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When We Were Real
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Overview
Finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novel From multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation. JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it's the perfect time for one last adventure: a week-long bus tour of North America's Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier--right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach. Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There's a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it's their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last--a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar--with everyone barreling toward the tour's iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await. When We Were Real is "an addictive thriller packed with winning characters and big, brilliant ideas" (Lev Grossman, New York Times bestselling author of The Bright Sword and The Magicians trilogy) and an exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781668060049
- ISBN-10: 1668060043
- Publisher: S&s/Saga Press
- Publish Date: April 2025
- Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.35 pounds
- Page Count: 464
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- 1
In an increasingly AI-wary world, acclaimed sci-fi author Daryl Gregory’s latest novel, When We Were Real, entertains the ultimate question of technological sentience: What if we are really living in a simulation?
It’s been seven years since the Announcement that human existence—all of history and science, art and culture, relationships, conversations, sensations—is nothing more than lines of code run by the Simulators. Amid the continuous, collective existential crisis spurred by this new understanding, engineer JP faces the return of his brain cancer. While he is still physically fit, JP and a longtime friend, comic book writer Dulin, decide to join a bus tour of North America. Unlike ordinary sightseeing tours, this one visits the Impossibles, a series of science-defying glitches in the simulation: a tornado made of unidentifiable matter, geysers that turn off gravity, sheep you can stick your hand through, etc.
If ever a novel multitasked, When We Were Real does so with aplomb, successfully achieving several aims over the course of its page count. While maintaining an adventure quest plot and pace, Gregory delivers a philosophical feast. His characters and their dilemmas lead readers down almost every thought spiral associated with the simulation premise. What is the role of God? How can you avoid deletion? Does one simulation imply there are others? Are there Non-Playable Characters, or bots, living among “normal” humans? This is not a lighthearted sci-fi saga; rather, Gregory seriously interrogates the implications of the Announcement. In doing so, he renders this high-concept world believable, often terrifyingly so. And the story remains grounded through characters like JP and Dulin, whose primary concerns are ones readers will find relatable: health, grief, finding purpose and fear of death.
When We Were Real is written in omniscient third person, traveling between the perspectives of the tour group: the cantankerous bus driver, the professor on the run, the pregnant influencer desperate to make her unborn child famous. There are a great number of names to remember, but Gregory provides a character list and is diligent with clarifying tags, while the characters themselves are personable and hilarious. This novel is a fine accomplishment for Gregory—an intellectual, enriching and emotionally resonant read.
In an increasingly AI-wary world, acclaimed sci-fi author Daryl Gregory’s latest novel, When We Were Real, entertains the ultimate question of technological sentience: What if we are really living in a simulation?
It’s been seven years since the Announcement that human existence—all of history and science, art and culture, relationships, conversations, sensations—is nothing more than lines of code run by the Simulators. Amid the continuous, collective existential crisis spurred by this new understanding, engineer JP faces the return of his brain cancer. While he is still physically fit, JP and a longtime friend, comic book writer Dulin, decide to join a bus tour of North America. Unlike ordinary sightseeing tours, this one visits the Impossibles, a series of science-defying glitches in the simulation: a tornado made of unidentifiable matter, geysers that turn off gravity, sheep you can stick your hand through, etc.
If ever a novel multitasked, When We Were Real does so with aplomb, successfully achieving several aims over the course of its page count. While maintaining an adventure quest plot and pace, Gregory delivers a philosophical feast. His characters and their dilemmas lead readers down almost every thought spiral associated with the simulation premise. What is the role of God? How can you avoid deletion? Does one simulation imply there are others? Are there Non-Playable Characters, or bots, living among “normal” humans? This is not a lighthearted sci-fi saga; rather, Gregory seriously interrogates the implications of the Announcement. In doing so, he renders this high-concept world believable, often terrifyingly so. And the story remains grounded through characters like JP and Dulin, whose primary concerns are ones readers will find relatable: health, grief, finding purpose and fear of death.
When We Were Real is written in omniscient third person, traveling between the perspectives of the tour group: the cantankerous bus driver, the professor on the run, the pregnant influencer desperate to make her unborn child famous. There are a great number of names to remember, but Gregory provides a character list and is diligent with clarifying tags, while the characters themselves are personable and hilarious. This novel is a fine accomplishment for Gregory—an intellectual, enriching and emotionally resonant read.