I LOVED this book. All the characters were rich, the storyline gripping, and the stakes were excellent. I could not put this down!

Lost Ark Dreaming paints a picture of a highly stratified society through the lens of three people living in a water submerged tower who encounter a sudden challenge. The author skillfully balances the characters' personal experiences with the larger societal issues they face. Tensions quickly escalate as the severity of the problem they face becomes more clear. The author has crafted a dynamic story and a richly detailed world. I would love to read more stories from this world.

I’m going to be honest, this book was extremely hard to get into. I would pick it up, read a page or two, and then put it down again. Once I actually got to the meat of the story, however, I actually enjoyed it. The world was really cool, and I appreciate how well done the worldbuilding was (and how intricate at times), as well as seeing all the tech and how it’s helping them survive. The interludes and articles add an interesting look at the world, seeing it through a less emotional lens and how it became the way it is, especially how the governments and those in power did nothing to save those who weren’t rich enough. I enjoyed Yekini, and her no nonsense way of dealing with the world, as well as seeing how people reacted to Ngozi. I wish there had been more, as I wanted to know what the Queen Conch would tell everyone, how it would spread the story, and what happens next.

I received a copy from Netgalley and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Like usual, I love the way the Suyi Davies Okungbowa incorporates Nigerian culture into his books. It feels so authentic and really enhances the stories that he tells. This book reminds me of The Deep by Rivers Solomon just with Nigerian influence. It also incorporates the story of Mami Wata, which I loved. The story also deals with themes around memory of the past and corrupt power structures. All of these elements made this a story that I'm still sitting with, especially because it has an open ending. I'm not quite sure I know what I was supposed to get out of this story, which doesn't necessarily mean that the author didn't write the story well. But this is one of those books I think I have to reread to truly understand how all of those elements together to create this powerful story.

My review is in the November December issue of Analog Magazine, available on line now and in the print edition this month. Here is the link:
https://www.analogsf.com/current-issue/the-reference-library/

This is a vivid post-climate disaster world off the coast of West Africa. The remnants of society live in towering, partially submerged structures, with a harsh, rigid divide between the elite at the top and those crammed into the lower, barely livable levels. The novella follows three characters from different strata: Yekini, Tuoyo, and Ngozi, as their lives intersect in ways that none of them anticipated.

Okungbowa's vision of a world shaped by environmental catastrophe feels hauntingly plausible, especially with the layered dynamics of class division and corporate greed. The towers themselves—their opulence at the top contrasting with the desperate conditions below—serve as a sharp metaphor for real-world issues, particularly around resource hoarding and neglect of the vulnerable. The isolation horror is subtle but effective, especially in scenes set in the underwater depths, which I found chilling and atmospheric.

Character-wise, I was intrigued by how different Yekini, Tuoyo, and Ngozi are. I loved the diversity among the cast—it reflects a richer reality in a way that many dystopian stories don't manage.

This novella has tight pacing and impactful themes, but of course I found myself wanting so much more. That open-ended conclusion left me craving a deeper dive into this world—what happens next? Okungbowa gives us just enough to stay intrigued, but not quite enough to feel satisfied. Which is entirely the point. I’m really hoping for more stories set in this universe because there’s so much left to explore.

A fascinating, tension-filled novella that I’d recommend to anyone looking for a quick yet thought-provoking read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for the complimentary pre-released copy. This review is voluntary. All opinions are my own.

I didn’t get to this one before the publish date, however now that I have read it I gave it 3 stars.

This is my first book by Sui Davies Okungbowa and I think it was a great palce to start!

This novella was the climate sci-fi I was craving.

Yekini was a fantastic character to follow. But, I think I would have either liked to fully follow Yekini or Tuoyo throughout the whole story. With the 3 different POVS, I felt like we didn't get a complete idea of the story we were trying to tell. I didn't seem to care about Ngozi's POV.

Overall, it was interesting and the writing was strong. I do recommend it for those looking for a climate sci-fi. I think this book would have benefit from either being one POV or maybe 100 pages longer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing.

This was a great novella. I would have rated it higher. I feel the ending just didn't follow through with the build up of it. Still recommend this highly! The writing was great and the characters were well done!

Let’s take another break from the deluge of generation ships and instead focus on another type of ship, the ark. Didn’t see that one coming did you? Or maybe you’re here to hold me to task on the books I promised to read in our Black Author Appreciation post from earlier this year. Either way, I’m going to talk about Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbawa. It’s an eco-science fiction that cleverly engages with class hierarchy in a world already underwater that mostly succeeds, while taking a few interesting missteps.

Five towers remain standing above the ocean off the west coast of Africa. Their lower levels are submerged in the depths, designed to withstand the rise of the Atlantic ocean. What was meant to be a resort for the wealthy has become a sanctuary for human life in the new climate. The upper levels are populated by the ultra wealthy, while the poor and working are submerged below the water. When a leak occurs in the lowers, Yekini is sent down as a bodyguard to protect Ngozi while he investigates the cause and provides a solution to the problem. Tuoyo, a mechanic and inhabitant of the lowers, shows them that there is still life below. However, rumors about the children of Yemoja circle around the leak, though the legends have yet to be verified. Will the three be able to work together and cross their divides to solve the slow crisis?

Lost Ark Dreaming is an interesting novella. Okungbawa not only tells a narrative, he interweaves poetry, folklore delivered through dream sequences, and archival reports into the pages, providing more depth than a straightforward story would have accomplished. For a shorter story, this works really well, and I’m curious how such methods would play out over a longer page count. The world Okungbawa creates is a stark one; a small collection of skyscrapers where the first thirty floors are submerged in the ocean, designed to survive the rising sea levels. The lower floors are relegated to the poor and working folk, the middle section the middle class and well you see where this is going. It’s not unique, but I do find it compelling with the added stress of being actively submerged if you’re poor. It delivers a visual that is hard to shake.

The story follows three perspectives, each from a different section of the tower. Ngozi, a bureaucrat with dreams of being a part of the upper upper floors, is decently fleshed out as someone who doesn’t want to rock the boat, and is constantly doing the math. He pits his career against the lives and livelihoods of those lower than him. It clearly causes a bit of distress, but he’s also distant and removed. Yekini, a data analyst from the mid levels, takes a lot at face value. She is isolated as well, but rolls with the punches. Her preconceptions are open to changing data and circumstances. It gives her the connective tissue vibe between the layers that is sorely needed between the lower and the upper. Tuoyo, however, as much as I wanted her to, didn’t stick with me. She’s pragmatic, sure, but I can’t really grasp the things that made her stand out as a character. Tuoyo was competent as all hell sure, but we rarely got to see her as a lower, only someone who has to interact with the uppers and middles when they come down to investigate.

The biggest problem I had with the story, despite Okungbawa’s attempts at providing depth, was its length; it’s just too damn short. Everything in the book is designed to bring stark visualization and provide mental shortcuts to the themes. That’s not a bad thing, the story’s efficiency is a strength. It just doesn’t give room for the themes to breathe and grow into something more interesting. The city feels like it has a history, and it’s partially explored through the archives, but in short staccato bursts meant to crystallize the themes. The archival interludes felt like Okungbawa breaking the fourth wall to tell you the point of the story. The tower also feels empty, and I don’t know if that was a purposeful choice to highlight the degraded nature of the place, or if it was passed over for brevity. The shortness, while bolstered by Okungbawa’s exploratory instincts, also removes a lot of the curiosity. I don’t need a full re-telling of the tower and city’s history, nor a detailed accounting of the lives of the characters, but I think it would have been nice to actually see the tower. See how the levels have become what they are, and how people in the lowers make do as a society.

But when the novella shines, it really shines. The poetry is evocative and really feels like Okungbawa put his heart into nailing it. The use of African spirituality (both in and out of dream sequences) and the various ways different cultures use words and names, adds a fresh perspective. It makes the tower feel like the melting pot it became, but serves as a stark reminder that there are still cultural divisions intermingled with the class ones. Obviously, I am not well versed in African folklore and religions, but I’m starting to grasp some of them through exposure, and Okungbawa is very inviting. He doesn’t necessarily explain it to the uninitiated but does take time to highlight the differences between cultures in a way that leads to outside curiosity. It’s inviting you in to understanding, which couples nicely with some of the story’s themes.

Lost Ark Dreaming is a short and tantalizing vision that, for me, could have used a little more exploration. It feels like waking up from a dream and trying to grasp for deeper meaning, but only being left with whatever you can remember. The title alone makes this suggestion feel correct, and leaves me with both satisfaction, and a half-full stomach. I wanted more from the dream, and I’m left with the general feeling that I had one, scrambling to find meaning from it. If there was a little less of the archival fourth wall being broken, I could accept the dreamlike nature of the story, pushing the reader into exploring it outside the book. So maybe that’s what I will take away from it; the pursuit of curiosity, the vision of a future not yet decided, instead of craving that curiosity handed to me on a golden plate.

Rating: Lost Ark Dreaming – Dive in, and let it wash over you but at your own pace.
-Alex

An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.

I found this book to be engaging and very well-written.


Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing for providing an advanced reader copy.

I am usually suspicious of comps but Snow Piercer vs the Deep is an accurate pairing. That said I don't know if I love the combination. In the first half when I was reminded of the pacing and edge of my city quality Snow Piercer provides I was hooked, When it switched to the more introspective vibes of the Deep I started to lose focus and interest. I also don't always vibe with poems interspersed in my prose since I usually need to be in fairly different headspaces to enjoy both and that was probably another barrier for me in this novella. That said I instantly knew the voices of our characters and that is a strong sign that I should check out other works by an author and is what I shall be doing in the future.

I really grew to love this story about 25% of the way in. The author’s writing is beautiful without being overly wordy and still packed a punch in this novella. The premise and concepts explored were so interesting - I could see this being an excellent novella to adapt to the big screen as a sci fi thriller! I selfishly wish this would have been a novel so I could have been with the characters more, but the character backstories and development was excellently done. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for providing a free copy for my review.

A good entry in the post-climate canon of SFF but was just not for me, It has great themes and commentary on classism, the climate crisis and trauma - all done well in this short format.

I thought this was an extremely interesting exploration of corporate greed causing climate change at a rate that forced an entire civilization to live in one large tower with a class structure that speaks volumes. I do think the story could've benefitted from being a bit longer due to how interesting the concept is. I want it to be fleshed out more than it was.

An ambitious premise in a near-future Africa devastated by environmental collapse. Three main characters are wonderful in contrast, but the setting felt a little derivative, reminiscent of Howeys's Silo trilogy- the confined quarters, authoritarian government, and the origin myth vs. reality. In sum, a little underwhelming.

A great combination of dystopic technology and traditional magic and mythology. This book takes the common trope of people being stuck in a closed society with very distinct class divisions after an apocalypse and makes it new and interesting. All three point of view characters are complex and realistic. The interspersions of historical accounts between chapters make the world more real.

Just when I thought it was going one way, it took a hard 180...and then did it again.

Fascinating world building with a lot to say on generational trauma, climate crisis, immigration and classism in not a whole lot of pages. Where it succeeds in myth, I felt that it faltered in the ending. Mostly because I'm not the biggest fan of ambiguous endings, and this was a very blank space at the end.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

- Is there any greater joy than a tightly written, deeply satisfying story? LOST ARK DREAMING gives us that: a fully realized world and complex characters in under 200 pages.
- I loved this blend of sci-fi and fantasy. It’s WOOL x THE DEEP, with heartbreaking individual stories and heart-pounding action.
- It’s hard to discuss much of this book without giving away the plot twist, given that the book is so short. I’ll just say that it didn’t go the direction I thought it would and I loved that. Please read this book!

In Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa the seas have risen on the coast of Nigeria. Inside the Fingers—five towers submerged up to level 34 built to house the people who could afford a room and escape the global catastrophe—what feels like one of the last bastions of humanity dwell amongst crumbling technology trapped into class-based levels. In a novella that feels a lot like the author took Snowpiercer, stood it up to point at the sky, submerged the back end of it, and played it out with a new cast in a different part of the world and culture, Lost Ark Dreaming delves deep into a lot of modern themes around the way we treat and mistrust and discriminate against each other in a beautiful, poetic, dreamlike written way.

Lost Ark Dreaming coverIn this post-environmental-apocalypse novella, Lost Ark Dreaming is told through the eyes of Yekini, a technician in the corporation / government department responsible for parsing communications to send to those in command on the upper levels of her tower. Late to work, again, she is tasked (as opportunity or punishment) with going down to the submerged levels to help investigate some damage to an airlock. Ngozi, a higher level member the corporation, gets put on the same job, something he sees as below him as he strives to climb the corporate ladder. Tuoyo is the foreman of the level and airlock in question, and sent the message upstairs to notify them of a breach in the airlock—something feared by the tower as the terrifying Children try to gain access from the dark waters outside.

With very clear messaging around the way our society—and based on where the author seems to have been schooled in their postscript, American society in particular—fails those in the lower and middle classes, and others and excludes people we don’t understand, and how modern governments treat their people, Lost Ark Dreaming maintains a theme of rebellion and breaking free of this trap we’ve built for ourselves throughout. The three perspectives each seem to grow into that vein at their own pace, helping maintain the theme throughout the book, and building a sense of hope through sacrifice as we approach the end.

There is also a very spiritual feel to this story, with the Queen Conch, historic interludes, and some poetry adding a very different experience to what you may expect to find in other books using a similar vehicle to deliver the story. For me, a standard bloke from Sydney, Australia, this really appealed to me and nicely pushed the boundaries of my wheelhouse of reading in a way I really enjoyed—though I am more than certain there are additional themes in the book that I missed that people closer to the countries and cultures written about would enjoy more than I am capable of.

Beautifully written, paced, and imagined, Lost Ark Dreaming is a novella I hope every fan of dystopian post-apocalyptic fiction picks up and tries out. There is plenty in there for readers from all walks of life.