Tak! reviewed The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
The Mountain in the Sea
5 stars
Every Ray Nayler book is a philosophical conundrum wrapped in an ecological tragedy wrapped in a rad scifi story.
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Every Ray Nayler book is a philosophical conundrum wrapped in an ecological tragedy wrapped in a rad scifi story.
The framing of "point fives" is particularly thought-provoking given the steadily increasing number of news reports of llm-induced psychosis
The framing of "point fives" is particularly thought-provoking given the steadily increasing number of news reports of llm-induced psychosis
The great and terrible thing about humankind is simply this: we will always do what we are capable of.
The plastic awning of the café streamed with rain.
The #SFFBookClub pick for December 2025
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
Content warning Feed Them Silence review with spoilers, because I can't figure out how to do it without
This was a hard read.
I identified quite a bit with Riya from the beginning, particularly including the criticism that the researchers were literally objectifying an animal for their own purposes, which did not happen to include helping the animal.
I'm glad that the brain pattern anomalies turned out to be from brain damage instead of something like a two-way connection - it's much more fitting from scientific, literary, and justice perspectives.
I'm missing a sense of finality in the end, feeling a little like Sean's own frustration - Sean didn't grow or change, the corporation keeps on corporating, the research doesn't go anywhere, the wolf pack is going to agonizingly peter out. We just get a snapshot of a bleak slide along an unchanging trajectory from not great to less great, just like real life.
For what it's worth, I'm glad they didn't go all in on the wolf sex.
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
Content warning Feed Them Silence chapter 1
It would be pretty hard to be married to somebody that I felt like their whole career was unethical
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
The portable surgery unit hulked at the edge of a tract field, ringed by four-byfours and a lone Jeep.
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …
The #SFFBookClub selection for November 2025
Ok, I think I'm putting this down now - it has become a slog. I took a little break, thinking maybe I just needed a change of pace, but I'm just not into it.
I'm reminded a bit of when, having loved The Historian, I picked up The Shadow Land, also by Elizabeth Kostova. I spent much of the novel anticipating how the surreal elements were going to be introduced, only to eventually realize that it was just a "normal" mystery story (coincidentally also set in / revolving around Bulgaria).
Some of the concepts are intriguing, but they don't seem to be going anywhere (so far).
Ok, I think I'm putting this down now - it has become a slog. I took a little break, thinking maybe I just needed a change of pace, but I'm just not into it.
I'm reminded a bit of when, having loved The Historian, I picked up The Shadow Land, also by Elizabeth Kostova. I spent much of the novel anticipating how the surreal elements were going to be introduced, only to eventually realize that it was just a "normal" mystery story (coincidentally also set in / revolving around Bulgaria).
Some of the concepts are intriguing, but they don't seem to be going anywhere (so far).
Dying has gotten to be quite expensive.
So tell me, he started in . . . is Denmark still a prison?
Death, you’ll say, yes, of course, death is his brother, but old age is the monster.
Without being able to formulate it clearly, he senses that if no one remembers, then everything is permissible.
this is a statement about the current geopolitical landscape
There is no time machine except the human being.