All That We See or Seem

About

Julia Z gained notoriety at fourteen as the "orphan hacker" — and has spent the years since trying to disappear into digital obscurity in a quiet Boston suburb. When a desperate lawyer drags her back into the world, she discovers his wife Elli has been kidnapped by criminals demanding the return of something impossible: dreams. Elli is an oneirofex, a dream artist who weaves audience memories into shared virtual landscapes, and her most dangerous client wants his private sessions back. Ken Liu builds a near-future where the boundary between technology and consciousness has thinned to nothing — and the most valuable commodity is the interior life of a stranger. The thriller mechanics are sharp, but the real question is philosophical. A novel about what happens when the most private thing you own — your dreams — becomes someone else's leverage.