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Ken Liu: All That We See or Seem (2025, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers) No rating

Award­-winning author Ken Liu returns with his first scifi thriller in a brand-new series following …

This didn't really connect with me, to be honest. I often found that the rules and tools that characters resolved challenges with felt unclear, or they'd resolve a puzzle / clue in a way that just didn't feel right. It ends up with the characters not really feeling as clever as the book wants you to believe that they are. Basically I had trouble keeping up keyfabe.

It's also a little hard to avoid the fact that the author is really really insistent that the AI that all the characters make use of (and which the main character specializes in) is a direct descendant of LLMs. Repeatedly. And in ways you can't really ignore. But also rarely actually addresses what the consequences of this might look like in any manor other than offhand.

There's definitely still some good parts, and several scenes really are clever, but I just don't think it resounded with me.