This turned out to be an utterly lovely book. It is very much in the vein of the science fiction of ideas and making them come to life and it just completely sucked me in as though one of the octopuses had just wrapped me in its tentacles and pulled. Hard.

I loved this one a lot more than I expected, which means I’ll probably squee a bit. You have been warned.

It’s clear from the beginning that this takes place on a near-future Earth. The setting isn’t quite dystopian, and it isn’t quite not either. Whether it seems dystopian or not at any given point in the story depends on which of the three point of view characters the story is following at that moment.

Eiko’s perspective is definitely dystopian. He was kidnapped from the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and is a slave on an automated fishing trawler, hunting the world’s depleted oceans for any source of protein that can still be processed into food. His story is tragic and his situation is bleak and getting bleaker by the minute.

Whether Rustem’s situation is dystopian or not depends on whether one thinks that the mostly terrible and generally criminal clients he works with are representative of the way his world works or whether he’s bottom-fishing because he’s an infamous black-hat hacker who conducts assassinations by AI proxy. His current clients do seem to be worse than most, but they’ve given him a more complex and intriguing puzzle than average – and threatened his life if he doesn’t deliver.

If one wonders how those two characters intersect – and this reader certainly did – the glue that holds this story together is the perspective of Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has been whisked away to the remote Con Dao Archipelago by a transnational tech company to fulfill the dream of her life’s work.

In the waters off Con Dau, DIANIMA Corporation has discovered a pod of octopuses that might, just possibly, have achieved not just a similar level of intelligence to humans, but have also independently developed the skills that vaulted humans to the top of the food chain. DIANIMA has brought Dr. Ha Nguyen to Con Dau because she quite literally wrote the book on the possibility of intelligent, communicating life developing in the world’s oceans.

If she determines that the pod of octopuses is just a pod of ordinary octopuses – who are plenty intelligent but have no way to pass it on – well, probably not much happens to her and there wouldn’t have been much of a book, either.

But if she finds enough evidence that the octopuses off Con Dau can do what we do, if they have developed language that conveys abstract concepts and have methods of speaking and especially writing that language, then they may hold the key to humans learning to communicate with other species. Or it may be possible to weaponize their abilities through threats, intimidation and superior firepower – assuming that humans actually have superior firepower.

Or they could be a threat. If humans threaten them, they will likely become a threat regardless. So the human sharks and vultures are gathering around Con Dau, whether to protect, to save – or to kill.

Escape Rating A+: If Remarkably Bright Creatures and Three Miles Down had a book baby, it would be The Mountain in the Sea. Which is a fairly strange thought because as much as I loved both those books, they really shouldn’t have any relationship to each other.

But here they do. And it’s surprising and awesome.

As I said at the top, this book is an example, a stellar example in fact, of science fiction of ideas. This is a near-future world, there are no spaceships or extraterrestrials here. It could be said to be a climatological disaster, but if so it’s one that we can see from here.

The heart of that mountain in the sea is the idea of just how damn difficult communication is. It’s an issue that doesn’t get nearly enough play in space opera type SF, and it should. Other species who don’t share our frames of reference probably don’t communicate the way we do – at all.

So what this story does, and does well, is to convey just the smallest sliver of how difficult it will be to find common ground with a species that doesn’t communicate the way we do, doesn’t have the same species imperatives, doesn’t move through its world the way we do, doesn’t use any body language we recognize. There’s not going to be the equivalent of the Rosetta Stone. It’s Dr. Ha Nguyen’s job to create one from scratch, while never being certain that her interpretation is anywhere near the correct target – let alone hitting a ‘bull’s eye’. If her base assumptions are off base, everything that follows after will be gibberish – with potentially catastrophic consequences.

That the author manages to make what could have been a fairly dry story about communication difficulties into a compelling story of relationships between people, octopuses and artificial intelligences turned the whole thing into an utter delight with a surprising ending that mixed more sweet than I expected into a situation that could have turned out so very bitter. That the story managed to bring those three extremely disparate and seemingly disconnected perspectives into a connected whole that brought the whole story full circle made for delicious icing on top of a very yummy story-cake.

I listened to The Mountain in the Sea, and the reader did an excellent job to the point where I found myself hunting for things to occupy my hands so I could listen longer to the story. Much of Dr. Ha Nguyen’s side of the story is a dialog between her written work and that of DIANIMA’s creator, Dr. Arnkatla Mínervudóttir-Chan. The reader did a particularly good job of distinguishing these two strong, intelligent women’s writings from their personal perspectives and their frequently contentious dialog once they finally do meet in person.

In short, a wonderful performance of an excellent book. I’m looking forward to finding more work by this author. Considering that this is his debut novel, I have high hopes for his next book. And if it’s read by the same reader, that will make it even more of a treat!

I really wanted to love The Mountain in the Sea. I'm sad to report that I didn't even really like it.

Thinking back, it seems that maybe the actual paper or ebook version would have been the best call for this book, because the audio created some problems that the actual book may not have. At the beginning of each chapter are quotations from a book Dr. Ha Nguyen (one of the characters) has supposedly written. We often see authors borrowing from the worlds they've built, with Stephen King being a big borrower across novels. However, here, it didn't work as well as hoped, as the listener isn't given any warning which is narrative for the novel and which is quotation. It gets confusing quickly.

Another issue I had that prevented me from connecting with the story is that there was too much. There was Dr. Ha Nguyen, but there were also ancillary characters that didn't add to the overall story. I kept waiting for them to have impact, but it never really happened. As well, all the robot and AI stuff seemed to try too hard, and seemed way too advanced for a storyline that was supposed to be fairly near future.

I don't know why, but I just couldn't get into this one, even though sci-fi is definitely my favorite genre. It was too much ambition and not enough compelling story.

I chose A Mountain in the Sea from Netgalley because the blurb mentioned octopuses/octopi. I have been fascinated by octopi for years. Their intelligence and problem-solving capabilities are concepts I have surprised have not been mined in fiction more. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is researching the octopi which seem to have language and culture. Many chapters begin with quotes from a book she wrote called How Oceans Think. The quotes from the book are interesting. I would read it if it was published. The author Ray Nayler presents the information in a way that I can understand. This information enriches the book.

The story takes place in our future when there have been massive upheavals in the geopolitical sphere, and wars that caused environmental catastrophes in addition to killing large portions of the population. The main part of the book is about Dr. Ha and the two who are on the island with her. One is a woman who has been enhanced so she is as much a machine as a human. The other is an android whose perfection scared the population to the point where there were riots and social unrest. Now they are hidden on this island to help Dr. Ha with her research.

There are several other strands that weave through the story and eventually meet in Dr. Ha’s story. Eunice Wong does an incredible job narrating. Each main character has a distinct voice. The narration is always clear even when describing actions like battles. I do not possess the words to describe how incredible and wonderful this book is. I have listened to it three times already. I am discovering new gems each time I listen.

I have truly enjoyed this book. It took my imagination to new places and definitely new situations. It also made me think about what being human really means.
@raynayler @Netgalley @EuniceWongActor

Listened to a NetGalley eARC
Content warning: drowning, explosions, dismemberment, vomiting, misogyny in science, references to microaggressions

In this science fiction thriller, a marine biologist studies a species of advanced cephalopod while a technologically advanced monopoly wants to reap the capitalistic benefits of future developments. There's also an android and much introspection about the meaning of culture and humanity while the company zeroes in on the scientist and her research.

I feel like the meditative aspects of this novel did not fit in well with the pacing and stakes necessary for it to be a thriller. The mutiny on the SeaWolf definitely fit the bill, but every other scene and exploration of the octopi's intelligence feels slower in a way that definitely fits the mood and introspection, but makes this book too easy to pick up and put down for stretches of time. There's no sense of urgency, despite the high stakes in terms of who's after the AI and the secrets behind the octopi's society and communication. The ideas are fascinating, particularly the exploration of identity and individuality and what connects us, and only works with the plot because it's relatively slow.

Ha Nguyen was a fantastic character, and of the POVs, she does the most in terms of grounding the reader in this near-future's contemporary understanding of technology and advances in biology. The other characters, well. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to futuristic depictions is having the only they/them character be an android, and also have them described as sexless. It's dehumanizing, which makes sense, as the character is manufactured and designed to be a "person without limitations." Unfortunately, the rest of the book was not interesting enough to overcome this weakness and limitation in the book's imagination.

The Mountain in the Sea is an engaging story that kicks off from first contact with an intelligent octopus species and the exploration of its language and culture to a broader reflection on intelligence, consciousness, and self. Ray Nayler does an outstanding job with leveraging science to extrapolate a very plausible view of non-human intelligence interwoven with action scenes and glimpses at a broader near future world. Eunice Wong’s narration does an excellent job capturing the range of characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing an audio review copy of The Mountain in the Sea. Full review and discussion on episode #172 of Narrated podcast: https://narratedpodcast.com/172

Posted to Goodreads 10/8/2022

A contemplative book, this story is unrushed as it focuses mostly on the introspection of the main characters. The bulk of the tale lies in conversations held between characters, usually only two people at a time, very intimate and focused conversations. Themes of communication, sentience, communalism and isolation run throughout and intersect with the potential and barriers technology might provide to interactions between humans and another intelligent species. Each chapter begins with snippets from fictional books written by the main character Ha, and the character which gave rise to the first android, who features largely beside Ha as a colleague.

The author sprinkles in bits of world building, hints at a world both recognizable and alien (clearly an Earth of the future). It makes brief mention of wars that have not happened and coups that disrupt a balance of alliances we do not see today. This is done with a relatively light touch, giving depth to the world the characters inhabit without distracting from what they are doing within it.

The story explores human isolation within our own societies through indifference, apathy, ostracization, slavery (forced labor human trafficking), culture, and financial hierarchies. It also toys with questions about AI and ‘alien’ sensation which is born of intelligence we create in our likeness (a mirror of our frequent inability to recognize one another in meaningful ways), as well as by the huge and significant physical differences inherent to those cool little eight legged beasties in the sea. AI that is self aware and so has no defined sense of purpose (very human) and AI that was built with a very specific purpose and how that rigid sense of identity and purpose leads to callousness and apparent rage when that purpose is interrupted or obstructed in any way.

The story follows several different character’s journeys, and personally I genuinely enjoyed each character, their insights, struggles and growth.

If you are looking for an SFF story that has a quick pace and is built for entertainment (witty one liners, explosive action scenes etc), this is probably not what you seek (and that’s ok, there’s a book for every mood!). If you’re looking for a book that likes to ask a lot of questions and invites the reader to ponder the messy intersection of sentience, consciousness, communication and meaning, then The Mountain In the Sea is probably going to be right up your alley.

CW: Graphic sexual content

This is a much different science fiction book than what I am used to in the genre. It is slower paced, with different viewpoints and an introspective theme. I don't see it as a book to read through quickly, but rather, chew on it slowly and let it simmer in your mind. Due to that, I would rather read the book than listen to the audiobook. The audiobook was done well but the type of writing would be better enjoyed reading and going back with a physical book. Overall, this was an enjoyable and unique sci-fi.

Well this was a weird book but I actually enjoyed it. Octopi have always intrigued me and the idea that there is a species of them that are just as intelligent as humans seems pretty legit to me. This book takes that and dives into it with fervor, allowing as to see what one possible outcome of this discovery would be.

I often find myself thinking that maybe we need to just leave other species alone. What if they don’t want us pesky humans studying them? I feel like this book sheds light on that question as well. I swear this book had me drifting off into lala land so often but not because it was bad or not holding my attention. It was because I’d start thinking about topics like this and then realize I need to do some rewinding because I missed some stuff.

Ima give this 3.5⭐️ because in all honesty while I enjoyed it, I feel like some parts were overdone while others were lacking. I also feel like my constant drifting may have had me inserting things into the book that weren’t there. While that’s technically a me problem and not a book problem, I can’t help but wonder if the book was more gripping would I have still wandered???

Thanks to NetGalley for the audio copy!

This near-future thriller takes place at the overlap of earth’s dying over-fished, over-warm oceans, the newly discovered evidence of high level communication in an ocean species and the creation of the first AI android to pass the Turing test. It is about corporate greed, scientific competitiveness, human responsibility and what is real consciousness.

Dr. Ha Nguyen, and android Evrim are researching evidence that a colony of octopuses have learned language and culture through symbols. This storyline alone was FASCINATING, combining speculative fiction, marine biology and linguistics. If you liked watching Amy Adams try to communicate with the aliens in Arrival, you will like this storyline.

But there is also the fishing slave ship storyline, the hacker storyline, the robot monks saving sea turtles storyline and shady corporate espionage. And through it all, Naylor analyzes the traces of humanity, or lack thereof, in a lonely, dirty, dangerous future.

Dark yet hopeful, this was an interesting read that made me deeply considered what it truly means to be human.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I'm very divided on this one. On one hand, the whole premise is so interesting and for the most part I was sucked right in! On the other hand, the back and forth between story lines just wasn't working for me with this one and I found it hard to follow. I might have to read this in a physical copy at some point to see if that changes. The narrator wasn't the problem, they were great. I'll put this on my list to re-read in the future.

THE MOUNTAIN IN THE SEA by Ray Nayler and narrated by Eunice Wong is a 4.5 Stars for me!

This was a first delve into a Ray Nayler for me and I will admit, it got a bit deep at first. The audio may have gone a bit quick for me, but it was quite the story and once I got my bearings, I was all in.

There are parallel stories that are being told throughout, but Dr. Ha Nguyen and her entry into a scientific research center run by a corporate conglomerate is at the center. This research finds a species of Octopus with what seems to be a level of intelligence not expected.

Throughout this story is the underlying questions of consciousness, sentience, and what it means to be human. I was captivated by the character's discoveries about themselves during this suspense story. There was a deep isolation and feeling of indifference by the main characters and the desire to know and be known. This was a deeply human story that wove in some "other-than-humans" in a beautiful way.

The narration of this near-future Science Fiction was really very well done. There was a depth and levels of emotion that she caught with beauty and honesty.

This is a fantastic novel. It took me a couple efforts to catch everything at the beginning, but it was worth the extra investment.

Thank you @NetGalley and @macmillan.audio for the chance to listen to this ALC! It was a delight and all opinions are my own.

Can we just take a moment and acknowledge that the octopus is having ✨a moment✨

There are a lot of high level concepts in this story about a smarty-pants community of octopuses. Consciousness is brought to the forefront as AI is used to try to understand a new language and culture discovered in a protected area in the South Pacific.

Throw in a little West World and add a dash of Arrival to The Life Aquatic and you get something close to The Mountain in the Sea.

CW/TW: espionage, murder, kidnapping, slavery, poaching

“Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.“

Okay, can we talk about how I’ve been saying OCTOPI – like a chump – my entire life?

It’s like finding out you’ve had spinach in your teeth for DECADES.

Ugh.

As for this book, it was SO MUCH MORE than I thought, going in. I suppose I should have clued in to the ‘thriller’ tag, but I expected more of an ET meets Finding Nemo vibe.

This was more The Abyss meets Project Hail Mary meets the USS Indianapolis.

Okay, it’s really not like any of those things.

It’s completely unique, and I loved it.

I loved the multiple storylines. I DID wonder how all those pieces were going to jigsaw together, but it was done flawlessly (even though, on audio, it took my sludgy brain a bit to keep up with the jogs).

I loved the relationships that developed, both. Human/Human. Human/Android. Human/0.5. Each was fascinating, and complex, and slowly revealed – Dropped crumbs along a trail.

I loved the ecological thread. The near-future-ed-ness of the story makes our current crisis seem both more dire, and more restorable.

I loved the whole Philosophy of Science (or is it the Science of Philosophy?) theme. Name another ‘alien’ story where lines could be quoted in an university ethics course.

Here are a few:

“When you invent electricity, you invent electrocution.”

“Death is a part of us. It shapes our bodies from the very beginning. You might think your fingers are formed by the division of cells in the womb, but that’s not the case. Fingers are chiseled out of a paddle of flesh, by the death of cells. The same way David was chiseled by his sculptor from a block of marble. Without death, life would have no shape at all.”

“We dread the truly new – the truly emergent. We don’t fear the end of the world. We fear the end of the world as we know it.”

And one last, particularly feel-good quote that I’m tempted to stitch onto a pillow, replacing the one that reads LIVE LAUGH LOVE:

“This problem is beyond me. This problem is beyond you. But there’s a chance it might not be beyond US.”

Anyone who likes Andy Weir, Martha Wells, or Little Mermaid should check out this gem of a tale.

9/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this captivating ARC.

This is a really unique, philosophical sci fi story. What makes us unique as humans? The obvious answer - that we have consciousness and executive functioning, that we don't just follow our base instincts. So what happens if it turns out that there is at least one other species out there that is just as capable? That has their own culture and consciousness?

That's basically the premise of this story, when it's discovered that there is an Octopus capable of communicating complex ideas. I learned a lot of about marine biology just listening to this book, and it's clear the author is well-read in this area.

You don't need to have any scientific knowledge to enjoy this story, and it's equally a thriller as much as it is sci fi.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan audio for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

For once, a state of art research facility is not in Europe or in the US! Yay, we all remembered that rest of the world can do science in their native lands and thank you Ray Nayler for reminding that to people. I love that how Turkish language and culture played a part in the story. Evrim, the AI, got his/her/its name from Turkish and it means evolution as it was revealed in the book later.. Also like story says we have describe 3rd person with gender neutral "O", which would stopped me from saying "his/her/its" like I did above. Ray Nayler, you know how to describe a good kahvalti (breakfast) and Turkish coffee, and I couldn't appreciate you enough for that. On top of all of this, Istanbul being its own state?! :D

I cannot put my finger on exact thing that kept me in this story and made me finish in one sitting, but I think whole idea of sense and awareness played a big role. Every move, every calculated action displays a difference between AI, human, and animal awareness (don't @ me I know humankind is under animal kingdom). First I was debating if it's like the movie Arrival. After focusing bit more on the interactions and what it actually means to develop and language, this was way beyond ability to use language to communicate with others.IT was about building a culture and history through this ability

Most of the Sci-Fi books I read limits the human interactions either only with higher intellects or only with lower intellects. This was special in a way that you could find all three levels in one place. It expands the perspective. I can go on and on about this book, but I would recommend that all sci-fi and sea lovers read this. Also SAVE THE OCTOPUS!

This was just . . .confusing? I found the idea interesting, but it was too hard to keep the characters and the settings straight. I didn't finish it.

Octopi are such intriguing creatures. So is it a super big surprise that I loved this Sci-Fi involving humankind discovering intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture?
Marine biologist Ha Nguyen gets an incredible job opportunity to investigate a potentially intelligent species of octopus alongside Evrim, the only conscious android to ever be created.
I honestly wasn't expecting how deep this book went! It delved into philosophical realms of personhood, sapience, consciousness, first contact, AI, capitalism so well. The glimpses into the near future world Nayler set up was really cool, and his real world knowledge really shone. I appreciated the only singular Turkish 3rd person pronoun "O" being mentioned here, it's gender neutral and it's a feature of Turkish I really like.
While fascinating, the book is on the slower side and I would have been ok with more things happening especially where the side stories were concerned. I also listened to parts of this on audio and I thought the narrator was great (but I can't help being picky about Turkish pronunciations).
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the ALC and MCDxFSG and NetGalley for the ARC.

a very dense, imaginative, diverse topic sci-fi read (or listen). there are several on going view point narratives, each interwoven at the end with different themes awaiting humanity in the coming decades. puzzle box style mysteries unravel at a quick pace given the short chapters, making it a easy book to put down if you can! there are several point in the book that i was not sure where naylor was leading the characters or who situations tied into the larger narrative arc but many times there were 'oh wow thats really cool how he tied this in or tied up that end'

narrator did fantastic work bringing the vibrant world, characters, and situations to life. highly recommended to all sci-fi or futurist fans.

A solid 4.5 rounded up on merit to 5!

Personally, I think the most human genre being written today is the truly reflective Science Fiction story... think of Heinline, Chiang, Asimov and Liu.... even Roddenberry. They project, not just technology and otherworldly encounters, but cultural and philosophical interactions pointing the direction society is heading.

Nayler does a fantastic job of contributing to this important conversation in The Mountain In the Sea. Set in the not-to-distant future... disturbingly recognizable... humans find a species of Octopus that have developed intelligence, society and communication. The question is, what will win out? The decency of preserving an alien race (aka the prime directive), or a bid to use the discovery to discover a breakthru in hyper-intelligence?

And did anyone ask the octopus what they wanted?

In listening to the audiobook, the narrator's calm, soothing voice and dramatic voicing really gave an undersea vibe to the story that i appreciated, and it took the mouthful of names and made them easy to recognize and follow in dialog.

I enjoyed the setting, plot and characters, though I would have enjoyed some more growth. Otherwise, this was a wild ride and a great window into the human mindset!

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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 Ephraim, 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 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.