3.5 stars - I really loved the premise of this book. It combines West African mythology with dystopia, hitting on climate change and economic disparity. In the near future, much of coastal Nigeria is underwater, with its population living on five high-rise buildings in the middle of the ocean. The buildings are striated by economic class, with the lowest class living in the levels that are underwater.

The slim volume hits home in many places, but maybe it was trying to do too much in a small space? I wanted it to be longer. I wanted more character development, but maybe it didn't need that because that wasn't the point.

As the rising ocean temperature caused the Atlantic to swallow up more and more coastline in Lagos, thousands of Nigerians moved into The Fingers, five skyscrapers poking up out of the ocean itself. A few hundred years later, and the tallest, Pinnacle, is the only one left, and its residents are strictly separated by the Uppers, the Midders, and the Lowers, the latter of whom live on the levels that are literally underwater. When a Lower level experiences a wall breach, two Midders are sent down to investigate and make sure that nothing (either water or dangerous sea creatures) come through. However, they soon find themselves making decisions and learning things they never would have thought possible.

This is Okungbowa's first dive into science fiction, and oh, it's so good. His story is sculpted in equal parts by Nigerian politics, climate change, and creation mythology, which combine to make a short but thought-provoking tale reminiscent of Rivers Solomon's The Deep and An Unkindness of Ghosts (which are very very different, but somehow both apply here). It's well worth a read.

Post-apocalyptic books hit different after COVID, but I'm still really drawn to them. This one didn't do it for me.

Book Review: Lost Ark Dreaming  by Suyi Davies Okunabow
Author: Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Review Date: May 30, 2024

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

From the blurb:
The brutally engineered class divisions of Snowpiercer meets Rivers Solomon’s The Deep in this high-octane post-climate disaster novella written by Nommo Award-winning author Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Lost Ark Dreaming is a sci fi short novel about a future where water has taken over the world. A skyscraper stands in the ocean and it is a tale of the haves vs the have nots. The have-nots live on the bottom levels of the building dealing with water issues and structural problems.
The haves live above and are managers, pencil pushers and society goers. 

This book reminded me a lot of Hugh Howey’s Silo series. Both stories in the tower setting in a dystopian future.

This was a great read. Fast-paced, and a scary story about where we are possibly headed. I highly recommend this book.

Decades after the rise of the oceans, a west African population lives in 5 high rise buildings. The higher you live in the buildings the more important you are. There is a breach on one of the lower submerged floors. Two officers from the midsection go down to investigate, where their lives and the life of the lower forman get entwined on the pursuit of truth.

Novellas are very hard for me to love. I always want more and it is rare for me to be satisfied. The author did a good job of balancing plot and backstory. The post apocalyptic theme of this book was interesting as was the class structure. I just wanted a little more action, and more from the ending.

its billing as snowpiercer meets river solomon’s the deep is incredibly accurate

i like novellas and usually find myself satisfied with the story by the end but this one did leave me wanting a little more. it’s just such an interesting world and i could’ve easily spent more time learning about it. i was also curious about the specifics of the tower which i know isn’t the point but i’m wondering!!

that said, this is the perfect length for a movie. i can see it in my head already, and it’s so good.

the characters were distinct, the queen conch was a cool mythic touch. the melding of different religions from their overlapping ideas i thought set an interesting(good) tone about remembrance and unity.

i kinda like that we never saw the Uppers (the tower levels for the rich and powerful). so many works use images of the upper class contrasting with the working class as class commentary but this one wasn’t about them. they exist and we know that and orders get sent down from them but they hide away from the people they’re oppressing so it almost doesn’t matter who they are, what matters is the people at the bottom working together to create a better life for all. never seeing them was a strong way to emphasize their distance and inhumanity.

definitely recommend! super engaging and rich world and also a very quick read.

Thanks to Tor Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

What an engrossing story with incredible world building and so much packed into 2oo pages!! This is one of the stories that you can not only enjoy for the action and characters it depicts but it also really makes you think about the future of different parts of the planet as our climate changes and different regions will be impacted so differently. This dystopian tale takes place in a future Nigeria as world sea levels have forced people to shelter in one of 5 giant towers to escape the sea. Suyi immediately draws you into this tower world where people have been categorized by level and it is told through 3 different POV's as a perceived mythological threat from the sea becomes reality. The tales and ancient stories of Nigeria are woven into the narrative, and it adds so much to an already fascinating tale. If you are looking for a shorter story to add to your reading, I certainly recommend this imaginative tale!!

What a fantastic story! This book has skyrocketed onto my list of best books I’ve read and is in contention for my best book of the year. I knew from chapter one that I was going to love the story, and the rest of the book didn’t disappoint. It’s perfection.

The short chapters really set the pace, and build the tension as our characters realize they are not alone in the tower, and a vengeful water demon is hiding in the shadows. Not only that, but the higher ups think they are overreacting. Everything in this story felt so real. So painfully, beautifully human.

We follow three very different characters on the day that their lives are completely upended and changed forever. We learn about their hopes, dreams, and fears as they try to navigate the chaos. They don’t like each other, and never come to like each other, but they agree to work together to survive.

A major theme throughout the story is the human capacity for working together for good, and for turning on each other and hurting other humans, especially those who are a little different. There are no easy answers here, and the story mostly asks questions, all while providing a trilling, suspenseful tale.

The climax of the story was truly beautiful. I’m getting chills just thinking about it again. It’s an open ending, and I absolutely love it.

It’s been several days since I read this book, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I will definitely be rereading it, and I have a feeling it will stick with me for a long time.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this book, though at times the story had a lot of potential. The novella is described as similar to Snowpiercer, but for me it strongly resembled the Silo trilogy in that it describes a future society enclosed in a tall structure, with the upper classes on the highest levels and the lowest classes on the lower levels. It takes place off the coast of West Africa in a time when the outside world is uninhabitable, and everyone in the region lives inside five high-rise towers known as “the fingers”. The most privileged live at the top of the finger, then you have the Midders and the Lowers, who are below sea level and are at great risk of flooding.

Yekini is a mid-level junior analyst who is asked to go on her first trip to the Lowers. She’s accompanied by Ngozi, a higher-level bureaucrat who sees this job as beneath him. Tuoyo is a mechanic in the lower levels investigating a breach in one of the walls. As the three work together, they begin to see that there is a darker conspiracy at work.

I had expectations of this being a full novel, and I think some of my frustration came from this being a novella, as the story never felt fully developed and the character development was limited. As the characters begin investigating the breach, the action and story picked up. The characters grow as they interact with each other. I enjoyed the climate disaster and corporate greed elements of the story, which was enhanced by periodic news clippings that explain what happened. But then the plot takes a dramatic shift and the whole tone of the story changed. If you’re a fan of dream-like writing, you may appreciate this more than I did. For me, this story leapt too quickly from action to allegory, which was distracting. While I was intrigued by the concept of “The Children” in this story, I was ultimately left wanting more.

Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher tordotcom. This book published May 21, 2024.

Lost Ark Dreaming is an amazing work of speculative fiction that invisions a future of rising sea levels due to anthropolical climate change.
In various excerpts from the past, present, and future, the book mentions several factors like capitalism, racism, and corruption, that let to the story's reality. Therefore, readers can reflect on the circumstances surrounding climate change within their own life.

All 3 protagonists are confronted with their past throughout the course of the story, forcing especially Ngozi to go through strong character development.
I really liked the casual representation of a queer relationship. Additionally, the discovery of Omíwálé, who turned out not to be an enemy, but an ally to the citizens of the tower after all, was really interesting.

Climate fiction, but also class oppression, authoritarianism, Africanfuturism, comparisons to Rivers Solomon's work – I was pretty sold just based on the setup of this book, and it largely delivered.

Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a novella set in a series of self-sustaining manmade towers which are off the shore of Lagos, in a future in which the city (and possibly the rest of the world) has seen catastrophic flooding. The towers allow the social hierarchy to manifest into the physical as space is divided into Lower, Midder, and Upper levels.

A reluctant team of government officials investigate an apparent breach in one of the lower levels. There’s Yekini, an analyst from a mid-floor commission focused on protection and security; Ngozi, working for pinnacle leadership; and Tuoyo, the foreman for the Lower level with the suspected leak. Early on, they suspect sea-dwelling creatures known as the Children of Yemoja may be involved, and their discoveries lead to some fundamental truths about the towers. As I read from each of the characters’ perspectives, I thought about the transition from working within a system which fundamentally devalues certain groups of people (and even using the system for personal gain) to ultimately resisting, trying to make the right choices, to leave no one behind.

As the title might suggest, dream sequences play a role in the story – we open with Yekini’s dream which gestures toward a larger context of deluge and passing knowledge down by oral history despite official narrative. I appreciated the interludes, some of which are written as poetry representing a collective voice. Other interludes include snippets of government documents and newspaper clippings which provide a fascinating level of worldbuilding in an otherwise fairly plot-centered book. That said, while I often like the novella length, in this case, I kind of wanted the story to be a novel. I could have read more backstory and documents of the towers and even the world beyond.

The plot is a bit thriller-y at times and the pacing is mostly balanced; however, there were a few moments that kind of took me out toward the end where it seems that issues are presented and then immediately resolved. For example, (view spoiler). Partially because of the length, I felt like some of the character changes happened a bit quickly, and I would have been interested in further reflection from them. For plot reasons, I’m not totally sure how this would work, but if we could have seen even broader collective action, that would have been interesting too. The ending hearkens back to where we started, with a sequence that is dreamlike, surreal, ambiguous, dark, and ultimately hopeful all at once.

It was also gratifying to read the acknowledgments and see the book as part of a conversation with its influences. The story of the Children of Yemoja has some resonance with The Deep, and Okungbowa thanks Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes in the acknowledgments. Overall, I enjoyed Lost Ark Dreaming and will think about it in conjunction with these other stories of science fiction, climate, and class.

Read more: https://speculativeloaf.wordpress.com/2024/05/21/review-lost-ark-dreaming/

Wow did this little story pack a punch! I could not put it down, and frankly, I could use all the stories set in this world with these characters. Basically, the situation is this: climate change has wreaked havoc, and now almost all of humanity has to live in unconventional places. For instance, this giant tower that we see on the cover of the book. There is no leaving; anyone going outside would be swept away. Two of our main characters are currently in "middle" levels- not the lower, least fortunate levels, but not in the upper echelon of the elite, either. Another is from the lower levels and has the most knowledgeable about what is happening. And fun fact, it's nothing good!


Basically (and this is the part that did confuse me a bit) there are some undersea entities that I guess maybe evolved from humans, but regardless, they're not exactly coming into the tower for a dinner date. This is a huge danger to the entirety of the tower, but those at the top don't actually care- and they certainly don't care about the lives of the individuals who live there, nor the three workers sent to handle the problem. The commentary was incredible, especially given the very entertaining nature of the story. It's full of excitement, but still manages character development in a very minimal number of pages. And like I said, I didn't fully understand the mythical creature part, but it wasn't a big issue at the end of the day. Even if I couldn't quite wrap my head around the concept, I still understood the general idea, and certainly what the author was trying to say through the mythological parts.

Bottom Line: So much awesome in so few pages! Cannot wait to read more from this author (and I would absolutely take a follow up to this world, please and thank you)!

Loved loved loved this novella! I have a special interest in post-climate disaster fiction ,and this one is especially clever. I'm impressed by what the author was able to get accomplished in a novella !

I had forgotten the publisher’s description of Lost Ark Dreaming, by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, by the time it surfaced atop my to-be-read pile. So I went in cold, and it turned out that the water was fine! This is a gripping novella that starts fast and keeps moving with swift assurance, amid brief interludes and “historical excerpts” that give more context to the action, while deftly building characters whose revealed motivations make even some surprising decisions feel natural. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a rising star in speculative fiction, a Nommo Award winner who has appeared twice before on Skiffy and Fanty’s website. Tonya Moore interviewed him about his work in general and specifically his The Nameless Republic trilogy. Paul Weimer’s review of the first two books in that series praised the immersive worldbuilding and said, “the two books really feel like to me a study and critique of decaying imperial power, and what happens when that eroding power slips…”

Power is a major focus in this novella, too, although it’s unrelated to his previous books. Tiers of power are given physical reality, as the Uppers, Midders, and Lowers live in their respective floors of offshore towers after the seas rose and drowned Lagos, Nigeria, and surrounding coastal areas. The higher Up that one lives, the more authority, light, fresh air, and space one has; Midders keep things running and try to keep themselves from falling in status; and Lowers work and scramble to survive, down in the dark, dank floors below sea level.

This novella starts off feeling like a combination of climate fiction and science fiction, although faith and fantasy elements also make themselves known eventually. Although most of the viewpoint characters (a Midder, an Upper, and a Lower) start out trying to focus on the here-and-now, and submerging past traumas (the Upper has done this so successfully that the reader sees only his ambitions throughout much of the book), events force them to confront their memories and longings for connection with other people, with the environment, and with the Unknown.

Lost Ark Dreaming starts with Yekini rushing to get to work, but she hardly has time to start stressing out about the effects of lateness on her career as an analyst in civil service before she’s sent on her first solo field assignment—as a punishment? Unfortunately, it’s a trip to the Undersea levels; more unfortunately, she has to shepherd an Upper official, Ngozi, there, protecting him while trying to make him feel sufficiently deferred to; even more unfortunately, when a Lowers-level head of safety, Tuoyo, leads them to the site of a breach that she’d already patched, Yekini discovers indications of an intruder. Things rapidly spin out of all their control to go from bad to worse.

Some readers may be annoyed that the novella is slightly open-ended, with no sure societal resolution to the climactic events of the finale. But the protagonists all make important decisions, including some self-sacrifices aimed at helping their community. To me, this has a hopeful ending, and I can say I am very well satisfied with the book.

Along with the strong plot and characterization, the language craft in this book is worth mentioning. The Interludes are poetically dreamy, and some of the “historical excerpts” are intentionally distant and formal, but most of the prose is vivid and active. Descriptions put the reader right there:

“The Lowers smelled like a damp cloth that had been locked in a steel box for years… the air weighed a ton, and Yekini’s lungs worked hard to draw it in. Her chest felt waterlogged, like a bad cough brewing.”

A lot of the worldbuilding here is concrete, but I also love what the author can do with just one sentence:

“Ensconced within the [glass] pendant was a flash of color, the only valuable part of the necklace—a small remnant of an aged, wrinkled orange peel.”

That sets the reader imagining what kind of ruined world makes a relic like that so valuable. I love the little details like that.

Finally, I’ll also mention that some elements of African culture that are woven throughout Lost Ark Dreaming enhanced my enjoyment of it—I say African rather than Yoruban, although that language is specifically mentioned, because refugees of various backgrounds have made their way to the towers, and some elements of religion, for example, have evolved to fit current circumstances. These elements strongly affect some characters’ motivations and decisions.

There are further things I’d like to say about works that this novella is clearly in conversation with, but that would give away major spoilers, so I’ll stop here. Just know that Lost Ark Dreaming has my strong recommendation.

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Lost Ark Dreaming’s expected release date is May 21, so there’s still a short time to give it some extra love by pre-ordering it. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250890757/lostarkdreaming

Content warnings: Blood, past traumas, threatened violence, offscreen mass deaths, bad air and filth, class oppression.

Comparisons: Per the publisher’s description, “The brutally engineered class divisions of Snowpiercer meets Rivers Solomon’s The Deep …”

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC of this novella for review purposes.

In this near-future dystopian SF, we learn about one of the remaining bastions of humanity, "The Pinnacle." This is a huge skyscraper in the middle of the ocean (used to be off the coast of Lagos until climate change flooded the city and changed coastlines worldwide). The main plot of the novella revolves around Yakini, a civil servant in the Pinnacle, who is asked to take on a mission to "The Lowers," the portion of the skyscraper that remains completely underwater. Yakini is a "Midder," and she is escorting an "Upper," Ngozi, part of the ruling class. Yes, social stratification literally reflects our slightly more metaphorical lower/middle/upper class structure: the Lowers do the menial work of keeping the Pinnacle working; the Midders make up civil servants and bureaucrats; the Uppers make decisions about how the whole is to be run.

Yakini will soon realize that one of the "Children," humanoid/amphibion creatures with gills, has infiltrated the Pinnacle. She will have to decide whether maintaining the status quo of the Pinnacle, that at least keeps people alive, is worth suppressing the truth about the world around them.

The book is structured with the meat of the story and characters taking us on the journey of the plot, while the worldbuilding is communicated in old news stories and other "found footage"-like interludes. The whole is written with poetic language, and the ending is an ambitious and ambiguous take on a revolution. I'm still not 100% sure what happens in the end. I quite enjoyed the first parts, but the final two chapters are abrupt. I think this could have benefited from a longer treatment. It is a good way to try out Okungbowa's prose, and I think I'll be checking out his novels in future!

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novella.

A mesmerizing story rife with symbolism and meaning. This interesting cross between Silo and Snowpiercer shows us an alternate world which may not be too far off from our future. The situations in which the characters find themselves and how they grow and change throughout the novella will resonate with readers of all kinds.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Having enjoyed Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s novels, I equally enjoyed what he brought to the table here, even with a shorter story. It’s dystopian, and I enjoyed the homage to Noah’s Ark, although it very much does its own thing too. The mix of formats was quite cool, with verse and prose and down multimedia-esque elements. It was also hard-hitting, focusing on world issues while depicting a well-drawn futuristic picture of Nigeria.

Wow. Lost Ark Dreaming was just fantastic, and I didn't want it to end.

This post-apocalyptic dystopia novella takes place in the future, where survivors of rising water levels live inside five partially submerged towers known as 'the Fingers'. We follow three of these survivors whose world is turned upside down one day with the truth about these towers and the ocean-dwelling dangers surrounding it.

"In the silence that ensconced them all, Yekini experienced a true moment of the sublime, her mind racing upon contemplating the vastness of the ocean, the malleability of species, the inadequacy of the concept of humanity, the endless possibilities of being."

This short novella pulled off impressive world-building, West African mythology, and a dystopian tale, to convey a powerful message about climate change and humanity. I was hooked from the start and will be thinking about Lost Ark Dreaming for some time. 4.5 stars - I highly recommend to fans of the dystopia and post-apocalyptic genres.

Side note: I can't believe I haven't read anything by this author before, and am really looking forward to trying his fantasy series in the future. (I'm also very much hoping for more sci fi like this novella!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to TorDotCom for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This novella is great for fans of Rivers Solomon's The Deep! Set in a futuristic Nigeria where the sea levels have risen high enough to seek refuge in an island of towers to escape. When a Child of Yemoja breaches level 9, we follow 3 characters in their POV chapters handle the situation. This novella focuses on survival, remembering, and truth. A well-written, well-paced speculative novella that made me feel both haunted and hopeful.

This was such an interesting African speculative novel loosely inspired biblically by Noah's Ark. Other than the initial, premise this one has no religious overtones and instead takes the story to an futuristic other worldly place.

In a short number of pages, the author was able to build a complex and fascinating world. I was pleased to find that the story had a darker underbelly and didn’t share away from those realities. This story could have been written into a longer novel but I also thought it worked well at the published lengh.

I have read this author before and they are quickly rising to favourite author status. I love his ability to write imaginative worlds with morally complex characters and well plotted narratives. This would be a good place to start with this author.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.