"We the Gods" by Bernard Werber, summary

French explorer of the otherworldly, Michel Penson, finds himself on a secluded island amidst a classical setting, where former angels are trained as demiurges under the supervision of Olympian celestials. The narrative revolves around demiurgic practices, attempts to unravel the nature of the supreme creator, and a series of mysterious deaths in a closed boarding school for the gods. The novel was published in 2004 in France, opening the author’s extensive trilogy about the stages of the cosmic evolution of the mind.

The book opens the trilogy “We, the Gods,” which also includes the novels “Breath of the Gods” (number two in the series) and “The Secret of the Gods” (number three in the series).

Eden Island and the School of the Gods

Michel Penson falls through the clouds of an unfamiliar planet with two suns and three moons, plunging into an emerald ocean. Reassuming a solid physical form, he struggles to reach the shore of Eden Island. Near a sheer cliff, Michel stumbles upon the dying Jules Verne, a smoking, circular burn on his side. The writer warns the newcomer against climbing the cloud-shrouded peak of Olympus and throws himself into the abyss, but his body vanishes without a trace from the sand. Soon, a centaur catches up with Penson, carries him at full gallop, and delivers him to the white marble walls of the city of Olympia.

At the gilded gates, the newcomer is greeted by the god Dionysus. The mentor gives Michel a white toga, gives him the number of his private villa, and explains the purpose of his visit: the former angel has been enrolled in the School of the Gods. Students are to master the art of demiurgy, ruling entire nations. At the villa, Penson discovers blank books, a silent screen, and a pen, and soon meets his earthly mentor, Edmond Wells. The old scholar is busy compiling the fifth volume of the "Encyclopedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge" and reminds Michel of the Indian scale of consciousness evolution from mineral to deity.

That evening, one hundred and forty-four disciples of the gods gather in the circular amphitheater. Among them are prominent figures in French history and culture: Marie Curie, Gustave Eiffel, Claude Monet, and Sarah Bernhardt. The anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon loudly disputes the reality of the proceedings, declaring the set a fake. The goddess Athena announces the regulations for the closed community and warns against leaving the walls after the stroke of ten. The solemn speech is interrupted by a piercing scream from the stands. In the darkness, the body of composer Claude Debussy is found, a hole burned through his heart. Athena announces the arrival of the mysterious Deicide.

That night, Panson and Wells descend on sheets beyond the city wall. In the dense forest, the fugitives encounter old comrades: Raoul Razorbak, the blind Rabbi Freddy Meyer, and Marilyn Monroe. The friends proclaim themselves theonauts, under the motto "Love like a sword, humor like a shield." As they continue their journey, the theonauts encounter a glowing blue stream. Raoul’s father, Francis Razorbak, appears on the shore and, on a dare, swims across the river, but a flock of water maidens pulls him to the bottom. Raoul tries to follow, but Michel stuns his friend with a stone to save him, and the group quickly carries the injured man back to the villa.

The first demiurgic lessons

In the morning, in a sanctuary with hundreds of ticking mechanisms, the god of time, Kronos, begins a preparatory lesson. The giant Atlas laboriously carries into the classroom a three-meter glass sphere, within which floats the holographic planet Earth-17. The students are given crosses with a bow — sacred ankh scepters with buttons A, D, and N. Button D emits destructive lightning, N adjusts the optics, and the scepter’s lens serves as a directional microscope and microphone. Zooming in, the gods observe a miniature world where humanity has traveled all the way to 2035.

Kronos advances the hands of the magical clock, revealing the rapid decline of civilization. By 2222, the fanatical dictatorship of the prohibitionists has destroyed science, returning the remnants of humanity to primal fear. The teacher gives the students two hours to attempt to evolve the remnants of their tribes. Lucien Dupré achieves notable success with his hippie commune, but Kronos suddenly orders the draft to be wiped from the face of the universe. Dupré refuses to destroy living beings and leaves the School in protest. The remaining students point their scepters at the planet’s poles. Melting glaciers wash the continents into a black, boiling ocean, after which the evaporated water freezes, turning the planet into a smooth, icy egg.

The next day, Hephaestus, the god of forging, teaches his students the creation of matter. Using beams of fire, the class melts the icy crust of a sphere, creating the foundation of planet Earth-18. Working with the nuclei and orbits of electrons, the students assemble minerals from hydrogen and helium atoms. First place for the best crystal goes to Sarah Bernhardt, who created a shimmering pink star. Christian Poulignan is expelled from school for the unstable structure of uranium and is promptly dragged away by a centaur.

The celebration of the birth of a new world is interrupted by a nighttime foray. The Theonauts build a raft to cross the blue river. Singer Edith Piaf drowns out the hypnotic sirens’ song with the chanson "My Legionnaire," but the river chimeras capsize the vessel anyway. Rabbi Meyer, with a well-aimed bow, secures a rope to the opposite tree trunk, establishing a Tyrolean rope crossing. On the shore, the sirens drag away the stragglers, but the precise beams of the spy Mata Hari force the monsters to loosen their claws. From the darkness of the black forest comes the heavy roar of an unknown giant, and the group returns.

The Birth of Fauna and the Mystery of Chimeras

On Monday, Poseidon, the god of the sea, demands the initiation of organic life. After causing the clouds to pour with rain, the bearded giant orders the programming of DNA strands in the primordial soup. Mata Hari invents sexual reproduction by fusing different cell types. The ocean rapidly fills with plankton, sponges, and algae. Vincent van Gogh receives a low grade for a flower that aimlessly changes color for the sake of pure beauty. The artist disagrees with his mentor’s criticism, puts a cross to his ear, and shoots himself, preferring death to the shame of exile.

At Megaron, seaweed, oysters, and sea urchins are served. Suddenly, screams are heard from the street. The students run to one of the villas and find the ceramicist Bernard Palissy in the bathroom, his face charred. Before dying, the master manages to whisper an unfinished sentence about the Deicide. Raoul notices that the criminal is methodically hunting down the best demiurges in the course.

That night, the Theonauts attempt to delve deeper into the dark forest. A lyre-bird with the voice of Debussy and a cross-eyed griffin reveal a terrifying truth to Penson: all the chimeras on the island are former students who failed their exams or were punished for breaking the rules. Among the sirens, Raoul, horrified, recognizes the features of his drowned father. In the depths of the black forest, the fugitives hear the footsteps of a gigantic three-headed Chimera. Panicked, Michel tumbles head over heels into a ravine, falls through quicksand, and tumbles into an underground river. Reaching the shore of a cave lake, Penson finds an abandoned base camp with camping gear and old maps from his predecessors. An albino rabbit with red eyes leads the lost explorer up the steps to a secret passage behind the waterfall.

On Tuesday, the god of war, Ares, demands that predators be unleashed on Earth-18. To the strains of "Carmina Burana," the students construct jaws, bony armor, and venom glands. The Proudhon shark emerges as the undisputed champion of the underwater carnage. Then, Ares unleashes a meteor shower on land, causing the animals to undergo rapid mutation. The reptiles give way to warm-blooded mice, birds, and monkeys. The eagle, Raoul Razorbak, is declared the day’s winner.

Human flocks

On Wednesday, winged Hermes launches the Great Game: each is assigned a primitive group of one hundred and forty-four people under his wing. Proudhon relies on the strength of the rat-men, establishing a military dictatorship, selecting fighters through brutal duels, and destroying neighboring tribes. Michel Penson teaches his charges to swim and befriend marine mammals, creating a tribe of dolphins. An elderly medium is the first to shake hands with the strangers from Edmund Wells’s ant tribe. The two peoples unite, sharing discoveries and building the first underground city on the coast.

On Thursday, the fertility goddess Demeter evaluates the introduction of agriculture and funeral rites. Marilyn Monroe places the tribe of Amazon wasps first. The women of this tribe banish men after conception, skillfully shoot bows, and build round, fortified houses. Meanwhile, a horde of rat-men besieges and burns the cave of the turtle-men, learning the secret of fire control. On the seashore, dolphins and ants, following the dreams of an old seer, build an ark with a sail and leave the shore just before the arrival of the rat army.

Wanting to rescue the wanderers, Panson and Wells secretly enter the world storage facility in the giant Atlas’s basement. Finding the Earth-18 sphere, Michel sends a favorable wind, steering the ark away from the sharp reefs. With the help of local dolphins, the sixty-four survivors reach the Isle of Tranquility, where they build a step pyramid for telepathic communication with God. As they exit the storage facility, Atlas grabs Edmond Wells by the leg. The teacher manages to toss his priceless encyclopedia to Michel, sacrificing himself to save his student.

During Friday’s lesson, the goddess of love, Aphrodite, creates glass flasks for Paradise and the angelic realms, closing the circle of reincarnation. Having discovered an island on Earth-18 with an advanced dolphin society, the goddess catches Panson in a nocturnal scam. Before the shocked Michel’s eyes, she presses the button on her scepter and obliterates the Island of Tranquility with a gigantic tsunami and a volcanic eruption. Only twelve ships carry the remnants of the dolphin people to foreign shores.

That night, the Theonauts, led by filmmaker Georges Méliès, once again storm the forbidden mountain. The illusionist holds a huge mirror before the three-headed Chimera’s nose. The monster freezes, mesmerized by its own ugliness, allowing the group to ascend to a red poppy plateau. An exhausted Penson collapses among the blooming poppies, gazing at the hazy sky. Suddenly, the clouds at the top of Olympus part, revealing a gigantic, glittering eye on the horizon, watching the immortal students’ every move.