By: Ken Liu
Location: FIC LIU
Genre: Sci Fi
Ken Liu's collections of shorts stories in Paper Menagerie was one of the best I have read and I'm not a Sci Fi Reader, he wraps his stories in humanity that touches any genre preference!
This one is a Sci Fi Thriller! What a combo and weirdly political and outspoken!
“She believed that if you worked at the system and followed its rules and played the game as it was supposed to be played, you would get the result you wanted. If you made enough pretty speeches and marched enough times down the National Mall and bled enough and prayed enough and said you loved this country enough times, people would embrace you and tell you that you belonged and hand you the keys to the mansion with the feather bed, where you could dream the American dream to the accompaniment of “This Land Is Your Land.” What a crock of shit. America was corrupt and steeped in sin. The powerful had rigged the game for themselves and turned the country into a panopticon to imprison the rest of us.”
"Overall, a compelling, character-study thriller that makes you think and takes a very dark turn at the end. If you have read Liu’s short story collections, you might be more accustomed to this style.
Ultimately, this book is about belonging. Craving it, feeling alienated by it, fearing it." Cait
Award winning author Ken Liu returns with his first sci-fi 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 cybersecurity and hacking skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery, rescue a kidnapped dream artist, and confront the blurred lines between technology, identity, 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 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 onierofex, 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 waking dream and providing an emotionally resonant and narrative experience. While attendees’ dreams are anonymous, Julia discovers that Elli was also providing a one-on-one dream experience for the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he’s demanding his dreams in return 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.
review by Jonas:
All That We See or Seem delivers on every level. The technology is close at hand and near future. I know this aspect as well as Liu being known for science fiction and fantasy, may make some readers hesitant, but I would encourage them to give it a try, especially if they’ve read Michael Crichton’s thrillers.
All That We See or Seem has several layers and explores relationships: mother/daughter, husband/wife, and humans with technology. It touches on the treatment of immigrants and the marginalized as well as modern slavery. I have never considered the work of the people trafficked the way it was depicted in this novel.
All of the characters in Julia’s orbit are trying to right wrongs, do the right thing, and pursue righteous justice. I love Ken Liu’s short stories best, but the first installment of his new series has me hooked. I look forward to the next installment.
