Seneca: Evolution

In a future beset by climate-change strife in the “Aboves” zone, Southern California teenager and math prodigy (and recreational super-hacker) Dorothy “Doro” Campbell had been initiated into a secretive society called Seneca. Operating out of a vast and advanced subterranean complex (with satellite installations around the world), Seneca ostensibly grooms elite youths to become the saviors of the endangered Earth. In reality, however, the place has been compromised by amoral, power-hungry corporate forces with a different agenda. Doro, aided by her biotechnologist boyfriend, Dominic, and a few other trusted allies, has uncovered evidence of nanotechnology surveillance, media lies, and mind control. She has also investigated the mysterious disappearance of her father, Johnny, who had just discovered a solution to heal the atmosphere’s sundered ozone layer. In this installment, Doro emerges from a 54-day coma, a side-effect of a neural attack courtesy of the sinister Flex Corporation. Doro and Dom are mentally wired into an online connection with other humans throughout Seneca. This is a sword that cuts both ways: The duo can virtually travel anywhere and sense conspiracies (such as an ambitious Mars settlement-terraforming scheme meant to extend Seneca’s totalitarian rule to another planet), but at the same time they are vulnerable to nefarious traps and digital fail-safes in the system. With hidden allies emerging from all directions, can the tide be turned? This is very much a gang’s-all-here cast reunion of the various heroes, villains, and in-betweens from throughout Deeb’s series, many proclaiming slogans like “The time has come for us to take back the tools of oppression. Help us reshape the world” in pep-rally proliferation. The “science” aspect of the narrative is fairly indistinguishable from magic, but the author ably depicts the exhilaration of dawning mass-awareness in a shared consciousness and reliably delivers the SF genre’s seemingly mandatory messages of resilience, eco-justice, and girl power as the saga reaches an upbeat conclusion.

May 5, 2025 - 05:18

In a future beset by climate-change strife in the “Aboves” zone, Southern California teenager and math prodigy (and recreational super-hacker) Dorothy “Doro” Campbell had been initiated into a secretive society called Seneca. Operating out of a vast and advanced subterranean complex (with satellite installations around the world), Seneca ostensibly grooms elite youths to become the saviors of the endangered Earth. In reality, however, the place has been compromised by amoral, power-hungry corporate forces with a different agenda. Doro, aided by her biotechnologist boyfriend, Dominic, and a few other trusted allies, has uncovered evidence of nanotechnology surveillance, media lies, and mind control. She has also investigated the mysterious disappearance of her father, Johnny, who had just discovered a solution to heal the atmosphere’s sundered ozone layer. In this installment, Doro emerges from a 54-day coma, a side-effect of a neural attack courtesy of the sinister Flex Corporation. Doro and Dom are mentally wired into an online connection with other humans throughout Seneca. This is a sword that cuts both ways: The duo can virtually travel anywhere and sense conspiracies (such as an ambitious Mars settlement-terraforming scheme meant to extend Seneca’s totalitarian rule to another planet), but at the same time they are vulnerable to nefarious traps and digital fail-safes in the system. With hidden allies emerging from all directions, can the tide be turned? This is very much a gang’s-all-here cast reunion of the various heroes, villains, and in-betweens from throughout Deeb’s series, many proclaiming slogans like “The time has come for us to take back the tools of oppression. Help us reshape the world” in pep-rally proliferation. The “science” aspect of the narrative is fairly indistinguishable from magic, but the author ably depicts the exhilaration of dawning mass-awareness in a shared consciousness and reliably delivers the SF genre’s seemingly mandatory messages of resilience, eco-justice, and girl power as the saga reaches an upbeat conclusion.