I appreciate this book for getting me out of a fiction-reading rut. It's very well-paced, has a nice acceleration at the end, and short, digestible chapters that were perfect for reading while traveling.
I don't think it's one of the best sci-fi books of all time, and as fiction, I think it was lacking. This might be my low-tolerance for sci-fi, but many of the characters were tropes: the genius computer hacker, the single-minded research scientist, the android with feelings. The messages and morals of the story were hammered home too many times and were at times incredibly unsubtle. I got tired of the explanation of the octopus nervous system and its similarity to this or that.
The main concepts here were decentralized octopus nervous systems, interspecies communication, and climate change. I wish the others were explored in a bit more depth: the linguistics subplot, which according to the endnotes required a lot of research, didn't go very far.
Overall: it was readable and enjoyable, but had the tone of a momentous and profound novel without the substance.