jeff Long.

[edit] Plot introduction

A sci-fi/horror book that reimagines Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Dante Alighieri's Inferno by imagining the exploration of a sub-surface world filled with alternately evolved humanoids, that has given rise to our myths of Hell.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A group of trekkers in Nepal stumble across a mummified body whilst trapped in a cave sheltering from a storm. The body is covered with tattoos, that they interpret to mean that the body was that of a RAF pilot from the 1940s, who crashed on the other side of the Himalayas. How the body got to that cave is a mystery, but it suggests there is a cave network that they might be able to use to escape. The trekkers push deeper into the network, and then start to be killed horribly until only the guide remains.

The book cuts forward a few years to a UN military base in Bosnia, where soldiers are guarding a mass grave. Every night something attacks the grave- the soldiers assume it is people trying to remove the evidence. One officer leads a squad to find out the truth, but returns driven mad by the experience, raving about being attacked by demons and starting to change dramatically physically.

The narrative cuts forward a few more years and that officer is leading the world's armies in exploring a vast network of caves that has been discovered below the Earth's surface. Referred to as the "sub-planet", it is ostensibly a physical location for Hell and is filled with separately-evolved humanoids that have been alive for all human history and apparently gave rise to the mythic 'demon'.

The demons are classified as Homo hadalis (or Hadals - as in Hades), and split from Homo sapiens around the time of Homo erectus.

A Jesuit assembles a group of scholars to study the sub-planet, with the aim of discovering if there was ever a historical Satan. They persuade a nun who specialises in ancient languages to help them, and she embarks on a bloody journey through a cave system cutting right across the Pacific, accompanied by the tour guide from the first chapter.

On the way she uncovers evidence of a once-great Hadal civilisation- which it appears fills a role similar to Atlantis, Mu and similar legendary civilisations that some believe shaped our historical ancient civilizations. Meanwhile, on the surface, the members of the Jesuit's scholarly organisation start to be brutally murdered, and the two storylines come together for the final climax.