Mountain in the Sea

Every Ray Nayler book is a philosophical conundrum wrapped in an ecological tragedy wrapped in a rad scifi story.

#SFFBookClub

Solid near-future sci-fi on intelligence and environment. Moves easily between gripping techno-action-violence, challenging witness of human and ecological oppression, and a shimmering wonder at science, consciousness, and marine biology.

Good read, works out some interesting ideas about consciousness, communication, consumer society, and AI. The book didn't manage to really 'suck me in' me though.

Another one I'm not sure what to say about, but this time for negative reasons. The premise is amazing, and I adore every scene with the octopuses themselves. But pretty much nothing else-plot, characters, dialogue, writing style-worked for me. However, it's a debut novel so perhaps the next one will be better.

It does the thing all good sci-fi should do: use the sci-fi setting.to examine and interrogate questions of ethics and society.

The narrative is fairly engaging, even if the characters' dialogue leaves them with very little in the way of distinct voices — perhaps for reasons that are maybe explained in-world.

Overall, it's a fun summer read that raises a lot of interesting ideas about what it means to be a person and how our actions impact those around us.

For parents of sci-fi readers, there's enough casual (but not really described in detail, thankfully) sex in the book that it's probably not one to hand to teenagers — so be aware of that.