The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

This near-future science fiction novel is about first contact, and artificial intelligence. Evrim is the first true android, and is exiled to Con Do, a remote Vietnamese island, whose population had been relocated earlier. Dr. Ha Nguyen is a marine biologist who’s arrived on Con Dao to study a colony of long-lived octopuses. Shapesinger is an octopus, who may be a tool user, and might even write symbols. The octopuses are not entirely benign, and can defend themselves.

Corporations seem to have a lot of control in this future Earth. Artificial intelligence of all types and sizes can pilot a fishing vessel as well as deliver poison darts. There are auto monks who help sea turtles on the beach, and artificial online friends. Eiko and Son are forced labor on one of the fishing vessels, and Son tells stories about creatures from the sea. In real life, octopuses show intelligence but have fairly short, mostly solitary lives. It’s fascinating to read about what might be different if they develop a culture.

This book was not at all a quick read, and rather dark in parts, but I was fascinated by the various characters, and gradually drawn into an immersive, compelling story.

Kim Stanley Robinson also writes cli-fi, or climate fiction, but isn’t as character-focused. There are a number of recent novels featuring octopuses, but I’d suggest the non-fiction The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery.

Brenda