The Mountain in the Sea

by

Hardcover, 646 pages

English language

Published Jan. 31, 2023 by W&N.

ISBN:
978-1-3996-0046-0
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(4 reviews)

There are creatures in the water of Con Dao. To the locals, they're monsters. To the corporate owners of the island, an opportunity. To the team of three sent to study them, a revelation.

Their minds are unlike ours. Their bodies are malleable, transformable, shifting. They can communicate. And they want us to leave.

When pioneering marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is offered the chance to travel to the remote Con Dao Archipelago to investigate a highly intelligent, dangerous octopus species, she doesn't pause long enough to look at the fine print. DIANIMA- a transnational tech corporation best known for its groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence - has purchased the islands, evacuated their population and sealed the archipelago off from the world so that Nguyen can focus on her research. But the stakes are high: the octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence and there are vast …

5 editions

reviewed Mountain in the Sea by Vajra Chandrasekera

Thematically driven

This is less about the characters or the plot, and more about the philosophies and science. My favorite parts were actually the fictional book excerpts between chapters, and I may need to read the books he acknowledges as helping him shape the ideas presented in the book. This strikes me as a political thriller (without the thrill part) focused on connection, communication, and choice. Which, I suppose is a way of saying the book is about consciousness. Despite how dry that might sound, I actually enjoyed the book. I finished it fairly quickly; it reads smoothly and compellingly despite (or maybe because of?) the too-even tone, in my opinion. Pacing occasionally felt bogged down by setting, and there were some spots where the dialogues were clearly an info dump vehicle, but I found the info interesting so I didn't mind too much. The plot resolution was sudden and felt abrupt, …

reviewed Mountain in the Sea by Vajra Chandrasekera

2020s Scientific Romance?

Engaging contemporary update on a 19th-century scientific romance, with more in common with something by Verne or Wells than much of contemporary genre fiction. Extremely didactic, but strong characters, and a well-told story. Curious about how well it'll date, being so tightly coupled to current-day concerns around AI, environmentalism, etc.

reviewed Mountain in the Sea by Vajra Chandrasekera

Amazing

This is one of my favorite books from 2022. It investigates how difficult communications will be when the two parties have almost no common reference. It takes a swipe (perhaps not intentionally) at the books and movies where alien communication moves rapidly from no commonality to complete sentences conveying complex abstract topics. Along with language, the book also explores consciousness and what makes a person a person.

The environmental message never feels heavy handed, and while it often paints a disturbing picture, it also offers a hopeful outlook.

As I neared the end I worried that it would take a sloppy shortcut to wrap up so much, but the ending was quite satisfying, although perhaps not in the ways I was expecting.

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