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The Mountain in the Sea

Shortlisted for the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award

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The Mountain in the Sea

By: Ray Nayler
Narrated by: Eunice Wong
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 Pre-order Ray Nayler's brand-new speculative historical thriller Palaces of the Crow, coming soon!

'I loved this novel's brain and heart'
DAVID MITCHELL, AUTHOR OF CLOUD ATLAS

'A first-rate speculative thriller, by turns fascinating, brutal, powerful, and redemptive'
JEFF VANDERMEER, AUTHOR OF ANNIHILATION

There are creatures in the water of Con Dao.
To the locals, they're monsters.
To the corporate owners of the island, an opportunity.
To the team of three sent to study them, a revelation.

Their minds are unlike ours.
Their bodies are malleable, transformable, shifting.
They can communicate.
And they want us to leave.

When pioneering marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is offered the chance to travel to the remote Con Dao Archipelago to investigate a highly intelligent, dangerous octopus species, she doesn't pause long enough to look at the fine print. DIANIMA - a transnational tech corporation best known for its groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence - has purchased the islands, evacuated their population and sealed the archipelago off from the world so that Nguyen can focus on her research.

But the stakes are high: the octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence and there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of their advancements. And no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

Locus Award 2023 - Winner of First Novel award
Nebula Award 2023 Finalist.
Ray Bradbury Prize 2023 Finalist.
Shortlisted for the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award
 Animals Ecology Environment Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Science Fiction Conservation Fiction

Critic Reviews

I loved this novel's brain and heart, its hidden traps, sheer propulsion, ingenious world-building and the purity of its commitment to luminous ideas.
The Mountain in the Sea is a first-rate speculative thriller, by turns fascinating, brutal, powerful, and redemptive. The book poses profound questions about artificial and nonhuman intelligence, and its answers are tantalizing and provocative.
Full disclosure: in all my years as a science journalist, I could never quite get my head around the so-called hard problem of consciousness. I could recite the theories, but it wasn't until I read Ray Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea that I truly understood it in my bones. This book has many layers. It has the clothes of a futuristic eco-punk or cyberpunk thriller, the guts of a philosophy seminar and the soul of a religious tract. (Sally Adee)
A novel of ideas... [a] cerebral but not self-satisfied book that also features welcome episodes of comic relief and tightly choreographed action... It is successful entertainment as well as a warning. (Steven Poole)
Ray Nayler has taken on the challenge of a near future that's less certain than ever, and made it gleam - not only with computer terminals and sentry drones (we love those, sure) but also polished coral and cephalopod eyes. From these pages, I got the sense of William Gibson, and Paolo Bacigalupi - and Donna Haraway, and Octavia Butler. This is a planetary science fiction, and a profound new kind of adventure, featuring - among so many other wonders - the best villain I've read in years. In the end, the enormity and possibility of this novel's vision shook tears loose. What a ride; what a feeling; what a future.
A wildly original, gorgeously written, unputdownable gem of a novel. Nayler is one of the most exciting new voices i've read in years.
With a thriller heart and a sci-fi head, The Mountain in the Sea delivers a spooky smart read. Artificial intelligence, nascent animal sentience, murderous flying drones: like the best of Gibson or Atwood, it brings all of the plot without forgetting the bigger questions of consciousness, ecocide, and scientific progress. Truly a one-of-a-kind story.
I came to The Mountain in the Sea for the cephalopds (I love cephalopods) but I stayed for the fascinating meditation on consciousness and personhood. I loved this book.
Nayler's debut is in equal parts page-turning near-future thriller and a profound exploration of language, communication and otherness... exhilarating and kaleidoscopic. (Jay Owens)
The Mountain in the Sea is intelligent, ambitious and thought-provoking. . . For its thoughtful depth, its dealing with big ideas such as the manner and matter of intelligence and communication and its education about the oceans, it is very, very good. (Mark Yon)
All stars
Most relevant
This book is a masterpiece. A must-read for sci-fi heads, philosophers, animal lovers, climate activists and human beings. Stunning, captivating and a journey that will take a long while to fade from mind.

Sci-fi brilliance with a beating heart

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Unfortunately, this fantastic idea was spoilt firstly by the narrators use of inflection and emphasis. Second by poor writing.
And lastly by a missed opportunity to focus the books story on the octopus itself. Instead, We are dragged through an irritating and clunky espionage/corprate greed tale. That fails to intrigue entirely. The characters stories are mostly dull. And one dimensional. The only interesting thing here was the octopus. Who only plays a very small part. And for very long parts of the story is completely ignored. A real Shame.

Great idea for a book. Ruined by narrator and poor writing.

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I was sceptical about the female narrator but she is top class. The story is a Gibson esque fan fiction at best, not the high concept myth sold in the advertising. The plot is messy and has cool pieces placed in a sequence but lacks beauty in the prose. As if written quickly to fill a gap in the market.
Ai, Octopus, Hacking, Secret societies... it just feels too much. A better book is Remarkably Bright Creatures.

Gibson again Gibson again

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Good ideas concept and well written I liked it a lot nothing to compare to maybe a bit of children of ruin meets dogs of war but this was its own thing I always want more from books with so in them

Great if anything I just wanted more

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i loved this book. Full of very interesting human observations thru the lens of a diverse array of life forms and thru their stuff we’re able to think on where our conscience resides.

a meditation on what is life and the value of conscience

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