Fiction Reviews
All That We See or Seem
(2025) Ken Liu, Head of Zeus, £20, hrdbk, 416pp, ISBN 978-1-035-91594-1
Anyone who has read Ken’s epic fantasy The Dandelion Dynasty – a series epic in scale and volume – may be surprised by this. For instead of being a sprawling, multi-charactered world, complicated with an intangible plot, All That We See or Seem is remarkably restrained.
The story focuses on the character of Julia Z, a cyber-hacker in a near-future Boston who has spent her life since the age of 14 living off the grid. At 14, Julia Z became infamous as the "orphan hacker," a teenage prodigy who broke the law and captivated a nation. When Piers Krantz, a lawyer desperately begs for her help to find his kidnapped wife Elli – a celebrated artist who uses AI (artificial intelligence) to craft dreams for thousands – Julia embarks on a harrowing journey across the country to try and find her.
At first glance, All That We See or Seem did appear to be like many other cyberthrillers out there. However, it must be said that it is a top-range cyberpunk thriller or cyberthriller. Julia herself is an intriguing character, whose snark, combined with an impressive degree of technical know-how, carries most of the book.
She is a character with a difficult past, who has had to learn the hard way from her mistakes. This, combined with her need to feel safe by being hidden, means that she is not a person who trusts others easily and generally doesn’t work well with others, which makes the dynamic between Piers and herself quite fractious. Whilst Julia wants to help, she is also acutely aware that she is putting herself in danger by doing so.
Through Julia’s acerbic comments Ken drip-feeds details of this near-future dystopia, where the dreaded algorithms of AI have permeated every aspect of life. Social media is both a curse and a benefit, and the use of AI is built into daily life, as is the constant surveillance of people’s daily lives. All of this, of course, makes the challenges that Julia faces all the more, which adds to the tension of how Julia Z stays hidden. Her ability to do so is quite impressive even when we seem to reach Cory Doctorow levels of paranoia.
As you might expect, all of this comes with a certain degree of technical terminology. It is clearly and logically thought out, although more than you might get in a mainstream novel. What this also means is that at times Piers becomes the literary equivalent of a Doctor Who companion, with Julia having to explain her actions to him as they go along.
Julia’s covert actions are also enhanced by the use of future world gadgets, such as her AI Talos and an ’morpho drone’ named Puck that add to this idea of it being ‘the future’, although it is not too out-there, even when Puck and Talos almost become her equivalent of the sonic screwdriver in their ability to overcome challenges.
I thought that it was interesting that there is, of course, a downside to all of this constant social pressure of being seen, and Ken looks at this through Elli’s work as an 'oneirofex', a dream-guider. Such events seems to work as some sort of community get-together and collective release valve, even when the events can be recorded. The idea that people can be paid to affect dreams in some sort of collective vivid dream event to cope with this situation reminded me very much of the sort of thing that Philip K Dick would come up with. Whilst I’m not a huge fan of such things myself, I did think it worked in the context of the novel, even when it all got a tad mystical.
The weakest part is the main villain of the piece, who seems to have taken advice from The Emperor Ming Handbook of Villains. (He’s even calling himself The Prince.) Let’s just say that he is stereotypical in all the ways that you expect a villain to behave. By comparison, his sidekick henchman Victor is much more interesting and slightly more nuanced, though still psychopathic. (Think ‘Minions’ to the main guy’s Gru, but with less humour.) There’s a degree of grim humour as Victor deals with his boss’s increasingly frantic demands.
The pace of the book develops steadily throughout, until the end. There’s a nice twist in there too, but one that isn’t too much of a stretch. Inevitably these days, although there is an ending, the last few pages show that the book is open to sequels. Julia is clearly a character Ken loves, and it is clear from fairly early on that he would love to keep writing about her.
In summary, All That We See or Seem was a surprisingly different book from Ken. Although it may at first glance seem little dissimilar from the multitude of cyber-thrillers out there, there’s a pleasing degree of thought and ’what if’ that elevates it above the mass and enough technical know-how to make the book appear less contrived and perhaps more carefully considered than many. Its focus and directness make it quite unlike his previous books, but also makes All That We See or Seem feel like a refreshing reboot.
Mark Yon
See also Mark Bilsborough's take on All That We See or Seem.
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