All That We See or Seem review: AI fans will love Ken Liu’s cyberpunk thriller

Everything we see or seem
Ken Liu, Director of Zeus (UK); Saga Press (United States)

Ken Liu’s latest novel, Everything we see or seemis the near-future story of the mysterious disappearance of a professional dreamweaver named Elli. It is billed as a cyberpunk thriller.

Full disclosure: I don’t typically look for thrillers or cyberpunk books, so I may not be the target audience for this. But I couldn’t wait to read it because Liu has not one but two claims to fame: in addition to being the author of a famous fantasy series called The Dandelion Dynastyhe is also the translator of the sensationally good Memory of Earth’s Past trilogy by Cixin Liu.

And so, Ken Liu’s version of our near future. In the world we live in, personal artificial intelligences are omnipresent and Elli makes a good living using her AI to create shared dream experiences for her thousands of followers. For Elli, such work is an artistic creation and she is very proud of it.

Then, one night, Elli gets up and leaves her beloved husband without warning. After that, she simply disappears… until a gangster pretends to hold her hostage. Could it be that Elli learned something about this terrible man, perhaps during a one-on-one dream session, that put her life in danger? And does the gangster really have her, or is he using his AI to create a deepfake version of her?

Elli’s husband, Piers, a mild-mannered lawyer with a hidden personality, is determined to get his wife back. He finds a once-famous hacker known as Julia Z and asks her for help. It is certain that Elli would not have disappeared without a word, unless she had done it to protect him.

We go on an adventure, as Julia, accompanied by Piers, tries to discover the truth about our missing dream weaver, while various goons attempt to cause them serious damage. I say adventure, but most of the action involves detailed descriptions of online activity. What’s not to complain about: the sequences in which Julia and her AI assistant piece together clues about what happened to Elli are really enjoyable.

The complex work Julia does online is superbly imagined and builds into what looks like a realistic sketch of how AI might be used very soon. I particularly liked the clever way Julia uses small details in an environment to fix things or hide her actions.

In the biography in my copy of the novel, Liu is described as a consultant on futurism and the history of technology. His knowledge and experience certainly shines through in these online sequences, and I think people who are deeply interested in AI will really enjoy this book.

But for me, Everything we see or seem didn’t really land. The thriller aspects didn’t excite me. The criminals were strangely caricatured. And the offline part of the plot didn’t seem very believable, especially in the long final section of the novel.

Perhaps there is also a fundamental problem with setting a book in a future so close to the present that it is not entirely clear to the non-expert reader what is currently possible and what is not. It takes some of the fun out of the conceit if you keep thinking, “Can’t they do that already?” But maybe that’s just me.

I will give The Dandelion Dynasty a try, though. Liu is clearly a talented and thoughtful writer, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Emily also recommends…

Enemy of the State
Directed by Tony Scott

The connection may be tenuous, but Ken Liu’s book made me think of this excellent 1998 film, starring Gene Hackman and Will Smith. It was way ahead of its time in its depiction of technology-based surveillance techniques, while still being a lot of fun.

Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of New Scientist and the author of the Sumerian trilogy, set in ancient Mesopotamia. The latest novel in the series, Ninshubar, is available now. You can find her at emilyhwilson.com, or follow her on X @emilyhwilson and Instagram @emilyhwilson1