City of the Gods: Forgotten
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City of the Gods: Forgotten is an illustrated fiction, epic fantasy novel by M. Scott Verne and Wynn Mercere. (In 2017 it was revealed that M.Scott Verne is the pen name of the book's art director Steve Crompton). The trade paperback edition has over 80 illustrations, many by notable artists Gustave Doré, Lord Frederick Leighton, Léon François Commerre, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Arthur Hughes, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Ingres, Diego Velázquez, William Bouguereau, Botticelli, John William Waterhouse, and others of the 16th-18th centuries. The Kindle version has 20 full-page illustrations. Published by Raven Press in January 2011, the book is available as a 428-page trade paperback or as an Amazon Kindle book. On August 31, 2017, an audio book version of this novel was made available at Audible.com.
Trapped in a timeless city governed by all the old gods of Earth, D'Molay is a tracker who works for the Gods. He makes a fateful choice to assist a hapless girl early in the story. He then begins to suspect she has some kind of connection to a huge beast ravaging the Olympian realm. D'Molay is torn between his duty to the eternal world and the leading of his heart. His compulsion to protect her pits the wits of a man against the guile of the gods, rekindling a faith he had long ago forgotten. In theory, any of the gods of old could appear in the City of the Gods. Some of the deities that appear include the Greco/Roman Gods Zeus, Eros, Zephyrus, Ares, Hermes & Glaucus. Egyptian gods Set and Sekhmet and Babylonian gods include Lamasthu and Namtar. Also various Chinese, Norse, Indian, Mayan and African gods are featured as the story unfolds. The gods are portrayed very much as they appeared in classical mythology, but each exhibits their own personalities and motivations.
The book deals with issues of trust, faith and the loss of both. There are also strong hints as to why the gods left Earth and the exploration of the different classes of inhabitants in realm of the Gods. (Slaves, merchants, freeman, priests and deities).
Main characters
- D'Molay the Tracker - The human protagonist. He tries to protect an unusual girl who seems to have no past, while working for the Gods.
- Aavi - She wakes up one morning in the streets of the City of the Gods and tries to recover her missing memories throughout the novel.
- Mazu the Ferrywoman - She is in fact a Chinese goddess who aids Aavi and D'Molay.
- The gods Eros and Zephyrus - They are conscripted by Zeus to aid the gods after witnessing a disaster in the Olympian realm.
- The god Set - His quest for power inadvertently leads him to Aavi.
- The god Quetzalcoatl - A member of the Council. He works his own agenda throughout the novel.
- The goddess Lamasthu - Like Quetzalcoatl she is on her own quest for power, but works closely with Set.