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.

Lost Arc Dreaming is a post climate disaster novella set off the coast of West Africa. It's surrounds these five pillars that create a tower where all the humans who survived the climate disaster now reside. The tower is split up into three class levels the uppers, the midders and the lowers. Due to a series of unfortunate events one person from each level must work together to ensure the stability and survival of others in the tower.

I found the prose and overall storyline to be extremely interesting and well thought out. The closest I can think of to something like this would be The Deep by Rivers Solomon. But this definitely has more of a post-apocalyptic fill to it.

In addition to the well thought out main storyline, each of the three people within the tower that the story revolves around has their own interpersonal storylines and conflicts. Which only added to the depth and overall enjoyment of the novel. I wished we had gotten more surrounding the beings that lived out in the water. I would've really liked to have seen this be a full length novel. I also think a prequel covering the actual creation of the towers, and the climate disaster would be super interesting.

Overall, I can fully recommend this Novella. It is interesting and well thought out. It definitely left me wanting more by this author, and I will continue to read from this author based off of this Novella.

Genre: science fiction, speculative fiction, Afrofuturism

In a future of pollution and sea level rise, the people of Lagos live in giant towers, kilometers high but also partially submerged. Yekini is a Midder, a middle-class citizen who lives above the waters but well below the top floors of her tower, and she’s just been given her first solo workzone assignment…on the lower levels, undersea. There’s a legend of other creatures who inhabit the water, called Children, potentially descended from those who were shut outside of the towers when the waters rose. And something is telling Yekini that the disturbance undersea she’ll be investigating has to do with them.

I really enjoyed the scope and pacing of Lost Ark Dreaming. I love the concept of towers as the futuristic living space - it's not an uncommon trope to find in SF, but Okungbowa has put a lot of thought into the worldbuilding. For under two hundred pages, the story has a rich background of details, and Okungbowa knows what to bring into the prose and what to leave floating just off page in the periphery. It has the feeling of a worldbuilding activity, a place where the author could nurture an imaginative instinct while working on his longer epic fantasy.

I haven't left many novellas feeling like I wanted more recently, but I think this could have been a little longer. The ending is very abrupt, and while I enjoy an unsettling end - after all, I cut my teeth on SF short stories as a teen - it felt disconnected from the rest of the story. I recommend approaching the book like a short novel rather than a novella for the pacing.

The publisher's description of this book being Snowpiercer meets Rivers Solomon’s The Deep is spot on. In a far future, the coast of Nigeria has been swallowed up by massively rising sea levels, with people living in a partially submerged, miles-high towers originally designed as luxury living spaces for the ultra-wealthy. Now, the descendants of those wealthy people live at the top of these towers, while the rest of the population is crammed into the dank floors below sea level. There are also those who were left for dead as the sea level rose, some of whom have been reawakened by a mysterious and ancient power and now seek vengeance on those who abandoned them. This novella focuses on three people living within the tower: Yekini, a mid-level analyst; Tuoyo, an undersea mechanic; and Ngozi, a bureaucrat from a high level of government. Their lives intersect in surprising and unexpected ways as this unlikely trio may be the ones who affect the fate of everyone--both those living in the tower and outside it.

I was really impressed with how much the author conveys in such a short novella--he quickly and skillfully establishes the premise, gives a good sense of the characters, and what the stakes are. The action starts quickly and keeps going the entire time. I wasn't a huge fan of the lyrical interludes that were interspersed throughout but I'm sure others will enjoy that. I will warn you that the ending is a bit open-ended/open to interpretation, which I didn't mind because I did feel like it was optimistically open-ended (if that makes sense) but your milage may vary.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been in a kick lately of really enjoying all that novellas have to offer me--short, bite-sized adventure, low-commitment for high-pay off, glimpses into fun worlds, etc. This one was no exception. Though I tend to avoid books (sci-fi or otherwise) that center climate-change, I did end up liking this one. In my mind, I really don't need more anxiety-inducing food for thought about an even that I'm actively living through--similarly, I strongly dislike books that feature COVID. In this story, I liked that we got to see the way that memory served as a through-line for community, and the way that all the different ideologies in this story blend together. I do wish that we got a little more depth of the characters and the world, but for how few pages this story occupied it did a pretty good job. This is an instance where I definitely think that this could have been a longer novel, because the world and characters could use the room to breathe.

For such a short work, Okungbowa pours such history and meaning into these pages where climate change has finally culminated and the hubris of man is revealed to be found in their pride and greed for power, longevity, and a selfish legacy.

I love how memory was used to impart the importance of how we truly exist in our cultures and communities and of how we use memory as a glue, to teach, to preserve, and to transcend.

This was truly a wonderful piece of fiction.

I liked the premise of this more than I liked the actual story, sadly. it might have been the novella pacing that didn't work for me, but while the worldbuilding was cool it felt shallow, and the characters were one dimensional and forgettable. that said this does what good scifi should do in that the world it creates keeps living in your head after you finish it. and ppl who liked The Deep better than i did might get a lot out of this one

Firstly, this eco-sci-fi dystopian story surprised me by also having a thriller component. I went into this book assuming it was slow and meditative, but thankfully I was wrong because my attention never wavered. I picked this up because the marketing compared it to The Deep by Rivers Solomon, which I read earlier this year and loved! The author himself specifically claims The Deep as an influence and it shows through. I also see little bits of Howey’s Silo series—a population living in a tower divided by class depending on which floors they live on. Regardless of the tropes or inspirations, Lost Ark Dreaming is a compelling story in its own right.

The book has short chapters and alternates POVs between our three protagonists, with interludes sprinkled throughout. The interludes contain excerpts from archives, intelligence reports, and such which help to provide some in-world historical context to the events unfolding in the present. Sometimes those sections are philosophical musings or communications of bone-deep knowledge that feel like prayers which I found difficult to parse but integral to the lore and culture of this world. The writing style felt to me at times matter-of-fact and at others poetic, which kept me turning the pages at a quick pace.

Regarding the three protagonists, I found their actions believable within the context of their respective personalities. Although each character played a crucial role in the story's progression, some of them showed more growth than others. While at the end all three characters felt self-actualized, to me, Yekini carried the emotional weight of the story. Ngozi’s arc was one of more obvious growth but I didn’t connect as much with it, and even though I found Tuoyo more likeable, it also felt like she was relegated to the background (which is a bummer).

Overall, I felt like this novella was a satisfying blend of pacey adventure and thought-provoking ideas—Which, by the way, is my favourite type of sci-fi! Above all, it’s a story about the negative effects of capitalism and colonialism on the environment. I loved the way the book called out greedy corporations for messing with ecosystems they know nothing about because that’s something we’ve been seeing more and more in real life. Something else I appreciated, surprisingly, is the open-ended ending; there are mysteries left unexplained but the reader is left with an understanding that not everything has to be! The book concludes on a powerful yet optimistic note, encouraging readers to imagine potential futures for both the book and themselves.

As a last note, I want to mention a small bone to pick with the blurb of this book: I feel like it gives too much information away. The blurb is a disservice to the careful way the book presents information to readers. It’s not the book’s fault but rather a fault of the marketing which negatively affected the intrigue and emotional impact of the book for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. I'm leaving my honest review voluntarily.

A novella with an amazing amount of depth and thematic resonance, Lost Arc Dreaming is an absolute tour de force.

This book reminded me quite a bit of the movie/show Snowpiercer, due to the structure of the tower - which you heard in the jacket copy - and the focus on classism. While Snowpeircer was entirely about that, this novel goes further, using its plot and setting to dig into themes of climate change, elitism, and historical debt.

Yet, despite all these complex topics, the story is also entirely entertaining and exciting. Once the book starts, it doesn’t stop when it comes to action and pacing, moving at a breakneck speed that suited the story and maintained great tension. There are three character points of view, though the one main character, Yekini, gets the most attention. We are given just enough backstory on the characters to give them motivations and goals that make sense, as well as depth. We have a skeptical government worker, a devoted tower manager, and a grieving engineer; their personalities and plans worked well with and against one another to create an engaging dynamic between the three. I loved seeing them work and fight with one another.

The setting is simple yet effective. It’s one of those books where I didn’t care how feasible the setting was because it’s an allegory. To be clear, the setting made sense as a setting, but certain infrastructure questions I had regarding the entropy of technology and even structural concerns were not addressed. YET, the tower setting is not meant to be a hyper-realistic exposition of what it would be like living in such a closed system. It's an allegory for not only classism in general, but how certain countries or cultures are being left behind (or, most likely, will be left behind) as climate change claims more and more coastlines. As such, there is enough explained or fleshed out to make the story make sense and extrapolate on these themes in a way that felt organic and not didactic.

I can’t say too much else about it without going into spoilers, but Lost Arc Dreaming is utterly entrancing.

Let me start by saying that dystopian novels are my original bread and butter - the real reason I fell in love with reading as a pre-teen. This book, clocking in just under 200 pages, gave me the same sort of feelings that I felt when I devoured books as my younger self: I wanted to stay up late and finish this book in one go (sadly, things like work and sleep get in the way of pulling all-nighters anymore). The chapters are short, bite-sized, and perfect for convincing yourself to read “just one more.”

It opens with a dream sequence that helps situate the reader in the setting: post-climate disaster where the Atlantic Ocean has overtaken lands and humans off the coast of West Africa are now permanently living in five high-rise towers with distinct class ranks. The Uppers are where the wealthy and affluent live, giving little to no thought about the people or structures below their floors. The Midders are the general working class, only really able to rise to other floors for work, but are still considered to be above new sea levels. The Lowers are just that - those who reside beneath the new sea level. They are a misunderstood people, generally full of engineers and technicians who help keep the entire structure from collapsing and ruin.

We meet our protagonists: Yekini, a Midder analyst; Ngozi, a cocky higher-level Midder working for the government; and Tuoyo, a Lower mechanic whose rank was lowered after a devastating familial loss. When there is a critical event on the lower floors, these three must unite to save themselves, the tower, and everyone who resides within. They encounter countless barriers as they try to locate a sea-dwelling creature (monster?) who may have entered the tower, but readers witness the internal struggles of each character as they grow through their traumas. In the end, we see a dissolution of barriers like class, gender, and ego to save the future of humanity.

I will absolutely read anything by Okungbowa moving forward, as I’m always impressed by novellas that pack a punch with themes and well-rounded storytelling/character arcs. One of my favorite parts of this book was how he chose to enrich the reader’s understanding of this Earth and its history by sprinkling in historical records and memos, and including alternate chapters that share the history and knowledge of the Children.