The Mountain in the Sea

The Mountain in the Sea is a masterfully spun poem of a story that explores power differentials, what we do to each other, and what we do to the species with which we share our planet - while (often unwittingly) serving the interests of our masters.

Naylor writes the story of a scientist who is researching the intelligence of sea life, particularly cephalopods, when she is assigned to an island where the octopi are displaying self awareness. There, she meets the android Evrim, who helps in giving an expanded perspective on the nature of consciousness, memory, and communication- themes which repeat and intertwine throughout. At the same time, we follow a young man enslaved on a fishing vessel, as well as a systems expert, contracted to show more find vulnerabilities in artificial minds, who is similarly stripped of his agency by vastly powerful corporate entities.

This book challenged and delighted me, and I recommend it to anyone who either enjoys reading science fiction or reading stories that grapple with big philosophical questions.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this Advanced Reader Copy. show less

I'm not familiar at all with Nayler's output of short fiction, but it appears that readers were primed for his first novel, in that it has already been short-listed for this year's Nebula Awards. This means that I approached the book with the attitude of, okay, impress me. Was I impressed? Actually, yes. This novel is billed as a "thriller," which effectively means that it's near-term SF, and Nayler is right up front with this being a first-contact novel. The real question being what are the shadowy forces fighting over the ocean preserve where the the action takes place, and who is going to come out on top. Apart from that I'm going to say that the tone of the novel is very sober, and though there is actually a lot of violent action show more that is rather restrained; the countdown to the climactic blowup maybe wasn't that thrilling. But a lot of thought went into this and one spends a lot of time wondering how this world actually works, as one considers the steps that lead from our world to this potential one. Highly recommended. show less

On a remote island, converted to a wildlife sanctuary and purchased by the largest AI company on the planet, renowned marine biologist, Dr. Ha Nguyen, finds herself on the brink of a discovery she's been chasing her whole career. Locals have told tales for generations about the unusual denizens of the nearby waters. Although called monsters, Ha has reason to believe that it is actually a society of sentient of octopuses who have developed a culture with language. To help her along in her research is Evrim, the world's first sentient android.

But outside the confines of this tranquil island, the most powerful countries and corporations are focusing their attention on this lucky little archipelago. Some want to gain control of Evrim, show more others want to discover the secret that the island's purchase is hiding, still others want to harvest the final precious sea creatures that find refuge there.

Set in a near future when slave ships controlled by independent AIs trawl the final barren wastes of the sea floor, artificial intelligence has taken over many aspects of the world, and corporations have the power of life and death, this story calls upon all of humanity to reawaken their empathy. This is a book about the cruelty mankind has visited upon the world, and the way we have made ourselves insensate to the suffering around us. If we are to connected at last with another sentient species, we will need to contend with our own darkness.

This book drew me in from the first pages and didn't let me go. A powerful story about language, communication, and the complexities of the human mind. show less

On a remote island, converted to a wildlife sanctuary and purchased by the largest AI company on the planet, renowned marine biologist, Dr. Ha Nguyen, finds herself on the brink of a discovery she's been chasing her whole career. Locals have told tales for generations about the unusual denizens of the nearby waters. Although called monsters, Ha has reason to believe that it is actually a society of sentient of octopuses who have developed a culture with language. To help her along in her research is Evrim, the world's first sentient android.

But outside the confines of this tranquil island, the most powerful countries and corporations are focusing their attention on this lucky little archipelago. Some want to gain control of Evrim, show more others want to discover the secret that the island's purchase is hiding, still others want to harvest the final precious sea creatures that find refuge there.

Set in a near future when slave ships controlled by independent AIs trawl the final barren wastes of the sea floor, artificial intelligence has taken over many aspects of the world, and corporations have the power of life and death, this story calls upon all of humanity to reawaken their empathy. This is a book about the cruelty mankind has visited upon the world, and the way we have made ourselves insensate to the suffering around us. If we are to connected at last with another sentient species, we will need to contend with our own darkness.

This book drew me in from the first pages and didn't let me go. A powerful story about language, communication, and the complexities of the human mind. show less

I absolutely loved “The Mountain in the Sea.” Fully deserving of all 5 of those stars, and solidly in my top 3 favorite books I’ve read so far this year! While the book’s Goodreads description classifies it as a “near future thriller,” the pace of the book moves more slowly than a typical thriller, so if readers are expecting something more fast paced, they may be surprised to find that’s not so much the case here. But while it is slower paced, it’s definitely a gripping read. It was extremely difficult to put down!

“The Mountain in the Sea” is a deep, thought provoking, beautifully fleshed out exploration of what it means to be human. I found myself intentionally trying to read it slowly so I could fully digest all show more of the ideas contained within the book. It was truly impressive how much outside research the author incorporated into it. If you like the book “The Soul of an Octopus” by Sy Montgomery, or if you enjoyed the overall themes of the movies “Arrival” and “Interstellar,” you’re pretty much guaranteed to enjoy this book.

I really appreciated how brief the majority of the chapters were, and that each of the chapters were separated by a quote! By giving readers more “physical” space within the book's pages, I felt like I had more “mental” space as a reader to think about the ideas contained within each of the chapters. It made it easy to put the book down at the end of a chapter, and then later come back to the book and plunge right back into the narrative without experiencing momentary confusion as to what’s going on plot-wise. I wish more books were like this.

Can’t wait for this author to write another novel! I’ll be reading it for sure. show less

Supremely accomplished exploration of consciousness and connection as an intelligent octopus species is discovered in a marine reserve threatened from all angles. I suspect this may turn out to be a modern classic.

Nayler, Ray. The Mountain in the Sea. MCD, 2022.
A biologist in Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea argues that a cephalopod culture would never be warm and cuddly. They are loners, whose body parts often act independently, and they routinely eat one another. Even if they were to develop a culture that produced artifacts and used written language, their consciousness would never be like ours. We have enough trouble understanding each other and our own cultural artifacts. Perhaps the most inhuman character in the novel is a corporately owned, AI-run fishing ship crewed by enslaved humans. The most relatable character in the novel is an android named Evrim, who passed the Turing test, inspiring a law that made him the last of his kind. show more Other, less human AIs, try to take him over. I hope that Ray Nayler is a big fan of Peter Watts, who has given us several kinds of human and alien intelligence in the Rifters series and in his space operas. Like Watts, Nayler details the difficulty of closing the communication gap with a species whose anatomy and environment are fundamentally different from ours. Naylor suggests cephalopods will remain inscrutable to us, which should be no surprise since we are inscrutable to ourselves. 4 stars. show less