Forbidden (Dekker and Lee novel)


Forbidden is a science fiction fantasy novel by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee, published in September 2011. It is the first book in a trilogy, and was followed by the novels Mortal in June 2012 and Sovereign in June 2013. A prequel, titled The Keeper was also published in 2011.

Plot

Fearing for his life, Rom is on the run and stumbles across a vial of blood and a cryptic message.
Meanwhile, the ruler of the world Saric, in the city Byzantium, is curious about emotion. Years before, Megas, the founder of the Order, has unleashed a genetic virus that suppressed emotion. Saric wanted to experience it firsthand.
Rom goes home, only to discover guards killing his mother. He runs to his friend Avra's house to drink a mouth full of the blood. It knocks him out. When he wakes up, he discovered Avra had drunk it as well and asleep. He feels that he has been granted emotion. They enlist two other friends who have potential.
Rom looks at the vellum that enclosed the vial but is unable to decipher it. He and the four kidnaps the only person known who can decipher it: Feyn, the sovereign's sister. She helps them discover that a scientist used his blood's immunity to pass the blood down. The scientist in his writing said that a boy in year 471 will be born with full emotion and be the savior of the human race.
They find the boy Jonathan in Africa and take him. Jonathan, at nine years old, is made Sovereign, but grants regency to the Senate. Rom takes the boy to find supporters.

Major characters