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The Mountain in the Sea
On sale
1st February 2023
Price: £16.99
‘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.
What readers are saying about The Mountain in the Sea:
‘Poetic, thrilling, and sent my imagination into overdrive . . . packed full of wholly original, mind-expanding ideas about consciousness and communication’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘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’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘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’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘Fans of the short story/movie Arrival, take note of this one . . . If you want to read a fun twist on an “alien encounter” story with a great mix of thrills and brains, I would strongly recommend this’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘It’s completely unique, and I loved it . . . fascinating and complex’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘I cannot put my finger on exact thing that kept me in this story and made me finish in one sitting . . . 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’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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.
What readers are saying about The Mountain in the Sea:
‘Poetic, thrilling, and sent my imagination into overdrive . . . packed full of wholly original, mind-expanding ideas about consciousness and communication’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘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’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘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’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘Fans of the short story/movie Arrival, take note of this one . . . If you want to read a fun twist on an “alien encounter” story with a great mix of thrills and brains, I would strongly recommend this’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘It’s completely unique, and I loved it . . . fascinating and complex’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘I cannot put my finger on exact thing that kept me in this story and made me finish in one sitting . . . 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’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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Reviews
A hugely accomplished debut.
Less a science fiction adventure than a meditation on conscioussness and self-awareness, the limitations of human language, and the reasons for those limitation, the novel teaches as it engages
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.
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.'
Nayler's debut is in equal parts page-turning near-future thriller and a profound exploration of language, communication and otherness... exhilarating and kaleidoscopic.
[A] brilliantly clever and compelling thriller.
An action thriller with profound consequences. Groundbreaking stuff.
This is a tour de force in showing how well fiction can explore society's challenges and problems. It also is a delight that, while asking difficult questions, the author offers some hope for humankind, and redemptive joy in the struggles involved in facing our environmental battles.
A wildly original, gorgeously written, unputdownable gem of a novel. Nayler is one of the most exciting new voices i've read in years.
Nayler's masterful debut combines fascinating science and well-wrought characters to deliver a deep dive into the nature of intelligent life . . . As entertaining as it is intellectually rigorous, this taut exploration of human - and inhuman - consciousness is a knockout
Readers of Peter Godfrey-Smith's Other Minds and Eduardo Kohn's How Forests Think will delight in an Anthropocene adventure that brings their ideas so vividly to life.
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 high tide of ideas and emotion. A compelling vision of other minds sharing our world - a vision you will long to be true
Exceedingly ambitious . . . [This] is a novel that is alert, intelligent, open
Both a profound meditation on the way human actions are affecting the world we live in... but also a breathless thriller and a perfect example of world building, this is a breakthrough novel which I expect to have a major impact over years to come.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This compelling debut is impossible to put down, a delightful embroidery of the rush of scientific discovery and the pain of isolation, asking hard questions about what society is and what it means to truly understand another creature
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.