All That We See Or Seem by Ken Liu (book review)

With the increase of technology invading our lives, it is inevitable that there will be those, often stereotyped at teenagers, sitting in their bedrooms who will try to hack into various systems, sometimes just to see if they can. At times, these hackers can cause serious problems, especially those who are doing it for profit. However fast the security evolves, there will always be someone who thinks they can find a way through. Advances in science and technology always spawn fiction that involves them and there have been a number of novels that involve hackers trying to circumvent the system. Often they think they are acting against a villainous corporation. That is the kind of approach that Julia Z had at the beginning of her career in Ken Liu’s ‘All That We See Or Seem’.

As a troubled teenager, Julia became mixed up with a gang of hackers that had been told that what they were doing resulted in money going to provide hospitals and schools for youngsters in poorer countries. It turned out to be a lie and the leader of the group was actually accumulating assets for her personal use. Now, Julia keeps her head down. She avoids cameras as much as possible even though she doesn’t do anything illegal. Instead, she tries to sort out the messes other hackers have left behind. At the start of this novel, she is trying to clean a worm out of the data system for a friend.

Julia’s careful life is disturbed when Piers Neri arrives on her doorstep, sent by the lawyer that she owes a favour to. Piers explains that his wife, Elli, has disappeared. He believes that she has been kidnapped, especially after a strange phone call from a man saying that Elli has something that belongs to him and he will exchange her for it. Piers is very naïve when it comes to electronic surveillance. Where he thinks he has been very careful in avoiding attention, Julia quickly realises that he hasn’t and has been followed and that his tail thinks he knows where the item Elli has, is.

Julia is able to unpick some of the factors. She realises that Elli has not been kidnapped but has probably left clues as to where she went and only Piers is likely find them, though he’ll need Julia’s expertise to work out what they mean. She is prepared to walk away until she discovers that she is being targeted and she and Piers both need to drop off the grid, something which she has had a lot of experience of.

Elli is an oneirofex and the original developer of the skill. Using various techniques, she can help members of her audience to experience vivid dreaming. Her sessions are in great demand. What Piers and Julia discover is that Elli has been giving one-to-one sessions with someone known as The Prince. He can be regarded as a criminal mastermind and believes that, instead of wiping their sessions afterwards as she claimed, she has kept information. That information could greatly damage his operations. Thus, while Piers and Julia are hunting Elli, The Prince’s men are hunting them.

This can properly be called a techno-thriller as the plot revolves around the use of advanced AI and surveillance systems. Julia has a personal AI, she calls Talos. She stores all her data on Talos and does not link the device to any server. She also has a very useful drone called Puck, which can transform into a flying entity or centipede-like scuttler.

While the idea of a young, skilled hacker is not original to this novel, Julia is a very likeable and competent character despite being almost paranoid about her own security and desire to keep in the shadows. There is plenty of action here which proceeds at a decent pace. There is a change of direction in a later part of the novel but that inly enhances the plot.

The only downside is that, particularly at the start, there is a lot of technical jargon. While there will be readers who are in tune with it, it may put some off. It is worth skimming over this as it is not the technology that is important, but the use Julia puts it to. Very enjoyable.

Pauline Morgan

December 2025

(pub: Head Of Zeus, 2025. 404 page hardback. Price: £20.00. ISBN: 978-1-035-91594-1)

check out website: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/all-that-we-see-or-seem-9781035915941/