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.

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.