Jeff Long's new novel!!!

Long's THE DESCENT is one of my top 5 horror novels of all time. His last book was YEAR ZERO which I thought was good but uneven in its pacing and disappointing after having my socks blown off by the utter awesomeness of THE DESCENT. I'm curious how this new one will turn out to be ...

It's also just been announced that a movie version is already in the works:

http://www.creature-corner.com/news4...reckoning.php3

From what I've heard of the plot this sounds like something I can much easier see working in movie for than, say, the epic stories of both DESCENT (to which David Goyer was once attached at Dreamworks) and YEAR ZERO. Not sure what I'm supposed to make of the casting of Zellweger, though, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. Attaching Ted Tally shows that Paramount is quite serious about this because he's hardly the cheapest writer in the biz. However, even his involvement doesn't guarantee the movie actually gets made, as evidenced by his Joe Lansdale adaptation MUCHO MOJO over at New Line and his script for that other ALEXANDER THE GREAT project ...

I'd say this deserves a bump.

Yeah. I always get those two mixed up ...

Me too! I don't usually buy hardcovers but I think I'll make an exception for THE RECKONING. I love the combination of archeology and supernatural horror that Long does so well. And while I'm not expecting this to be better than - or as good as - THE DESCENT I have high hopes for it nonetheless.

I don't live in the US and online bookstores charge shipping fees according to weight. Hardcover books weigh a lot more than your average paperback and as a result I sometimes pay as much for shipping as I pay for the book. Add customs bullshit to that and one (1) hardcover novel can easily set me back 80$. Fuck that!

Another disadvantage is that you can't take a hardcover and read it on the way to work in the subway or something because it gets in the way and is generally too heavy to carry around anyway.

Hardcovers are nice and cool if you're collecting books (I do own a number of them, including Long's YEAR ZERO) but they're just not user friendly.

Yeah, sorry, wrong word. My English sucks today. Would "convenient" make more sense?


It's not the most important thing but I don't have loads of free time so "travel-convenience" is definitely a plus. What use would a few dozens hardcovers be to me if I'd never get around to read them? Sure, they'd look nice on the shelf but I buy books in order to read them, not as room decoration.

Um, have you ever heard of a thing called "laptop"?

I never said that laptops are easier to "lug around" than hardcover books. But they certainly are more convenient in certain situations (like on the train) than a full blown TV set and a DVD player. Much in the same way paperbacks are more convenient in certain situations.

Please, I'm not saying that any format is superior to the other. Hardcovers definitely have their advantages, but so do paperbacks. And depending on your lifestyle, what job you have, how you get to your workplace, when and how often you read, one format or the other will be better suited for different persons.

That's the first time I hear about that ... If you have a link or any more info I'd appreciate it! If there's one complaint I have about THE DESCENT it is the ending, which felt rushed and was not nearly as satisfying as the rest of the novel. I liked how it made me feel sorry for the "monsters", though. Even if Goyer gets to change the outcome of the book the question remains to which extent he'll change it. Will it just be the Satan thing or the whole outcome of the war?

Thanks for the link, Subotai! For me it's great news to know Goyer finished a draft of the script and was in contact with Jeff Long. That's the most I've heard since the project was announced way back when. Sounds like Goyer loves and respects the source material, why else would he go to the trouble of talking to Long about possible changes?

As for PG-13, I really don't know. One of the things that made me like the novel as much as I did was the absolutely unflinching violence. There's some really, really nasty stuff going on in that novel. Would it still work as a PG-13? On some level, yes, probably. The concept is fascinating enough and violence is far from the most important aspect of the story. It'd be much more crucial to keep the ambiguity of the fight, of not making the humans the good guys. In the novel both humans and the "monsters" do horrible things and you find yourself rooting for both of them and hating both of them at times. I'm frightened that they might simplify this but again, with Goyer staying in touch with Long and requesting his permission for changes I doubt it'll happen, at least in the scripting stage. Dreamworks may still fuck it up, though, or whoever ends up directing it may. I'd really like to get my hands on that script ...