All That We See or Seem
by Ken Liu
Synopsis
Award-winning author Ken Liu returns with his first scifi thriller in a brand-new series following former “orphan hacker” Julia Z as she is thrust into a high-stakes adventure where she must use her AI-whispering skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery, rescue a kidnapped dream artist, and confront the blurred lines between technology, selfhoo… Award-winning author Ken Liu returns with his first scifi thriller in a brand-new series following former “orphan hacker” Julia Z as she is thrust into a high-stakes adventure where she must use her AI-whispering skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery, rescue a kidnapped dream artist, and confront the blurred lines between technology, selfhood, and the power of shared dreams. Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at fourteen as the “orphan hacker,” is trying to live a life of digital obscurity in a quiet Boston suburb. But when a lawyer named Piers—whose famous artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals—barges into her life, Julia decides to put the solitary life she has painstakingly created at risk as she can’t walk away from helping Piers and Elli, nor step away from the challenge of this digital puzzle. Elli is an oneirofex, a dream artist, who can weave the dreams of an audience together through a shared virtual landscape, live, in a concert-like experience by tapping into each attendee’s memories and providing an emotionally resonant narrative experience. While these collective dreams are anonymous, Julia discovers that Elli was also dreaming one-on-one with the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he’s demanding the return of his dreams in exchange for Elli. Unraveling the real and unreal leads Julia on an adventure that takes her across the country and deep into the shadows of her psyche.
Tropes
Tone
Content Warnings
Readers Also Enjoyed
Advent
Seth Ring
The Broken Empire
Mark Lawrence
The Veiled Throne
Ken Liu
Cytonic
Brandon Sanderson
The Drawing of the Three
Stephen King
The Dark Tower
Stephen King
Scarlet
Marissa Meyer
Moreta - Dragonlady Of Pern
Anne McCaffrey
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Douglas Adams
The Shadow of the Torturer
Gene Wolfe
The Sword of the Lictor
Gene Wolfe
The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman
Otherland: River of Blue Fire
Tad Williams
The Citadel of the Autarch
Gene Wolfe
Last Guardian
David Gemmell
Cold Steel
Kate Elliott
Cugel's Saga
Jack Vance
Otherland: City of Golden Shadow
Tad Williams
The Subtle Knife
Philip Pullman
The Guns of Avalon
Roger Zelazny