Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by sarahetc
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
4.0
I neglected to get a review written last Saturday after I finished this on Friday afternoon. That's on me. Sorry. So, quick and dirty:
This is neat. This is traditional, near-future, hard science fiction. It takes very little effort to understand the technologies or how they're being used, and it's kind of cool. It's also kind of not, because the world-building is dystopic (as near-future, hard sci-fi so often is) and there is a whole lot of slavery, both individual and corporate, and a whole lot of nasty AI.
I led with that so I can write a sentence or two on the meat of the book. It is the story of Ha, a marine biologist who is all but certain that the octopus is the second-most intelligent form of life on Earth. And even that thought it not quite what it is-- octopuses (I'm using Nayler's construction, which I understand and appreciate, but some of us had very awkward experiences with writing professors in college who knew Latin and Greek and expected me to as well.*) might actually be more intelligent than humans? Or at least as intelligent, but with obviously different measurements and scales, because we have just the five senses and four limbs and solid colored skin and they have many more sense, eight arms, and chromatophores!** Anyway! Ha works with a different, good AI to learn more about octopuses in a sanctuary specifically created because local governments and interested mega-corporations were concerned there was something in the water in an archipelago off the coast of Vietnam that was definitely a bunch of octopuses and maybe also some kind of heretofore (near future) undiscovered monster.
There were drawbacks to the book. Nayler's style is variable, which fits his characters, but when he's spare, he's really, really spare. Spare to the point I had to flip back and forth a couple times to make sure I had, in fact, been introduced to that character. Ha's storyline is one of three/four (depending on how you wish to count) and while I knew, mostly, that they would all connect-- because that's how books usually work-- they all seemed to be written in different sub-genres and they didn't mesh well. The sub-plot about the slaves on the fishing boat, for instance, was interesting and I was engaged, but by the end of the book, it just seemed like so much set-up for a sequel (don't know; haven't looked yet).
And then there was the "ooh a monster" part. I don't know if it was because of the way it was recommended to me, the jacket copy, or the first few chapters, but there is a real Wow Big Monster tone/vibe up front. I imagined it might be an octopus the size of a giant squid. Who had developed a writing system or whatever. And that would have been RAD. The book is still fantastic for what it is. Just, please know there is no actual mountain sized sea monster. Or if there is, I didn't get it. The archipelago itself is the mountain? Which is the monster to the octopuses? I gotta stop.
Anyway, good times. Always fun to read about octopuses.
* I like to think that Nayler's like, "Phs. I'm writing in English, aren't I? How do we pluralize a word ending in s in English? ES. BOOM." And then maybe he spikes a nerf football or something? I have thought way too much about this. If you know him, please let him know. He may need a reason to spike something. We all do.
** BRB writing the Lightbringer/Mountain in the Sea crossover fanfic featuring Gunner that nobody wanted or asked for. Indeed, if you need to physically stop this from happening, I live in Birmingham, Alabama and am easily bribed with flowers and treats.
This is neat. This is traditional, near-future, hard science fiction. It takes very little effort to understand the technologies or how they're being used, and it's kind of cool. It's also kind of not, because the world-building is dystopic (as near-future, hard sci-fi so often is) and there is a whole lot of slavery, both individual and corporate, and a whole lot of nasty AI.
I led with that so I can write a sentence or two on the meat of the book. It is the story of Ha, a marine biologist who is all but certain that the octopus is the second-most intelligent form of life on Earth. And even that thought it not quite what it is-- octopuses (I'm using Nayler's construction, which I understand and appreciate, but some of us had very awkward experiences with writing professors in college who knew Latin and Greek and expected me to as well.*) might actually be more intelligent than humans? Or at least as intelligent, but with obviously different measurements and scales, because we have just the five senses and four limbs and solid colored skin and they have many more sense, eight arms, and chromatophores!** Anyway! Ha works with a different, good AI to learn more about octopuses in a sanctuary specifically created because local governments and interested mega-corporations were concerned there was something in the water in an archipelago off the coast of Vietnam that was definitely a bunch of octopuses and maybe also some kind of heretofore (near future) undiscovered monster.
There were drawbacks to the book. Nayler's style is variable, which fits his characters, but when he's spare, he's really, really spare. Spare to the point I had to flip back and forth a couple times to make sure I had, in fact, been introduced to that character. Ha's storyline is one of three/four (depending on how you wish to count) and while I knew, mostly, that they would all connect-- because that's how books usually work-- they all seemed to be written in different sub-genres and they didn't mesh well. The sub-plot about the slaves on the fishing boat, for instance, was interesting and I was engaged, but by the end of the book, it just seemed like so much set-up for a sequel (don't know; haven't looked yet).
And then there was the "ooh a monster" part. I don't know if it was because of the way it was recommended to me, the jacket copy, or the first few chapters, but there is a real Wow Big Monster tone/vibe up front. I imagined it might be an octopus the size of a giant squid. Who had developed a writing system or whatever. And that would have been RAD. The book is still fantastic for what it is. Just, please know there is no actual mountain sized sea monster. Or if there is, I didn't get it. The archipelago itself is the mountain? Which is the monster to the octopuses? I gotta stop.
Anyway, good times. Always fun to read about octopuses.
* I like to think that Nayler's like, "Phs. I'm writing in English, aren't I? How do we pluralize a word ending in s in English? ES. BOOM." And then maybe he spikes a nerf football or something? I have thought way too much about this. If you know him, please let him know. He may need a reason to spike something. We all do.
** BRB writing the Lightbringer/Mountain in the Sea crossover fanfic featuring Gunner that nobody wanted or asked for. Indeed, if you need to physically stop this from happening, I live in Birmingham, Alabama and am easily bribed with flowers and treats.