With All That We See Or Seem, Ken Liu’s first scifi thriller in a brand-new series, follow 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.
Mark your calendars, LitStackers! All That We See Or Seem by Ken Liu is in presale (the best time to buy a book), and ready to hit the bookshelf on Oct 14, 2025. Our anticipation is palpable. Published by Simon & Schuster/Saga Press, this scifi novel is already making waves with early readers. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s on the cover from the publisher’s official description to early reviews that will help you pre-order your copy ASAP. Let’s dive in!
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In This Spotlight On All That We See Or Seem
About All That We See Or Seem
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.
Praise for Ken Liu’s Previous Novel The Grace of Kings
“Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings—a magnificent fantasy epic. Liu is building a dynasty.”—Amal El-Mohtar
“The Grace of Kings is an ambitious, astonishing, and sublime work, one that both exemplifies and diverges from what one might think of when it comes to epic fantasy. It should rank amongst the genre’s best works.”—Andrew Liptak
“Told in Liu’s graceful, intelligent, and literate prose, the novel is a sumptuous Epic feast.”—Rob Bedford
“The Grace of Kings is a fantasy, with petty meddling gods, odd mechanized inventions, and a sense that mystical powers lurk around the corner. It is nothing if not epic.”—Justin Landon
“Liu’s combination of elements from China, Polynesia and beyond, told in an epic style, is the kind of Silk Road Fantasy that I’ve always wanted to read, and love all the more now that I have.”—Paul Weimer
About Ken Liu, Author of All That We See Or Seem
Ken Liu is an award-winning American author of speculative fiction. His collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. Liu’s other works include The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, The Veiled Throne, a second collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, and the forthcoming Julia Z series. He has been involved in multiple media adaptations of his work, including the short story “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in Netflix’s animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, adapted from an interconnected series of short stories. “The Hidden Girl,” “The Message,” and “The Oracle” have also been optioned for development.
Liu previously worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on topics including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, the history of technology, and the value of storytelling. Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
You can connect with Ken Liu on his website, on Instagram and Facebook.
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Saga Press
ISBN Hardcover 9781668083178
Pub Date: Oct 14, 2025
The Dandelion Dynasty Trilogy by Ken Liu
Other LitStack Resources
Be sure and check out LitStack Spotlights that shine a light on books you should read. Also check out our LitStack Reviews, including reviews by Lewis Buzbee, Lauren Alwan, Allie Coker, Rylie Fong, and Sharon Browning.
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