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decidousfern 's review for:
The Mountain in the Sea
by Ray Nayler
This book takes place in a near-future shaped by AI and digitization, corruption of conservationists, and economical inequalities that really brought in a tangible sense of realism to the cynical. It also touches on more emerging topics, such as Umwelt and sensory perceptions, as well as exploration into the description consciousness.
It makes sense that this book is a more recent publication, post 2020, but I feel like the world has trended more towards true than when it was published. I greatly enjoyed the story enough that I feel like I haven't truly evaluated the writing itself because I've been absorbed. Which, really, points towards good writing, whether it is 'technically correct' or not.
In this book, the MC is a scientist who has published a theoretical book on how animal communications might evolve to rival our own, and both what that would take, as well as how it might be connected to sensory experiences. I find myself wanting to pick up this fictional book that doesn't exist after reading this fiction book. It sounds like an excellent read.
There are quotes shared in the beginning of each chapter that reads like a scientist might publish if they were not terribly concerned with their status, and more trying to speak to a public audience with little comms training about their purely theoretical work just to get it all out of their brain.
It does follow multiple people. This is a story where we've all kind of gone the way of Jennifer Government and became a world under corporate governance. The slave trade is illegal, but still very much so in operation for workers now, as companies find them to be less expensive than robot operators previously hired. Everything is AI automated, including the ships they work on, trawling the depths of the ocean that has been removed of much of its biodiversity due to consumptive processing.
Surveillence drones and military automatons remotely operated by personnel are in full swing, and countries have developed and gained economic power over being better than others in these operating systems.
And there is also the first true creation of an android which was later deemed illegal and dangerous, after they were able to pass tests of consciousness. But the MC struggles with this concept, because as a scientist studying consciousness, what does it actually mean to test the consciousness of another being, when we can't even describe our own adequately?
And we started coming to the climax of the story... around 70%. And that's when I got worried. I was no longer absorbed in the book, because they could not possibly - possibly - tie all of these intricate threads up in such a short amount of pages. I began to worry that the world I had been learning and the story I was following would end in a dead-end.
Worse than that, it ended *abruptly* with a half-hearted attempt at a happily ever after, and a big question mark.
The entire ending felt like it occurred, with all threads being forced together, over the span of 3 pages, while the rest of the book was set up over 100+. The timing was truly off, and it didn't feel like a true conclusion or reward to following the story for as long as I had, as a reader.
You were taken in, minute-by-minute as these different characters struggled. You got to know them deeply, and understood their fears and perspectives and insights. And then, three pages to wash your hands of it and go on about your day.
It felt like much of what the plot was building into didn't actually make it into the book, and whether it was an author's time crunch or an editor's heavy hand, it really could have used another ~5 or 10% of the book to wrap up everything with even a "to be continued". Much love and care went into the beginning and middle parts of the book that the conclusion was left to its own, and it didn't stand up on its own feet.
Instead, things were wrapped up just enough that you feel pretty sure there's not going to be another book.
Does this rank in my all-time favorite fiction stories? Yeah, I'd put it up there in the running for top 3... It might even stay there, as long as we hack off the last 5%, and give the ending the attention and length it deserved.
It makes sense that this book is a more recent publication, post 2020, but I feel like the world has trended more towards true than when it was published. I greatly enjoyed the story enough that I feel like I haven't truly evaluated the writing itself because I've been absorbed. Which, really, points towards good writing, whether it is 'technically correct' or not.
In this book, the MC is a scientist who has published a theoretical book on how animal communications might evolve to rival our own, and both what that would take, as well as how it might be connected to sensory experiences. I find myself wanting to pick up this fictional book that doesn't exist after reading this fiction book. It sounds like an excellent read.
There are quotes shared in the beginning of each chapter that reads like a scientist might publish if they were not terribly concerned with their status, and more trying to speak to a public audience with little comms training about their purely theoretical work just to get it all out of their brain.
It does follow multiple people. This is a story where we've all kind of gone the way of Jennifer Government and became a world under corporate governance. The slave trade is illegal, but still very much so in operation for workers now, as companies find them to be less expensive than robot operators previously hired. Everything is AI automated, including the ships they work on, trawling the depths of the ocean that has been removed of much of its biodiversity due to consumptive processing.
Surveillence drones and military automatons remotely operated by personnel are in full swing, and countries have developed and gained economic power over being better than others in these operating systems.
And there is also the first true creation of an android which was later deemed illegal and dangerous, after they were able to pass tests of consciousness. But the MC struggles with this concept, because as a scientist studying consciousness, what does it actually mean to test the consciousness of another being, when we can't even describe our own adequately?
And we started coming to the climax of the story... around 70%. And that's when I got worried. I was no longer absorbed in the book, because they could not possibly - possibly - tie all of these intricate threads up in such a short amount of pages. I began to worry that the world I had been learning and the story I was following would end in a dead-end.
Worse than that, it ended *abruptly* with a half-hearted attempt at a happily ever after, and a big question mark.
The entire ending felt like it occurred, with all threads being forced together, over the span of 3 pages, while the rest of the book was set up over 100+. The timing was truly off, and it didn't feel like a true conclusion or reward to following the story for as long as I had, as a reader.
You were taken in, minute-by-minute as these different characters struggled. You got to know them deeply, and understood their fears and perspectives and insights. And then, three pages to wash your hands of it and go on about your day.
It felt like much of what the plot was building into didn't actually make it into the book, and whether it was an author's time crunch or an editor's heavy hand, it really could have used another ~5 or 10% of the book to wrap up everything with even a "to be continued". Much love and care went into the beginning and middle parts of the book that the conclusion was left to its own, and it didn't stand up on its own feet.
Instead, things were wrapped up just enough that you feel pretty sure there's not going to be another book.
Does this rank in my all-time favorite fiction stories? Yeah, I'd put it up there in the running for top 3... It might even stay there, as long as we hack off the last 5%, and give the ending the attention and length it deserved.