Finally, a superb science fiction novel that features the most intelligent and quietly terrifying creature of the sea: the octopus. In Nayler’s debut, scientist Dr. Ha Nguyen is flown into a privately owned island to help mega-corporation DIANIMA investigate what might be the first proven sign of advanced intelligence outside of humanity. Nguyen teams up with a startlingly human android and a scarred security agent to try and figure out whether the “sea monsters” of the archipelago are really as intelligent as they hope. Picture it like Arrival, but with octopi.