All That We See or Seem
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.
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Ken Liu
Ken Liu writes where myth meets machine, where language becomes a bridge between worlds both ancient and imagined. Born in Lanzhou, China, and raised in the United States, he grew up between languages, always aware that translation between cultures, between past and future, is a kind of storytelling in itself. That awareness threads through all his work, from his award-winning short fiction to the sweeping Dandelion Dynasty series, which reimagines history through the lens of invention and rebellion.
Julia Z
Julia Z consists of one book and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
