Dreams of Utica updates several folktales, in particular Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, in a cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic world. The book’s structure is based on that of Homer’s Odyssey, and uses its episodes (e.g. dangers and monsters encountered, sailing in an unknown land, relationship to otherness.)

Alyss, nicknamed the Dreamer, was a thirteen-year-old teenage girl, who lived in the Ghetto of Zone 3, a slum crowded with refugees of the Last War. The survivors had been waiting for an airlift to Utica, a distant city founded by the mythical Proteus. Alyss was prone to visions that allowed her to anticipate certain hazardous situations. During the Revelation ceremony, besides the mandatory biochips that gave access to citizenship, an extra biochip was grafted in her brain, which amplified her dreamlike abilities. However, she had to hide her gift. Through her visions, she experienced distorted perceptions of past and forthcoming events.

Her worst enemy, the Monkey, and his gang chased Alyss, before her father, the Powderman, saved her. He decided to take her with him to sabotage the boarding platform of Zone 3, located at the top of the slum. Several problems arose during their ascent by the funicular. Once arrived, the Powderman and his men realize that their fellow citizens had been transformed into a nutritive substance eaten by all, and that no departure to Utica was possible. The sabotage of the boarding platform was disrupted by the arrival of Cycones, the cyborgs soldiers of Zone 3, which massacred the insurgents. In parallel, drones pounded the slum. Alyss had to put her eyes out in order to disable her recognition biochips, but she spared her dreamchip. Her entire family died during the assault, but she managed to escape into the sewers thanks to a bluish creature. This is a biobot, a kind of cyborg animal, which Alyss called Cony. The Monkey found Alyss in the sewers and declared his love. The place was dangerous due to heavy rains. The Monkey was rejected outside, but Alyss disappeared under water.

Wounded and infirm, Alyss was rescued and cared for by the Hermit on the Dolls Island. He replaced her eyes, right leg and left knee by printed cyber pieces. Cony showed her a quantum room hidden by the Hermit, which concealed millions of copies of personal biochips. Alyss stole those of her parents, and left the island using a raft. She set herself the objective to reach Utica and find a way to reactivate her parents. This episode marked the definitive end of her childhood.

Throughout her journey from the north to the south of Africa, Alyss would discover the history and archeology of this continent (first humans, ancient Egypt, Muslim conquests, European colonization, contemporary history, etc.), and the beauty of its landscapes (fauna, flora, geology, rivers, and lakes.)

Alyss sailed the Nile upstream, and arrived in Lycopolis, where she was captured by All-Sane, a mad mechagician who transformed lost children into Cycones in his factory. Proteus himself would have commissioned him. Cony and Telm, her vanished childhood sweetheart, rescued Alyss. He had been transformed into a Cycone. Cony, by connecting itself to All-Sane’s computer, grabbed the Hypnos virus, which would make it languish during its journey. Telm was killed, and Alyss escaped on her boat.

Further along the river, a huge dam, overlooked by Zone 2, blocked the girl. Mama Ajula hosted her, pending the reservoir’s decline that would allow her to pass the dam’s lock. Alyss tasted the mask of oblivion that made her communing with the Network. She became dependent, and forgot her goal and grief. Mama Ajula saved her, and gave her a cure so as to wean her. But a threat hung over Alyss and those who wanted to help her.

She then arrived in Tuti Island where she met a Cyclops named Loudmouth who made her prisoner by order of Poseidon, the son of Proteus. The giant revealed that Proteus’ project was to replace humans by cyborg monsters. Cony released Alyss who burst Loudmouth’s eye.

In the Sudd marches, Alyss met Aeol who showed her images of Zone 3 fall. He proposed her to use the quantum doors that he mastered so that she could go across the continent more rapidly. But at no time Alyss was to fall asleep. He taught her that the Monkey was alive and that he would also reach Utica.

Alyss felt asleep. She had to move forward at her own pace on the Jonglei canal. Lester Ygon, and his gang of roadblockers, traffickers of all kinds, and cannibals captured her. A rival gang made entirely of women, the Misties, killed all men, convicted Lester to be eaten by carnivorous ants, and saved Alyss.

The girl jumped with the Misties through a quantum trap, and arrived in Circo’s realm. By her, Alyss learnt how to fight and to use the quantum doors. Cony removed the virus that Circo implemented in Alyss’ brain so as to dominate her, and proved her that this woman also exploited humans to serve her own purposes.

Alyss and Cony escaped through a quantum flap and landed again in Lester Ygon’s devasted camp. They recovered the boat and strengthened it with the bones of the dead. With the indications stolen from Circo’s computer, Alyss moved towards Mount Nekuia. At the top, she met Tiresias, an artificial intelligence that helped her activate her parents’ biochips. They told her to be very careful, and to go to Utica in order to stop Poseidon’s destruction project. But her parents were only memories, projections without any possible evolution.

Alyss left with a new objective. She underwent a tornado, and was then attacked by the quantum twins Chard and Scyal, who attempted to annihilate her. Her visions and her new skills in the quantum space allowed her destroying them. But this operation cost her a lot, and she fell into a coma.

Cony entrusted her to Cameo, a mechagician living in the Waste Island formed on Lake Tanganyika. The man extracted a huge parasite from her, and had to replace a part of her intestines. Somewhat recovered, Alyss walked through the city, but was led by the Cyrene in a transient hotel. The melodious voice of the robot distorted reality. Alyss managed to escape and spared the creature because it was unaware of its actions.

Alyss had to approach Likoma Island on Lake Nyasa, because of a heavy and continuous rain. The boat could not leave for several days, and the supplies were running out. Cony informed Alyss that she should not touch the fish in the island basin because of a drone nestled in a tree. But she broke the rule and triggered abnormal phenomena. The fish were both dead and alive. The drone pursued and shot her. Alyss sailed down the Zambezi before reaching the ocean.

Severely burned, she woke up in the submarine of Malion, a young genius who lived cut off from the world. In order to save Alyss, he had to replace her arms by robotic parts that could turn into wings. Alyss had to accept her new body. Malion recovered her boat. He fell in love with Alyss, she fell under his charm too. They made love. A winged blue octopus disturbed the budding romance, and created damages in the submarine, which had to reach to the surface.

Alyss and Cony left in their boat. They were shipwrecked on the coast of Mozambique. The boat was useless. Alyss was forcibly taken to the Master, who is no other than the Monkey, and then jailed in Zone 1, which he controlled. The Monkey wanted to keep Alyss with him, but she refused. He tried to rape her, but she spread her sharp wings and hurt him to death, before killing in a berserk manner all its soldiers and servants. Hunted, she jumped off a cliff.

She hovered Southern Africa with Cony, discovered its history and dived into the roots of Humankind. Attracted by a luminous glow, she landed near the ruined lighthouse of Cape Agulhas. She knew that from this place she would be able to reach Utica.

A boat, led by the AI Chron, took Alyss and Cony south of the continent. Alyss had to thwart the collective intelligence of Cyrenes posted on moving rocks. She helped the oldest in delivering a baby Cyrene. To thank her, the robot gave her a symbolon, an engraved metal bar. The boat sank, but Chron took possession of the rock-machine, and led Alyss to Utica’s gates, while a storm off the standard threated them.

Alyss went down by an elevator in which the AI Argo recognized her. She discovered that Utica was an empty abyss, and that its buildings were just holographic projections. She was angry, but decided to visit the place. The heart of the city was made of thousands of servers that recorded the Humankind’s memory. Alyss passed a series of firewalls, consisting in projections of people with whom she could interact. The threat was lurking. She used the symbolon and opened a room where she met the AI Athena, of which Cony was an avatar, then the AI Poseidon.

A white light saved Alyss and she faced a radiant Proteus. He told her the downfall of Humankind and its destruction because of a misuse of the quantum computer called Prometheus. He talked about his project and his own failures, including the creation of Poseidon. Alyss was to join him in order to defeat Poseidon, and to rebuild the world thanks to her unique capabilities.

Abnormalities occurred, and Alyss discovered that Proteus was an old man connected to a machine, locked in a survival chamber. She noticed two kids that looked like her brother and sister. Alyss thought she returned home in Zone 3. She let herself momentarily fooled by the little boy, but discovered that he was Poseidon. The little girl was Athena.

A mental and physical power struggle took place between Alyss and Poseidon. Athena and Cony sacrificed themselves to help Alyss. With rage at losing her friend Cony, Alyss fought Poseidon, thwarted his illusions, and carried him with her in Proteus’ survival chamber where he disintegrated.

Alyss merged with the heart of Utica, and began to dream of a new world where all creatures, whether biological or robotic hybrids could have their place.