I suppose I should have clued in to the ‘thriller’ tag, but I expected more of an ET meets Finding Nemo vibe. Vivid world building but uneven; playfulness without silliness, but without any real feeling for comedy, either; a set of interlocking mysteries that keep the pages turning but don’t always quite deliver on their promise. The near-future-ed-ness of the story makes our current crisis seem both more dire, and more restorable. Ha is a scientist insecure in herself in all ways but surrounding her work; she's written trailblazing work on marine life, and quickly befriends the android on their mission as well as the prickly Altantsetseg, a Mongolian security agent who is completely badass and loves macarons (she was my favorite).

It was easier to pretend that Altantsetseg was an individual, that all of her choices were her own, than to admit that Altantsetseg was a part of them. Other characters weave in and out of the narrative — including a hacker who is trying to tap into the android’s brain and a man who has been kidnapped and is an illegal worker on a ship run by artificial intelligence. More than that, though, on a meta-level, the author probably also put that in because of the age-old thought experiment of ANY species becoming murderous once crossing a certain threshold in their intelligence.Ray Nayler's first book feels like both the entrance to- and the capstone of many themes and subjects he has written about over time.

Sabía en parte de lo que son capaces los pulpos unos seres increíbles que muchos no sabréis que son uno de los seres más inteligentes y llenos de recursos del mundo.It also doesn’t hurt that the novel is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Award (which will be handed out in mid-May) and was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize. I was reminded of Frank Herbert in that each chapter is preceded by a fictional quote from books written by the protagonists – initially I skimmed these, but then I realised they are quite integral to the story and not superfluous at all. The archipelago is home to the Con Dao Sea Monster, something that is becoming increasingly clear to be a very intelligent octopus species which has had lethal interactions with humans.

Long after you've closed the final pages, this book will still have you wondering, still have you guessing. Most of the Sci-Fi books I read limits the human interactions either only with higher intellects or only with lower intellects. Its techno-thriller parts have pacing and suspense issues that would normally decrease my enjoyment. As introduced to us, the scientist is a recluse, the android is socio-political exile, and the octopuses are a local myth. On the surface, it's a hard-science thriller set in a reshaped geopolitical environment, where humankind's aggressive harvesting of the oceans for protein may have put evolutionary pressure on octopuses to develop a civilization of comparable intelligence as ours.In large parts I think because I was so disappointed the cool concept wasn’t as poignant as I thought it would be and Nayler wasted an interesting first contact story trying to throw in musings about robots (and that world building, argh). However, here this device didn't work as well as hoped, as the listener isn't given any warning: Which is narrative for the novel? Publication dates are subject to change (although this is an extremely uncommon occurrence overall).

We create a world of relationships that mirrors that shape: a world of rigid boundaries and binaries. Yes, we get it, humans are a selfish species, and we should care a lot more about what and who surrounds us, but it is tiring to read about it every few paragraphs. From these pages, I got the sense of William Gibson, and Paolo Bacigalupi - and Donna Haraway, and Octavia Butler. In the octopus we see opportunism, exploration, creativity – the qualities we associate with consciousness in our own mental life. In summary I found The Mountain in the Sea a clever, delightful book that made me think a lot while not bonking me over the head with thickly-worded science and philosophy.I kept stopping to muse about what was just said, and I am looking forward to recommending it to my science fiction book group so that I will have an excuse to read it again. As the novel’s version of Dr Frankenstein says: “The great and terrible thing about humankind is simply this: we will always do what we are capable of. I was nervous to start this because sci-fi isn't usually my thing, but I am incredibly glad to have been wrong here. It was the indifference of the world—the indifference of the boy I loved to me, the indifference of the guards to the suffering of the people in the cages, the indifference of all of it, that made me crazy. Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture.