Book Description
The Descent - In Tibet, while guiding trekkers
to a holy mountain, Ike Crockett discovers a bottomless cave.
When his lover disappears, Ike pursues her into the depths of
the earth. . . . In a leper colony bordering the Kalahari
Desert, a nun and linguist named Ali von Schade unearths
evidence of a proto-human species and a deity called
Older-than-Old. . . . In Bosnia, Major Elias Branch
crash-lands his gunship near a mass grave and is swarmed by
pale cannibals terrified of light. . . .
So begins mankind's realization that the underworld is a
vast geological labyrinth riddling the continents and
seabeds, one inhabited by brutish creatures who resemble the
devils and gargoyles of legend. 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. Is there a natural explanation, as the scientists
hope? Or is there a true supernatural basis? Are the
"demons" part of our evolutionary family tree? Is
their enigmatic leader merely a freak genius, or could he be
the legendary Satan?
Fathom by fathom, Ike guides the expedition--and
Ali--deeper into the deadly stone wilderness. In the dark
underground, as humanity falls away from them, the scientists
and mercenaries find themselves prey not only to the savage
creatures, but to their own treachery, mutiny, and greed.
Meanwhile, on the surface, a band of aged scholars scours
archaeological digs, museums, artifacts, and rare texts for
clues to Satan's existence. Is he lurking in wait for the
expedition, or is he roaming the earth? Or is he dead? One
thing is certain: Miles inside the earth, evil is very much
alive.
In the tradition of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, The
Descent is an epic adventure through fantastic
landscapes, among creatures for whom man is both god and
meat. It is a horrifying mystery penetrating the realms of
faith and reason, a raw and original questioning of the
divine and the demonic. And finally, The Descent is the story
of a man and woman who enter the maze of the underworld and
find at its center the human heart.
