I read this book for my wife’s cousin’s podcast’s Discord’s book club, and it was a great read here’s the podcast. The author is mostly known for his short stories; that shows up in this book, which is essentially three short stories told across alternating chapters. This author, though, is clearly exploding with ideas; lots of thinking about AI and the meaning of intelligence. Shortly after I read this book, the author published an essay in time called AI and the Rise of Mediocrity; this essay is the only other place I’ve seen mentioned a concept that I talk about in my recent AI essay, namely, that algorithmically generated content creates de-individualized consumers.

The novel isn’t too heady, though - it’s mostly a thriller about a sea monster. And it has lots of other great sci-fi tropes in it, too - over powerful corporations, hive minds, cybernetics; basically everything but space travel. If you like any kind of sci-fi, there will probably be something for you in this book.