Award-winning author Ken Liu returns with his first scifi 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 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. 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.
