The Mountain in the Sea

Philosophical and scientific, expanding our current world (and issues) into the near-future, bursting with ideas, carried by well-crafter characters, short chapters that should be quick to read if you were not pausing all the time to highlight a sentence and think of it. Not your typical page turner but a pleasure to read.

For sure this is a “smart person” book. I’m glad I read this on my Kindle as I had to use the dictionary feature on every other page. I just wish we would have gotten more about the octopuses! 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️!

I loved the exploration of the meaning of "language" in the evolution. Oral and written language allowed civilization to transmit and transcend knowledge and ideas from their origins. How our language is formed with our experiences and how an another species with a different upbringing would have complications communicating with us.

Other topics that also made me think were about what it means to be human in relation to Erwin, the artificial intelligence,

I'm giving it an extra star because I actually stuck with it and finished it. Nothing was technically wrong with this book but I put it down so many times and swore I wasn't going to pick it up again. I haven't DNFed a book yet and I think it's only my pride or masochism that left me coming back for more. I like the premise of finding other species with whom to communicate with on Earth and I will be rethinking eating takoyaki for a while. However, the fact that every character in this book was constantly grappling with what it means to be human in the most suffocating way possible took this down a lot of pegs for me. I really wanted more of the research side and while I appreciate Nayler's perspective that the octopi probably see us as monsters, I kept hoping the book would end sooner than it did rather than contemplate our destructive existence on Earth.

Three different forms of consciousness meet on an island ...The fictional sequel to [b:Other Minds 28116739 Other Minds Peter Godfrey-Smith https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1606353700l/28116739.SX50.jpg 48126419] tied up in a tech-futuristic climate fiction. I very much enjoyed this. I wished it could have been a tad nerdier and grittier, gotten us encounters and communication attempts earlier, because those were amazing. All praise the shapesinger!

2.5 Stars. Meh. Review to come.

This book is a fantastic exploration of the idea of conciousness and what it means to be human. While the many plot lines are confusing and seemingly disjointed at first the way they end up tieing together really emphasizes a lot of my main takeaways from this narrative. The connection of humans, what it truly means to connect and the importance of trying to do so. There are many fascinating conversations with evrim and the supporting cast about the nature of humanity and the way we would handle discovering a new form of consciousness. Definitely will be returning for a reread to try and unpack even more of the rich ideas that these characters bring forth. Can not recommend this book highly enough!

4.5 rounded up!

I liked it a lot, it tapered off at the end a bit hence the .5 but overall I really really liked it.

If you are looking for murderous sentient octopi this isn't the book for you. It's an exploration of consciousness, a reflection on the actions of human-kind, and a statement on social responsibility on a grander scale.

I think putting it under the thriller genre was the biggest mistake in this books marketing and why many of it's top liked reviews are so low. There's far more introspection and reflection than there are action sequences but as a Bradbury lover, I fucking love that shit.

ALSO I loved the abundance of South East Asian characters INCLUDING all the named Indonesian characters. A win is a win.

Anyway, I leave you with this.

“Communication is communion. When we communicate with others, we take something from them into ourselves, and give them something of ours. Perhaps it is this thought hat makes us so nervous about the idea of encountering cultures outside of human. The thought that what it means to be human will shift - and we will lose our footing. Or that we will finally have to take responsibility for our actions in this world.”

While I didn't dislike this book, I'm not sure why so many highly recommend it. Like so many authors, Nayler delivers a prediction and a warning about a future collapse of Earth's ecosystem, zeroing in mainly on the destruction of the Earth's ocean life. It is a world of fully developed AI and ruthless corporate/scientific machinations. In Southeast Asia a protective area has been set aside after an intelligent species of octopus is discovered to be creating its own form of civilization in that area. Split into three separate storylines, it can be somewhat hard to follow any connection between them until the very end. While the interaction with the octopi is the most interesting aspect of the story, it is disappointing that this aspect is not covered nearly enough. Subject matter of the book also considers the problem of finding a mode of communication between humanity and any form of possible future alien intelligence.

4 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
The Con Dao archipelago has a troubled history. Long intended as a sanctuary for marine species, it has been substantially poached by residents and rangers who face their own difficulties. Now, it's owned by the mysterious DIANIMA corporation, headed by an enigmatic scientist focused on the evolution and development of minds. But in a largely corporate-owned world focused on profit, DIANIMA has its own foes. In the meantime, Dr. Ha Nguyen has accepted an offer...

Review
I've seen Ray Nayler's name float around for a while, but for a long time I confused him with a completely different Ray. (This seems to be a recurring theme; I guess I just don't invest in names on the periphery of my awareness.) In any case, when I saw this, I thought it would be a good opportunity to clear things up for good. And it did confirm that Nayler is new to me.

Nayler's writing is very good, but also on the distant and clinical side. I found it hard to feel fully engaged by his characters. There are several core actors, and the shifts between them are smooth and well signaled. But I just didn't care as much about them as I felt I should have.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that, for most of its length, the book lacks direction. It wasn't until quite close to the end that I felt I really understood what it was meant to be about (first interaction with another sapient Terran species and the nature of sapience). While Nayler takes trouble to lay out the elements of developed world, it all still felt vague and quite separate from action surrounding the characters themselves. An epilogue that brings together two strands of the story felt tacked on and unnecessary; there just isn't as much to bring the strands together as Nayler seems to wish, aside from both being commentaries on humanity and its failings (but two quite separate failings).

The science is fairly firm. It doesn't get terribly explicit, but this is definitely in the tradition of SF based on reasonable extrapolation of solid evidence. You get the feeling (backed up by an afterword) that Nayler has done his research, but without it obtruding too much into the story itself.

Overall, this had a Clarke-ian feeling, in Clarke's more reserved moments – more Fountains of Paradise than Imperial Earth. Nayler's clearly (as many people apparently already knew) a talented author, and I look forward to trying other stories from him that bring in a little more personality.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

AMAZING.

This was inspiring, illuminating, exciting, and gorgeously written. It's a new all-time favourite book, in my personal top-five for sure.
Better review to follow.

What a good book! Thank you to my friend Hannah for lending it to me!A lot to think about with this. The Acknowledgements suggest that [a:Ray Nayler 6447152 Ray Nayler https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1642102511p2/6447152.jpg]'s main theme here was the difficulty we would experience in encountering and then communicating meaningfully with another intelligent species. Much of this in the book is very interesting, and I found myself wanting to google things to see how true they were.What really stood out to me, though, was the exploration of loneliness and connection among ourselves as people and as a people. Most of the characters in this book are lonely - some crushingly so. I can relate very deeply to the experience of heartbreak and then burying oneself in work and study to try and make that fill the hole - though (as is a little less explored in this book), that is never successful for long. I expect this will be what I explore in my substack post...The description of the point fives was fascinating to read as a social worker. I can't imagine ever prescribing something like this - I'd break out my copy of [b:The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy 21029 The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy Irvin D. Yalom https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388176092l/21029.SY75.jpg 22216] and write out a referral for a good group so folks can experience universality. The nature of the point fives in here really comes across as something that would be even more isolative for the person - it isn't teaching the patient how to interact with others, it is providing an artificial means of buffeting the world from them.Then, though, I started thinking about Evrim vs Kamran. What are the meaningful differences, here? Of course Evrim's origin is different, but they are an artificial construct. The main difference is physicality. If you put Kamran in a person-shaped oculus and gave them movement... Would I think it is as far out as I do? Something for me to think about.

It feels like a thinker... I'll know for sure with time.

A surprisingly quick read despite touching on some deep - but not too deep - issues related to communication and sentience.

4.5 stars rounded up.

This Nebula finalist focuses a lot on communication, philosophy, and biosemiotics. It was a fascinating speculative fiction looking into the near future. The quotes at the beginning of the chapters (which come from the main character's book) were profound and were a big takeaway for me. I enjoyed the sections dealing with the octopuses, and appreciated that the author made the hacking storyline not attempt to explain the semantics of it all but rather focus on character development. My only minor gripe is the parts with action were not as engaging as I would have liked, but that could have just been me.

I appreciate all of the research that Nayler put into this book. It was very evident that he has thought long and hard about AI, consciousness, inter-species communication, and many other topics. I found the premise of the book to be so unique and interesting. Highly recommend!

I found this book a little slow going but ultimately was redeemed for me in the depth of research & thinking that the author put into understanding the foundations of language, intelligence & what it might be like to learn how to communicate with a wholly different type of intelligence than our own.

A couple of my favourites quotes (from fictitious authors) in the book;

> It is not just the symbols we use in our language that are arbitrary—it is what we choose to signify with them. We give words only to the things that matter to us as a society. The things that make no difference to us are erased from our world by never becoming a part of language in the first place.
In this way, each language organizes the world into a pattern. Each language decides what has meaning—and what does not. As native speakers, we are born inside this pattern, this semiotic cosmos.

> What does it mean to be a self? I think, more than anything else, it means the ability to select between different possible outcomes in order to direct oneself toward a desired outcome: to be future-oriented. When every day is the same, when we are not presented with the necessity to choose between different possibilities, we say we don't “feel alive”—and here I think we guess at what being alive actually is. It is the ability to choose. We live in choices

I reviewed this novel for the Hugo-winning blog Nerds of a Feather:

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/02/review-mountain-in-sea-by-ray-nayler.html

This was an excellent read.
The novel addresses questions of consciousness in a world where we are not the only self-aware beings. Some artificial and others evolving in the ocean unseen.

I really enjoyed the book's take on the idea of humans making contact with other, “alien” cultures. I listened to the audiobook and found it very well written and narrated.