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Loved the marriage between science fiction and the old Nigerian tales.

My write-up is linked below.

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Yekini has a problem. She is a midder, working and living on the middle levels of the Pinnacle, the last of the Fingers, the last of an ark/arcology built off of the Nigerian coast. She has by luck and dint of effort escaped her lower class origins. Or so she has thought, until an assignment sends her with the higher class administrator Ngozi down undersea, to the levels of the Pinnacle underneath the waves. There Ngozi and Yekini will confront a threat to the Pinnacle itself, a threat from outside the tower, in the deep waters that surround this last bastion of humanity. Something called the Children...

So one finds the narrative in Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Lost Ark Dreaming.

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Okungbowa blends a rhythmic, West African-inflected English with futurist slang, creating dialogue and narrative texture that feels both grounded and otherworldly.

I'm impressed with how seamless the code switching is.

The class struggle is a bit heavy-handed, but well observed. Davies offers a great metaphor for the weight of generations of systemic neglect, while playing with a society literally divided by altitude. In this lens, you can understand why there's a revolutionary fury brewing.

In a relatively short novella, Lost Ark Dreaming delivers a layered, poignant story about resilience and the power of collective memory. This was on my Hugo nominating ballot in 2025 and I tried to convince others to nominate it as well.

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I enjoyed this book and didn’t need it to be any longer. I felt like the more mystical elements seemed out of place, but I really enjoyed our three heros and how they all played into one another’s experience with the tower. An important and pertinent story!

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This was an interesting take on a climate change dystopian world. It was creative and had some similarities to Sorrowland that I liked. I think it just needed to be bigger and have more room for the author to dive into these themes that weren't really given time to fully explore.

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This climate science fiction novella is so filling and full. The story of a breach when and where non can be afforded for, yes, the very reasons you immediately thought of. And if you thought of none, your privilege is showing and I hope you read this book and expand your mind.

Everything about this was just perfect. The contrast of tech and bureaucracy was striking, as well as the class and identity issues amid socioeconomic disparities. Having this divinity layered into it sparked so much thought about what's possible or not, and what creates the limits of our imaginations around speculations of our futures.

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Lost Ark Dreaming pulled me in with the promise of Snowpiercer meets River Solomon's The Deep. What more could I want? I love it when speculative fiction really "goes there," like both Snowpiercer and The Deep did. Please give me brutality, economic divides, and world collapse in speculative fiction. I want to think and feel something when I consume near-future stories. Lost Ark Dreaming definitely accomplished that.

Lost Ark Dreaming follows three different characters, each with their own point of view: Yekini, Tuoyo, and Ngozi. These characters live in a world where the Atlantic Ocean has risen above Africa, so massive towers have been constructed to house what remains of West African residents. The wealthy live on the higher levels. The poor live below sea level, crammed into floors where the rich will never have to see them. The classes remain divided: the lowers, the middles, and the uppers - each divided and living with their class.

Yekini, Tuoyo, and Ngozi all work different jobs and all have different backgrounds. Their lives collide when a breach occurs on one of the lower levels, and they must work together to investigate the incident. When they uncover that it might involve one of the murderous sea monsters in the ocean called the Children, the three main characters collide in world-changing ways.

Lost Ark Dreaming is at once empowering and heartbreaking. It is full of broken people in a broken system. With the amount of depth and power in this novella, it will linger long after you finish reading. You won't want to leave Tuoyo, Ngozi, and Yekini behind; I certainly didn't.

Final Thoughts:

If you want your stories neatly wrapped up in a bow at the end, this isn't the novella for you. However, if you like a journey that makes you consider the future, the present, and their parallels, Lost Ark Dreaming is an excellent novella to sit with for a while.

Rating: 4 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC! All the above thoughts are my own.

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Suyi Davis Okungbowa is def cooking with this Novella. For such a short work it packs a heavy punch. The characters are deep and great to follow, the stakes higher than submerged towers in the sea, and the twists come sharper than a politician's lies.

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Lost Ark Dreaming is a great cli-fi novella set in futuristic Nigeria. So much happens in such a short amount of time and I could have read more from this world and with these characters. I was immediately drawn in by the premise of the world and the way that it showed the class disparities within it. Learning about the way people lived in the tower, while exploring the a mystery with people from different class groups was quite interesting. This in itself could be the novella alone, but we're lucky enough to learn about how the world ended living in these situations in the first place and giving homage to the people that came before them. It was very much a "those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it." Can't wait to read the next thing from Okungbowa.

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I was excited about this read. The blurb caught my attention and the premise was very interesting. This is a post-climate disaster novella set decades later. The story's characters are off the coast of West Africa, living in towers that are kilometers high and partially submerged in the Atlantic Ocean. There are class divides, with the wealthy ruling from the upper floors high above sea level, and the rest down in the dark lower floors below sea level or left to d!e out in the depths.

Unfortunately, this fell flat for me. The writing did not grab my attention and left me wanting and struggling to get through a relatively short read. I found the mythos confusing. The ending felt amorphous. I wonder if perhaps I did not understand the ending because I was also confused by the addition of mythological elements.

The positives are this is a short read in an interesting post-climate disaster setting. However, I think the blurb was slightly misleading and it was a difficult read for me to get through. Thank you to Net Galley and Tor Publishing Group for an advanced e-copy of this novella in exchange for my honest review.

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Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Lost Ark Dreaming is a captivating climate sci-fi that masterfully blends myth rooted in West African folklore. Set in a world grappling with environmental collapse, it explores themes of power, identity, and survival through richly developed characters and evocative prose. A gripping, genre-defying read that stayed with me after I finished reading.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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/

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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.

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

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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.

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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!

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