Reviews with content warning for Death - The Mountain in the Sea

This book is a really cool mix of environmentalism, the problem of communicating with both different species and ourselves, and the exploration of consciousness. I really really enjoyed it, and it definitely brought up a lot of things that I'll continue to think about for a while. I loved that the characters were all people of color, and that all of them had flaws that were explored in the book. I also liked the theme of conquering "indifference" for other people, other species, etc as our best, and maybe only, way forward.

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bites_of_books's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The Mountain in the Sea is a really well constructed speculative novel. We follow a couple of different characters in the not so far future where AI and technology have evolved into day-to-day tools. Along with technology, capitalism and major corporations have continued to profit and take over a lot of the world at the expense of natural resources and indigenous communities.

Ray Nayler explores the topic of humans communicating with a different species, in this case the octopus, and in the process learning a lot about ourselves. Who are we in the octopus' eyes? Are we fellow living beings or are we invaders threatening their environment?

There are so many topics discussed in this book that it's hard for me to put it all into coherent thoughts. A big one was human to human interactions. Today a lot of us live our lives mostly online, communicating with people via text, video calls, etc., and have lower face to face interactions. In this book we see what might happen if we end up replacing humans with AI as part of therapy or just because it's convenient to have someone who is just there to listen to us without us having to reciprocate the energy.

Another big topic is that of individuals choosing a path of least resistance vs the path that leads to something good. It is about individuals being brave and making choices, choosing to live and stop being indifferent to fellow people and things going on in the world.

In one of the sub-plots we follow a man who ends up as a slave on a fishing vessel that is controlled by AI. The vessel's only goal is to get as much of the scarce protein left in the ocean and the interactions in this sub-plot really left me thinking. We accept that the things we consume have to come from somewhere but we rarely actually think and acknowledge the labor that each component requires and how ethical it all is or isn't.

All in all, I highly recommend this book for everyone. If you enjoy reading about science and where it might take us this is a must read. If you care about our world and our place in it definitely read this. This is not an easy read but it's definitely necessary, it should make you think and question what is happening around us all, and hopefully convince you to make the choices that will lead us all in a better direction.

PS. For me this was like a zombie film, not really about the zombies. This is not about the octopus, it's about the humans.

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snazzy10101's review against another edition

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5.0

i have only praise for this book.

it is perfect.
no notes.

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sierrabowers's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I only read this book the entire way through because it was assigned for my book club. I would have DNF’d about 30 pages in if I could have. I think this book did have some good qualities, such as the observations made about humans and our relationship to living creatures on Earth other than ourselves. I also think it asked interesting questions about consciousness, and whether or not in the future, we should consider androids as conscious. But overall, this book was way over my head and I understood almost none of it. The ending was hopeful but it didn’t give me any satisfaction. I would not recommend unless you love science and can understand VERY complex plots.

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