Every Version of You

In late-twenty-first-century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside an immersive, consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile, their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments.

Across the city, in the abandoned real world, Tao-Yi's mother remains stubbornly offline, dwindling away between hospital visits and memories of her earlier life in Malaysia.

When a new technology is developed to permanently upload a human brain to Gaia, Tao-Yi must decide what is most important: a digital future or an authentic past.

©2025 Grace Chan (P)2025 W.F. Howes Ltd

some really cool concepts on immortality and meaning of self.

good story and some interesting ideas. some sections were a little drawn out, and ending seemed abrupt.

Well written but lacking

I really wanted like Every Version of You more, the concept is really interesting. The writing is poetic and well paced. For me though, the characters' actions just don't make sense, i had a really hard time siding with any of the characters or really understanding what they're feeling. They all felt unreasonable and unrelatable for me.

Doesn’t get interesting until…

…about the 70 percent mark.

For most of the book it felt both too much and not enough. Very meandering until people start uploading and then it seems like things start to happen and the book has a point.

So 4 stars for the last part and 1 to 2 for most of it. Had I not paid for it, I would have DNFd.