The Mountain in the Sea

A Novel

De: Ray Nayler

Narrado por: Eunice Wong

2022 Slate Book Review Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Locus Awards - Winner
2023 Nebula Awards - Nominee, Short-listed
2022 Slate Best Books of the Year, Long-listed

“Eunice Wong’s measured pacing and mellow tones perfectly complement Nayler’s provocative exploration of memory, minds, and consciousness.” - Booklist

"The theme of the nature of consciousness is equal parts intriguing, thrilling, and eerie. Best of all, it's always compellingly narrated, making for a performance that's difficult to pause."- AudioFile Magazine

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2022 Ray Nayler (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"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

"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." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Less a science-fiction adventure than a meditation on consciousness and self-awareness, the limitations of human language, and the reasons for those limitations, the novel teaches as it engages." —Kirkus Reviews

"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

Thoughtful beautiful Sci Fi

I enjoyed My Octopus Teacher so checked this out. Starts slow but stick with it. This is one of the best novels I've read. Narrator is fantastic, book is very moving. A lot of food for thought about our species, the way we treat animals and communicate with each other.

Essential reading for all humans.

This book is not only entertaining, but provides profound and necessary insight into the most salient issues of our time. Read it.

Good story. Pretentious author. Semi annoying reader.

The performer carried an odd inflection in her voice throughout every sentence of the entire book. As if every sentence was some type of question and then a discovery. It sounds nice given the context and themes throughout the novel but that shit got old really fast.

great story mediocre performance

fantastic story that you just want to go on forever. made me late for work a few times sitting in my car waiting for the end of the chapter and then starting a new one.

fascinating story

this is a deeply engaging meditation on the nature of consciousness and what it means to be connected to other people, through the lens of a near future dystopian story about the first human contact with an intelligent octopus species. very well put together. the narrator sounds nervous 100% of the time which definitely detracts from the story, as I found myself regularly reruning the words with a different tone of voice to myself.

Quick read was worth it

I liked it it was very chill interesting read so far I'd like to read more

Thought provoking concept, story telling was a little tedious

Interesting dive into life, consciousness, artificial intelligence, and morality.

I did not find the story to be that well thought out. Lots of really convenient moments where one of the characters just magically can understand something that the book insists can’t be understood. Really hits like the old “hackers” in ‘00s movies who just “hack the mainframe” and it is just basically accepted.

Some of the crescendos of story telling really pushed me away from the narrative, in what I assume was the opposite of the intention.

Also, multiple independent stories is a pretentious move if it is isn’t pulled off (it wasn’t)

Incredible book

A beautiful story for anyone who loves the sea. Highly recommend regardless of any genre you may prefer

Fantastic slightly cyberpunk story of great depth

I enjoyed every minute of this book, it explores many themes of the evolution of AI, communication between disparate species, and more. Highly recommended!

"We will always do what we are capable of"

What a wonderful and fantastic read.

This book is first and foremost, a very interesting look into what our shared future may look like. It doesn't focus on defining the rights and wrongs about what humans are doing to the planet, and instead explores humanity's actions and the impact we have on our world through the lens of reality. The story is told through three related but separate story lines, the events of each causing ripples that affect the others, which in turn causes more ripples of affect to come back around.

The book explores what it means to be conscious, to be alive, and to be part of a greater whole of your species. Just like the octopuses that are the central driving force of the book, we see how each of us is our own person with our own wants and needs, while also being part of a greater whole. Not every individual human agrees with what 'humanity' does, but at the same time, every action that humanity takes is just individual humans taking their own actions. Individual humans are completely independent and able to make their own choices to affect the greater whole, but at the same time, the actions of others also come back to affect and dictate our actions. It's a very interesting concept, demonstrated by the octopuses as well, where each individual octopus has a mind and makes choices, but through it's distributed neural makeup, each of it's 8 limbs also 'think' separately and in some ways make their own decisions.

The story in this book is very well done, it isn't preachy or trying to convince you that there are good and bad ways to do things, it simply shows us the consequences of being part of a greater whole. I think this quote from the book sums it up quite well, "The great and terrible thing about humankind is simply this: we will always do what we are capable of". Humans as a whole will simultaneously be doing great and terrible things, and the only way we can truly understand and change the actions of humanity as a whole is to accept that and try to understand WHY people do things.

I really enjoyed the book. The different storylines were all interesting, and they were split up and told in sections in a way that always shows how they were affecting one another while never getting boring or feeling contrived for the story.

I definitely recommend this book if you are interested in octopuses, the future of our planet and climate, or even just exploring what it means to be an individual in this world, a member of a group and also a singular entity with your own ideas and thoughts.