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

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'I loved this novel's brain and heart' DAVID MITCHELL, AUTHOR OF CLOUD ATLAS 'A first-rate speculative thriller, by turns fascinating, brutal, powerful, and redemptive' JEFF VANDERMEER, AUTHOR OF ANNIHILATION There are creatures in the water of Con Dao. To the locals, they're monsters. To the corporate owners of the island, an opportunity. To the team of three sent to study them, a revelation. Their minds are unlike ours. Their bodies are malleable, transformable, shifting. They can communicate. And they want us to leave. When pioneering marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is offered the chance to travel to the remote Con Dao Archipelago to investigate a highly intelligent, dangerous octopus species, she doesn't pause long enough to look at the fine print. DIANIMA - a transnational tech corporation best known for its groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence - has purchased the islands, evacuated their population and sealed the archipelago off from the world so that Nguyen can focus on her research. But the stakes are high: the octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence and there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of their advancements. And no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it. Locus Award 2023 - Winner of First Novel award Nebula Award 2023 Finalist. Ray Bradbury Prize 2023 Finalist. Review: Good fiction - If you like fiction, environment and science this is a definite recommendation. There is lot of information here for anyone with interest in the related sciences Review: Slow and boring - A wonderful premise, but the story is dull and weirdly structured. By the time something finally started to click, the book was 70% over. It's a book about contact with octopuses who have evolved culture, and yet by the end of the book we know not much more about them? Criminal. The author said he wanted to be realistic about how such a contact would be, but that does not make for a riveting book when set over just a few weeks(?). Add to that conscious-android cliche. The only story thread I really liked was a subplot involving a human slave ship which is run by AI.