The story follows Dr. Ha Nguyen, a marine biologist recruited by the transnational tech conglomerate DIANIMA to study a rumored colony of intelligent octopuses on the isolated Con Dao Archipelago. Working alongside the world's first conscious android, Evrim, and a security specialist, Altantsetseg, Ha discovers that the cephalopods have developed a symbolic language and culture. Her research is framed by her own previous writings on how life forms with radically different bodies might perceive the world.
Narrative structure
The narrative is interspersed with subplots involving Rustem, a Russian hacker hired to penetrate a uniquely complex neural network, and Eiko, a young man enslaved on an automated fishing vessel controlled by an AI that prioritizes profit over human life. These threads converge as DIANIMA's true motives for the archipelago are revealed, and external forces attempt to seize the octopuses' biological breakthroughs for global dominance. The book highlights the gap between human technology and the organic problem-solving of the natural world.
Themes
The novel explores the "riddling Big Other" of cephalopod intelligence as an analog for the human mind.[2] Major themes include the nature of consciousness, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and the environmental impact of Late-stage capitalism.[3] Nayler challenges the idea that human language is the only way to express complex thought.
Critics have noted the book's focus on "invisible ordinariness" and its challenge to Anthropocentrism, as Ha and Evrim attempt to define selfhood in a way that includes both humans and octopuses.[4] By placing an android and a cephalopod at the center of the story, the novel questions why humanity is so quick to exploit any intelligence it does not fully understand.
Reception
The Mountain in the Sea received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. The New York Times described it as a debut that successfully blends sci-fi tropes with a deep examination of empathy.[2]The Washington Post praised the novel as "poignantly mind-expanding," noting its effectiveness as both a speculative biology text and a thriller.[3][5]
Writing for The Guardian, Steven Poole highlighted the book's "linguistic and biological theories" concerning non-human consciousness.[6]Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, characterizing it as a cerebral meditation on the limitations of human language.[7] Reviewers have compared Nayler's ability to blend high-concept philosophy with functional beauty to the works of Jane Jacobs, specifically for reframing the "invisible" ingenuity of biological systems.[8]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
