"The Secret of the Gods" by Bernard Werber, summary

The story concludes Michel Penson’s journey from mortal to creator of universes. Written in 2007 in France, the novel develops the mystical plot established in his books about angels. It is part of the extensive Thanatonautes cycle (within which it forms the trilogy We, the Gods). The Secret of the Gods is the third book in this trilogy, following We, the Gods (2004) and The Breath of the Gods (2005), and is the sixth book in the overall chronicle of the hero’s adventures.

Battle of Olympia

Awakening in Eden, Michel Penson discovers the final round of the god-disciple competition is approaching. His friend Mata Hari helps him prepare before entering the stadium. Only twelve candidates remain on the training campus, leading their wards to the civilization on the experimental planet Earth-18. Behind the scenes, Michel’s old dispute with the cynical Raoul Razorbak over the limits of divine authority escalates. Before entering the sphere, the wards are sent to the baths for traditional ablutions.

There, a mysterious deicide attacks the contestants, firing a ray-powered ankh. Mata Hari falls dead in Michel’s arms, having extracted his promise to win. Michel gives chase through the forest paths, where he encounters the surviving teacher, Edmond Wells, and unmasks the shooter. The killer turns out to be optician Lucien Dupré, who rebelled against the harsh teaching rules. Dupré dies, and the remaining contestants are hastily returned to the arena.

Michel attempts to save his dolphin people by introducing reformist ideas into science and medicine. His rival, Xavier Dupuis, unleashes an army of aggressive sharks, decimating peaceful dolphin settlements. Raoul Razorbak, supported by a technologically advanced eagle nation, wins the battle by launching a missile at a nearby celestial body. Enraged by this injustice, Michel breaks Dupuis’s jaw and demands a party restart.

A five-meter-tall Zeus rises among the stands, appeasing the impudent student’s request. The Supreme Olympian turns back time, forcing the planet to relive half a century. The cycle repeats itself again and again. Michel changes military doctrines, builds defensive alliances, but Raoul always emerges victorious. Recognizing the predetermination of the historical cycle, Penson strikes Xavier Dupuis with lightning. For breaking the laws, the teachers’ court sentences the rebel to exile on the planet he rules.

Earthly exile

The hero awakens in a bed in an unfamiliar apartment, masquerading as the French novelist Gabriel Ascolain. Olympia remains far above. From the radio news, he realizes he’s trapped in the mortal world, retaining memories of every level of the divine hierarchy. Gabriel sits down at the keyboard, mechanically recording his memories of the divine institution. A neighbor down the hall forces the writer to sign a noise complaint.

In search of answers, Michel explores the city of rooster people, stumbling upon a gigantic temple bearing the symbol of his own prophet’s execution instrument. A conversation with a cleric nearly results in the arrival of the police. A street poster for the virtual project leads him to the office of the online universe’s developers. There, he meets art director Delphine Camerer, in whom he recognizes traits of his totem people.

Panson goes to film a television show, pitching the public the concept of a new saga about the power of the demiurge. Conservative academic Archibald Gusten openly ridicules other people’s views on the divine. At night, Gabrielle escapes from a mysterious observer in a beige coat and finds refuge in Delphine’s abode. Delphine begins teaching her arrogant guest spiritual practices, patience, and the rules of dolphin cooking.

Meanwhile, a conspiracy is brewing. Surveillance leads the hero to the residence of a media mogul disguised as the fugitive theorist Joseph Proudhon. The former god of the rat-men has formed a gigantic cult, manipulating the base passions of the crowd for totalitarianism. Proudhon demonstrates his own immortality to his guest by shooting himself in the head and proposes an alliance. Michel rejects the deal, shoots his opponent, and races to Delphine in a sports car.

Escape to the Ocean

The lovers fake their death on a cliff, dumping their car into the ocean. Leaving their pursuers empty-handed, they sail away to the lost reef island of Fitoussi. The rocky shore turns into a second island of Tranquility. Michel and Delphine settle in, build sheltered huts, construct a water wheel, and send the novel’s text and software code to the mainland through encrypted channels.

Soon, the first like-minded people arrive on the cliffs, fleeing epidemics and Proudhon’s fanatics. Delphine announces her pregnancy. The settlement grows stronger, transforming the swampy marsh into a blooming garden. The idyll is shattered by a flying machine landing in the forest thicket.

Edmond Wells emerges from the hatch, wearing a classical toga. The mentor announces the end of the Olympian order: Zeus has declared the abolition of immortality and the closure of the educational institution. Olympia is consumed by the flames of civil war. To save his loved ones from the impending catastrophe, Panson agrees to leave the island. The lifting mechanism pulls the escape capsule through the layers of the atmosphere to the outside.

Assault on the Second Mountain

Aphrodite, using a laboratory centrifuge, restores Michel to the gigantic proportions of a celestial being. The warring Olympians have reduced the sacred city to ashes. Athena has fallen to the blade of the god of war, Ares. Having seized the sphere containing Earth-18, hidden in a wooden box, the fugitives make their way through the abandoned caves of Medusa the Gorgon.

Having cut off the monster’s head, the heroes board a sailing vessel. The crew is joined by the blind Oedipus and the singer Orpheus. On the high seas, the ship is attacked by a monstrous, living medusa. Oedipus blindly points the Gorgon’s face at the monster, turning the enemy into monolithic stone. On the horizon, the cone of the Second Mountain rises, crowned with a dense cap of clouds.

The slopes are guarded by hordes of forest satyrs, led by the goat-legged Pan. The forest lord agrees to reveal the hidden path only if the newcomers make him laugh. Panson engages in a mock duel, balancing on a log over the water. A sincere tale of earthly misadventures causes Pan to burst into laughter and fall into the lake. The satyr king reveals the secret of the wooden bridges between parallel layers of existence and points to the boundary of the underworld god’s domain.

The travelers cross the Styx on the boat of the gloomy Charon. Hades, the lord of the underworld, explains the nature of torment: sinners choose their own torment due to an inescapable sense of guilt. Michel attempts to bring the dead Mata Hari, who has taken the form of a nine-month-old baby, out of the underworld. Forgetting the prohibition against turning around, the hero casts a glance behind him and loses his beloved forever.

The hikers climb along icy cornices toward a glittering summit. Their path is blocked by the elastic barrier of the Champs-Élysées. Panson recalls his lessons in sensuality and forces his companions to warm the wall with caresses, allowing the barrier to allow them through. Beyond the purple curtain, the travelers fall into absolute nothingness.

Looking through the page

Michel floats in the void, losing his sense of time, physical form, and memory. Zeus, the guide, extracts the hero’s soul with tweezers and places it in a superluminal centrifuge. His body disintegrates into particles, flares with millions of photons, and transforms into a star in the night sky.

Nearby, the constellations of their faithful allies — Wells, Aphrodite, Orpheus, and Raoul — shine. The galaxy appears to them as an intelligent mother, guiding the course of cosmic bodies. The controlled Earth-18 finds a safe orbit around the sun, Aphrodite, gaining the status of a free civilization. But the star cluster is also subject to a greater force — the living Universe.

The universe announces a grand experiment and casts the sparks of Panson and Wells beyond the boundaries of material space. Two beams of light hit a smooth, transparent surface. Beyond the world, they discern colossal, living eyes, gliding incessantly across the lines.

Edmond unravels the structure of the universe: their entire journey, the struggle of civilizations, and cosmic secrets are locked within a paper volume, and the very existence of the heroes is sustained by the attention of the one holding the book. The ultimate deity turns out to be the Reader, capable of bringing worlds to life with the power of his own thought.