Book notes: The Mountain In The Sea

By Ray Nayler.

My son picked out this book at Village Books in Fairhaven with a gift certificate. Everyone in the family read it.

Scoring:

• Axe for the frozen sea: 9/10.
• Page count: 456, but felt more like 300. A quick read!

The book is set on the Côn Đảo archipelago of the coast of Vietnam. It takes place in the future, where advances in AI have created fishing fleets that have nearly extracted all of the fish in the ocean, and create a robot that is nearly human. A company has bought the district of Côn Đảo to study some smart octopuses that live in the area for insights into creating better AI.

The pace of the book was thrilling, and the futuristic world the author creates was fun and interesting. I enjoyed the theoretical discussions of how to communicate and understand a species that could be so different than ours.

The ending was “meh” for me, until I readjusted expectations that the book wasn’t meant to build up to a mighty battle. I would have preferred the octopuses and island scientists learn to communiate well enough to team up and launch an attack on the approaching fishing vessel and rescue Eiko, while Arnkatia Minervudotter-Chan has personal growth in the process and lends critical help to the cause.

Note to self… if you ever have a suspicious 1 on 1 meeting with a company that specializes in killer drone technology, don’t go swimming after drinking a couple of beers.

Highly recommended. The next time I’m on a beach I’ll keep an eye out for symbols.