Ted Dekker - Forbidden

Title : Forbidden Series :The Books of Mortals #1Release date : September 13th, 2011
Publisher : Center Street
Genre : Fantasy

The world as we know doesn’t exist anymore, in exchange there is a world where every person is “dead”, and meaning people who are just shells without having any emotions. Humanity was nearly destroyed 480 years ago, so scientist discovered genes that could control the human emotions, the only emotion people can feel is fear. For more than five centuries people lived in peace, but that is about to change.

Rom is a funeral singer and lives in Byzantium, the governing center of the world. When Rom walks home after work he is witness of a murder, which is unusual. The old man appears to be a friend of Rom’s father and gives him an ancient vial of blood before his is killed by the Citadel Guards. Now
Rom is on the run from those same guards and has to learn the secret of this vial of blood.

Every person Rom is in contact with dies by the hands of the Citadel guards, first the old man and then his beloved mother. The only one he can trust is his friend Avra. He somehow convinces her to run with him before they find her too. Together they examine the vial and the written parchment along with it. Rom decides to drink some of the blood to see what happens, but couldn’t imagine the change in emotion.

Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee is the first book in the Books of Mortals Series and I have to say it was surprising. I’ve never read anything by Ted Dekker and was a little afraid what I would think of his genre, but this book was definitely a lovely surprise. I even might go to check out his other books.

This first book has a lot of explaining about the war 480 years ago, how scientist changed the emotion in the humanity and how the people live now, but that all is about to change when Rom gets his hands on a vial of ancient blood. In the vial there is enough for five people to drink from, but when they do they will feel all the forbidden emotions. Rom and Avra are the first two to drink from the blood and be back under the living.

But they need help in their journey and decide to turn to their friend Triphon and Neah, Triphon willingly drinks from the vial, but they have to force Neah to let her see their side of the story. But they need someone highly educated to translate the written parchment, and the Sovereign-to-be Feyn is just the right person to ask. Rom kidnaps her and give her the last blood, because it’s not a full portion they have to work fast to translate before she loses the emotions. It appears Rom has to find a boy, whose blood would restore all the emotions to the world.

But Feyn’s half-brother Saric will do anything to stop Rom and his friends. He wants the Sovereign spot and power for himself and he will kill for it.

Will Rom find the boy in time? Who will survive the journey? Can the prophecy be fulfilled? Some of those questions will be answered and some you will have to find out in the future novels.

Although there was a lot of information in this book, I found it intrigue and definitely worth my time. I loved Rom from the start and my heart cried when I read his situation. I really hope he has better luck in the future books, I for one cannot wait to read the next book to find out.