The Mountain in the Sea: Winner of the Locus Best First Novel Award by Ray Nayler

The Mountain in the Sea: Winner of the Locus Best First Novel Award Reviews

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  Offer Kuban

  I'm sad to say that I won't get the chance to experience this remarkable novel for the *first* time again!From the first page until its very last one, this amazing near future SF debut captured my attention and held it through every beat! This is an impressive work of writing, with compelling and thought provoking questions and exploration of so many things: the meaning of humanity, the intersection of sentience and consciousness, the possibility of meaningful and supportive interaction between two species of life entirely alien to one another. The list goes on!Ray Nayler's "The Mountain in the Sea" has such a strong narrative pulse, and a cast of characters with a life and story of their own, each of whom spoke with their own unique and natural voices. The book, in asking and imagining these deep and complex questions, paints these against an exciting, almost cinematic backdrop. It is a story filled with intrigue, scientific achievement, the wonders of nature amid or in spite of corporate greed, and the balance between merely surviving and thriving onwards.I can't say enough good things about this novel, which I thoroughly enjoyed from the perspective of both a reader captivated by a great story, as well as by a fledgling writer taking inspiration from what is certainly great craft here.(Spoiler: Look for about "The Mountain in the Sea" in discussion with its fabulous author, Ray Nayler, in the podcast called The Speakeasy: Conversations with the Writing Community.Oh, if anyone asks, you didn't hear that from me. Cheers!)
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  Linda Russell Archer

  This environmental and AI thriller is difficult to put down but also as the author challenges the reader to attempt to think from outside of one's own embodied reality, one finds oneself pausing to reflect.
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  Nick Cato

  In the near future, Dr. Ha Nguyen is hired to work at an isolated island. She’s determined to develop communication with the octopus, and it seems those living off the coast may have developed their own form of it as well as an evolved culture. With Dr. Nguyen is an incredibly advanced android named Evrim and a veteran security guard hiding secrets of the corporation who have brought them together.As Nguyen works tirelessly, a hacker is doing all can to penetrate Evrim’s perfect artificial brain, and outside attacks against the island and the corporation’s work are a constant threat.Nayler’s impressive debut combines dystopian sci fi, conspiracy thriller, and a few eerie scenes to give even the most jaded horror fan the willies. There’s plenty to contemplate on the nature of communication and empathy, and although there are a couple of twists some may see coming, they’re well fleshed out and flow fine with the quick paced prose.A pleasure from start to finish.
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  Logan Mountstuart

  I don't normally read science fiction and I can't remember how this was brought to my attention, but glad it was. I think all of us, at one time or another, think we could write a novel, but now and again I read a book that is so well written and painstakingly researched that I know it is well beyond me and probably most others too. This is the feeling I had reading this book and I love reading books like that.
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  Mrs. K. S. Cullum-hanshaw

  This was an interesting and thought provoking book. Sometimes a book comes along and tips your thought processes on their heads, this is one of those. Be prepared to change the way you look at aspects of our current lives and possible futures.