Fantasy Book Critic: Book review: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

AUTHOR INFO: Called "One of the up-and-coming masters of SF short fiction" by Locus Online, Ray Nayler's critically acclaimed stories have seen print in Asimov's, Clarkesworld, Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Nightmare, as well as in many "Best Of" anthologies, including The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction.

For nearly half his life, he has lived and worked outside the United States in the Foreign Service and the Peace Corps, including a stint as Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Officer at the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. Beginning in September 2022, he will serve as the international advisor to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Publisher: MCD (October 4, 2022) Page count: 420 Formats: ebook, paperback, audio

REVIEW: Octopuses are fascinating and intelligent creatures. Unfortunately, their genetics, aggressive behavior, and short life spans don’t allow them to build a culture or pass on knowledge. Otherwise, we could see them thrive and rule the oceans!

Nayler’s sci-fi debut, The Mountain in the Sea, is about the discovery of intelligent life. It’s multi-layered: plot, action, and mystery intertwine with philosophy and a detailed look at believable interspecies communication. The last point is crucial: Nayler tries (and succeeds) to explain the linguistic mechanism of a being that’s alien (to us). In a way, it’s the first encounter story between humans, androids, and octopuses.

We are shaped and limited by our skeletons. Jointed, defined, structured. We create a world of relationships that mirrors that shape: a world of rigid boundaries and binaries. A world of control and response, master and servant. In our world, as in our nervous systems, hierarchy rules.

Minor spoiler, but it shouldn’t decrease your enjoyment of the story: octopuses don’t have spines, and their shape is more malleable than a human one. They can change shape, do bizarre things with their skin, and even imitate a shadow running across their skin to startle their prey. In Nayler’s story, the octopuses’ communication is based on a passing cloud. They communicate by displaying symbols derived from their environment on their skin. It was a fascinating mental exercise.

The plot layer revolves around a marine biologist, Dr. Ha Nguyen, who agrees to study an octopus colony in the remote Vietnamese archipelago of Can Dao. She can't leave the place because it's owned by a big tech company that wants to monetize discovery and expects Ha to help them. Ha is too fascinated by the octopuses to leave, anyway. Impressed by their beauty and otherness, she tries to understand them and their "culture." She has an ally - Evrim, the world's first true android, who thinks like a human and believes it is conscious.

There's also Dr. Arnkatla Mínervudóttir-Chan, the Icelandic head of the corporation obsessed with freeing the human mind from its limitations. She's the antagonist of the story but definitely not your typical bad guy. She's way too complex and intelligent for that.

CONCLUSION: The Mountain in the Sea is fascinating but uneven. Its techno-thriller parts have pacing and suspense issues that would normally decrease my enjoyment. However, the more cerebral parts dealing with the limits of human language and the reasons behind it thrilled me. It may lack edge-of-your-sit thrills, but it more than makes up for it in the themes and thought-provoking ideas. The Mountain in the Sea is a fascinating book that's worth a try.