On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]

Strange Horizons, January 12, 2026

“The Song of a Non-Human Intelligence” by Mical Garcia (translated by Damian Neri)

Reviewed by Geoff Houghton

“The Song of a Non-Human Intelligence” by Mical Garcia is set in the Pacific Ocean in the near future. The first person narrator is an advanced, language-orientated, AI that has been installed in the body of a whale that has been artificially grown for that purpose by human marine scientists.

There are no heroes and no villains in this thoughtful story. The AI-driven body becomes a fully integrated member of a whale pod in order to better understand these mysterious creatures. This advanced AI is sufficiently sophisticated that it succeeds in achieving that understanding, but as with the super-computer Deep Thought in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, our AI protagonist discovers that it is the question that is the problem. Explaining its findings to its human creators proves to be a far more difficult task.

The author reminds us that it is not necessary to travel to the stars to meet the incomprehensible. He has successfully created a realistic and truly alien society that dwells within physical touching distance of the human world, yet is so different that mutual comprehension may still be impossible.

Geoff Houghton lives in a leafy village in rural England. He is a retired Healthcare Professional with a love of SF and a jackdaw-like appetite for gibbets of medical, scientific and historical knowledge.