If I Survive You
The Hollow Kind
Books

The Mountain in the Sea

9780374605964 fc
Digital, MCD × FSG, 2022

Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.

The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses’ advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.

Read More + Read Less -
  • "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"

    Kawai Strong Washburn, author of Sharks in the Time of Saviors


  • "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."


    ―David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

  • 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.”


    ―Jeff VanderMeer, author of Annihilation


  • “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.”


    ―Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

  • "With a thriller heart and a sci-fi head, The Mountain in the Sea delivers a spooky smart read. . . it brings all of the plot without forgetting the bigger questions of consciousness, ecocide, and scientific progress. Truly a one-of-a-kind story"

    Kawai Strong Washburn, author of Sharks in the Time of Saviors
  • “I came to The Mountain in the Sea for the cephalopods (I love cephalopods) but I stayed for the fascinating meditation on consciousness and personhood. I loved this book.”

    —Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice