Award­ winning author Ken Liu returns with his first sci-fi thriller in a brand-new series following former “orphan hacker” Julia Z as she is thrust into a high-stakes adventure where she must use her cybersecurity and hacking skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery, rescue a kidnapped dream artist, and confront the blurred lines between technology, identity, and the power of shared dreams.

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 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 onierofex, 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 waking dream and providing an emotionally resonant and narrative experience. While attendees’ dreams are anonymous, Julia discovers that Elli was also providing a one-on-one dream experience for the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he’s demanding his dreams in return 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.

I received a complimentary copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

Every now and then I dip my toes into sci-fi, and the synopsis of this one caught my attention right away. The premise is sharp and relevant, and I’ve heard great things about Ken Liu, so I was hopeful this would be one of those “pull me out of my comfort zone” reads. I liked it well enough, but I never reached that point where I couldn’t stop turning the pages. For me, it stayed in the “solid but not mind-blowing” zone.

The setup is definitely intriguing. Julia Z, once known across the internet as the “orphan hacker,” has built a quiet, anonymous life in a Boston suburb. She’s doing everything she can to avoid the digital world that once defined her. Then Piers shows up on her doorstep because his wife, Elli, a famous influencer/dream artist, has been kidnapped by some extremely dangerous people. Julia gets pulled back into the web she’s been trying to escape, and she reluctantly agrees to help.

So on paper, this checks all the boxes for a tense, twisty sci-fi thriller. There’s tech intrigue, high stakes, virtual landscapes, psychological layers, and a mystery woven through it all. And Ken Liu delivers all of that with intelligence and clean prose. The worldbuilding is creative without being overwhelming. The onierofex concept—basically the ability to weave the dreams of an audience into a collective emotional experience—was one of the most interesting parts of the book. It gives the story this dreamlike, uncanny quality that’s both beautiful and unsettling.

But sadly, I never fully connected with the characters or the emotional core. I kept waiting for the tension to tighten around me. I wanted that breathless feeling where I felt like I was running alongside these characters. Instead, I found myself observing the story rather than falling into it.

Some of that is absolutely a “me” issue. AI as a topic is everywhere right now. It’s in headlines, in movies, in the social media echo chamber. What once felt mysterious and cutting-edge now feels like a broken record at full volume. Because of that oversaturation, I think I came into this book already tired of the conversation, which created distance I couldn’t quite shake.

And then there’s the influencer angle. While it’s not the central focus, it’s woven into the story enough that it matters—and I will openly admit that influencer culture is something I struggle to wrap my head around. I never find myself invested in stories about people who thrive on chasing online validation. So mixing AI themes with influencer-adjacent ideas meant I was already distanced before the plot even got rolling. Again, very much a personal taste thing.

The mystery itself is fine. It’s engaging and well-paced, but not wildly surprising. I had a pretty good idea where certain threads were headed long before the characters did. That’s not always a bad thing, but combined with my lack of emotional investment, it made the climax land softer than it should have.

All that said, this book is undeniably well written. Ken Liu knows how to build atmosphere, how to layer psychological tension, and how to create speculative elements that feel rooted in actual possibility. I never felt lost, and I was always curious enough to keep going. I just didn’t feel hooked.

But here’s the important part: I would absolutely read more by Ken Liu. The craftsmanship and the creativity were definitely there. This story simply wasn’t my flavor, but I can see why it will hit hard for readers who love tech-forward sci-fi with introspective threads.

So yes—liked it, didn’t love it, but no regrets picking it up.