It was the book that finally broke me out of a months-long reading slump, and I can’t recommend it enough. Very similar vibe to Arrival, and it also gave me a glimmer of the Southern Reach trilogy for some reason.
It is a great look at first contact with alien life, not from the stars, but from here on our own planet, and a lot of the issues first contact would entail: How do we even go about communicating with something with with a completely different body plan, evolutionary history, etc. Would a creature that different from us, that perceives the world in such an alien fashion, even think in the same way that we do?
Also, like all good scifi, it takes a look at our current society through a mirror darkly, dealing both at the periphery and as main beats of the story with the near-future consequences of climate change, of neverending growth, of blind consumption and greed, and of late stage capitalism.
I honestly see this getting a movie adaptation at some point, or at least, I hope so. What did everyone else think?
by ThirdFloorNorth
7 Comments
Jeff VanderMeer [did an AMA here](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3es2af/im_jeff_vandermeer_the_author_of_the_southern/) you might want to take a look. [Here’s a full list of our upcoming AMAs](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/amafullschedule)
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Great book. Really enjoyed it. He has another book coming out in 2024 also with a biology based theme, I think about cloned mammoths.
One of my favorite parts in this book was very subtle but cool. With the voicebox models and how we immediately make assumptions of others’ intelligence based on language barriers.
I thought it was a lot of book for what little pay off it had. Nothing ever went anywhere and the three main perspectives never coalesced in a way that made narrative sense.
Thanks for the review! I’m excited to read this.
Hijacking your thread to ask if anyone is on board with my theory that >!Evrim actually orchestrated the whole Temple coup and death of Dr. Arnkatia!<
I read it too but I have to be honest, just did not like most of it. I think if you got rid of the plot lines not directly related to the octopi, I’d be way more into it. I understand why those parts were in the book, I just don’t think it added anything of great interest to me.
That said, the elements directly related to the octopi were fascinating. I’d read a whole book of just that I think.