Thank you to NetGalley and Tor.com for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions contained within are my own.

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Right away, I notice the evocative quality of Okuongbowa’s writing, and how adept he is at conveying information to the reader. Within even the first few paragraphs, I know that our primary protagonist is not religious, but that many of Earth’s old religions survive, passed on to her generation. I know that this is a post-apocalyptic Earth rather than a secondary world. I know a little of the protagonist’s family history. But most importantly, the information conveyed flows, tied together into a single stream, and does not feel like an info dump.

Between front-story chapters, we get poetic interludes and news clippings, articles, etc., from a pre-flood world. If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for fictional epigraphs, so these are a great tool for drawing me right in while providing both atmosphere and further information. These were also the parts of the story which set it most specifically and immersively in Lagos, Nigeria, which I deeply appreciated and wanted more of.

These epigraphs are also used to highlight the handling of a theme I want to commend here, namely the intersection of a climate disaster story and class warfare. I hate to say it (that’s a lie,) but environmentalist fiction can be a hotbed of eco-fascist ideology. (If you see a book blaming ‘overpopulation’ for the death of the environment, or the phrase ‘humans are the real virus,’ or some similar shit, fucking run.) Okungbowa’s themes, however, couldn’t fall farther from it. Instead, he showcases the way the powerful shortsightedly throw people and environment alike under the bus, with a clear understanding that those living in poverty have the least control over what happens to their world.

Going back to the front-story, however, there are three focus characters. Yekini, a safety analyst, is our everywoman. Her POV gets the lion’s share of the page count, but she’s the least memorable of the three. Ngozi, a bureaucrat, starts out obnoxious, but proves to have a surprising amount of depth and capacity for character growth. Lastly, we have Tuoyo, the engineer who discovered the breach in the tower’s foundation which serves as this book’s inciting incident. Tuoyo also has the most personal connection to what’s going on in the plot, having previously lost her wife to an attack by the so called ‘Yemoja’s Children’ - humanoid, water-dwelling, mysterious, and deeply feared.

Do I think the story could have been improved by any of these characters starting with a driving need or goal and making the plot happen rather than serving as its instrument? Absolutely. But the stakes rise quickly, and the characters likewise rise quickly to the challenge, so it doesn’t feel like they have no agency.

The world building is high-concept, with the haves atop the Pinnacle and the have-nots at the below-water bottom, but the social interactions remain believable enough to avoid it becoming didactic cheese. The attitudes of the Lowers toward the Midders do a lot of the heavy lifting here. The obvious cliche would be to present the Lowers as innocent and downtrodden, beaten down for the least dissent - or as an unruly mob seconds away from murdering those more privileged than them. Instead, the Lowers are presented (chiefly in the character of Tuoyo) as believable people trying to do their jobs, who resent (but don’t hate) the Midder bureaucracy and see no reason to humor interlopers when they’re being dumb. Those potential cliches are even lampshaded in the subverted expectations of the two Midders, neither of whom had ever set foot in the lower levels before.

As I read, I wound up jotting down some questions about the world building. Where does the food the characters eat come from? Why do two of the three main characters seem immune to the Pinnacle’s pervasive propaganda? (Try saying that five times fast.) Subpar past reading experience and my own cranky nature led me to assume those questions would never be answered, so I was pleasantly surprised when Okungbowa addressed both. He didn’t dwell on either issue, but yes, there’s an agricultural level, which uses manure. And yes, Yekini’s grandmother specifically taught her to look beyond the party line. So yay not getting sloppy. Faith restored and all that.

The plot takes some dips and turns, ending up somewhere both expected and not. I was surprised how late in the story the nature of the Children was revealed, given that it’s right there in the synopsis. Once the Queen Conch came into play… I get what Okungbowa was getting at, but I found the more abstracted nature of those sections distancing. That said, I did like the ambiguity of the ending. Anything too cut and dry - either too cynical or too idealistic - would have irked me. So let the camera iris out, fade to black, and end on a powerful moment.

3.5 stars overall, and I think I will round this one up.

Lost Ark Dreaming mixes a suspenseful, adrenaline-filled story with at times poetic, Yoruba-inspired mythology, and direct commentary on exploitation, capitalism, and social stratification. The pace makes for a very engaging novella, but also for some abrupt character development that detracted from how powerful some of its messages could have been. Suyi Davies Okungbowa does a lot of interesting things in this story, and I loved the influence of Nigerian culture and tradition to an otherwise familiar dystopian setup. I was left enjoying the read overall, but with mixed results on how much of a lasting impression it made on me.

This is a post-climate disaster, near-future dystopia where people seek refuge from rising sea levels in towers on the Nigerian coast. The Pinnacle tower is a symbol of exploitative capitalism, both in its construction as a luxury living community for the privileged turned into a reluctant host for refugees, and in its hierarchical social order split between the Lowers, Midders, and Uppers, depending on which level folks live on. Within the tower, we follow three characters from different backgrounds who are put together to investigate a tower infrastructure issue that quickly escalates into discovering bigger secrets being kept and a bit of fantasy/monster horror.

There were moments that were great for me when reading. The author does some interesting things with form, switching between traditionally delivered plot, poetic interludes, and articles conveying some of the history and context of the world building. In particular, the interludes slowed things down and were more effective at delivering powerful commentary and themes of memory, sacrifice, and loss. But like some of the abrupt character development, this made for abrupt shifts in tone and pace, that left things feeling a little looser than I had hoped.

This story is in some ways a very familiar setup of a tower-based dystopia akin to Silo, and delivers on that plot really well. The African influence makes this stand out as approachable but new, and I appreciate the exposure to less represented cultures and traditions. Suyi Davies Okungbowa shows flashes of creativity and inspiration that excite me to check out more of his work. Lost Ark Dreaming was a fast, engaging read, and for the length and break-neck pace alone I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, but it is not a new favorite.

It took me a while to get into this book, but when I did I couldn't put it down. 4 stars

I love the main character and the way she went about things. She had some hard times. And the world was so immersive. This is my frist book from Suyi and I will definitely be reading from him again.

Lost Ark Dreaming is absolutely brilliant!

Okungbowa is able to create such a richly detailed post-apocalyptic world in so few pages. This book is pitched as a combination of Snowpiercer and The Deep by Rivers Solomon and that description is absolutely spot on. There is a high stakes mystery/conspiracy plot guiding the novel forward while the characters' personal histories and the interludes provide a glimpse into the near and distant past.

If you are a fan of climate science fiction and post-apocalyptic stories, you must check this out! I think that science fiction and fantasy readers will both find the plot exciting and engaging.

4.5/5 stars!

LOST ARK DREAMING grew on me. At first, it seemed like your typical YA dystopia with the classic “oh-no-the-government-is-evil-and-has-been-secretly-hiding-something-from-us” trope, mixed with the Snowpiercer-esque blunt metaphor of people from different physical “layers” of a train/ship/skyscraper being different classes (a trope I also recently encountered in AN UNKINDNESS OF GHOSTS)—and it very much can be distilled to those two tropes, but a unique part of this novella can be found in its interludes.

Sometimes poetry, sometimes newspaper articles, or general reflections related to the novel’s themes, it’s an interesting way of adding a little extra to the book. I’m not sure if it always worked for me. It’s nice because it feels different, yet it also sometimes took me out of the story because there are a *lot* of interludes for such a short story.

Nearing the end, it reminded me the most of an obscure little Polish film, “O-bi, O-ba: The End of Civilization”, in which a post-apocalyptic society has as its only hope a mythical vessel which is said to come to rescue them some day. It’s a common trope in these hopeless generation ship stories, but it works quite well here, but I won’t say too much else about it because that would spoil things.

Overall, it’s at the very least an interesting work and a great example of a novella done well.

Decades after the rise of the Atlantic Ocean, the deluge survivors live in partially submerged towers off the coast of what used to be Lagos. The tower's inhabitants are divided into classes, with the most affluent living at the top and the rest crammed into the bottom.

Lost Ark Dreaming follows three characters: Yekini, a rookie analyst; Tuoyo, an engineer; and Ngozi, an insufferable government official. A crack is discovered in the tower, and the three must work together to fix it.

For a novella, the three protagonists in the story were expertly developed. For a book this short, the writer did a great job of telling the story, giving us back stories of the characters and intricately weaving the world they lived in. It took me a while to get into the story, but I flew through it once I got a hang of it.

My only complaint about the book was its length and ending. I wasn’t a big fan, and it left me with more questions than answers. The author tells us about life in the tower, but I itched to know more about life outside the tower. Aside from these, I recommend this book if you’re looking for a good African SFF.

PS. This book was so good I dreamt about life in the tower, probably because I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

This story was a 3.5 read for me. The world was unique and interesting to discover. The characters were well drawn out, and I immediately invested in their story.

I found this short story to be theme-heavy as if the author wanted to explore many areas in a short amount of story-telling. The writing was concise, and there were beautiful, heartfelt sentiments throughout.

I recommend this to readers who enjoy exploring unfamiliar sci-fi worlds and themes of community and belonging.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book.

4.5

"I love how they say conquer when they mean erase"

This is one of the most powerful short books I have read in a long time.

Not a word was wasted!

With our ever changing environment and major climate shifts this is so timely as we are already seeing the effects on the Nigerian landscape of oil exploration and mining. Reminding us of the scary reality that once companies causing these climate shifts have tapped all the resources they can they will not share in repairing the destruction they have created.

Novellas can sometimes be hard to judge/review, especially for those of us who predominantly read novels. I think you have to approach novellas with a different eye because it doesn't have all of the extra space that a full novel does. Novellas often cannot balance character, plot, worldbuilding, and themes in the same way a novel does, and so tend to emphasize 1 or 2 of these attributes (with, in my experience, character and theme being given precedence).

In Lost Ark Dreaming, Suyi David Okungbowa emphasizes the themes of his work, which will delight readers looking for a challenging look at global politics, power structures, oppression, and climate change, but may dissapoint readers who are more attracted by the worldbuilding premise from the blurb.

Lost Ark Dreaming is set in the near future of Nigeria after global climate change has inundated most habitable dry land with ocean water. Humanity's solution is to build gigantic towers that rise out of these new oceans, where the rich and powerful get to live at the top and the poorest live at the bottom (even into the windowless/submerged parts of the tower). This creates a clear class divide - a vertical Snowpiercer or Silo without the cultural memory loss. Enter Yekini and Tuoyo, two women from the "lower levels" who need to spring into action to save these socially and physically divided towers from themselves.

In terms of the wordbuilding and plot themselves, everything feels just a tad underdeveloped and thin. The entire plot itself can be summarized in just a few sentences, and when Okungbowa was just focusing on teh action set pieces I was a tad bored. The world and plot felt generically dystopian; I mentioned Snowpiercer and Silo above, and in terms of the actual sense of place and plot there wasn't all that much distinguishing Lost Ark Dreaming from those other properties. And, because Okungbowa had less room to work here, this comes off as a lesser version of that kind of story in terms of its worldbuilding and plot. There are some really enticing developments about 2/3 of the way through the novella, but by then there are only around 50 pages left and the climax is forced to move at warpspeed, robbing the last few pages of the emotional weight that Okungbowa was going for.

Having said that, what makes this novella worth picking up are its storytelling style and themes. If we can prevent ourselves from reducing Lost Ark Dreaming down to just its core plot, there are a lot of artistic flourishes and movements here that kept by enthralled and turning the pages. This is a story that shines in the way that it is told, and the messages it moves to relay.

Okungbowa plays with style, interjecting his "traditional" prose third-person limited narration with poetry, blog posts, newspaper articles, government documents, and more. These enrichen and enliven the world of Lost Ark Dreaming, giving it texture that the "regular" chapters seem to lack. We get a better sense of how this world came to be, how the power hierarchy works, and the culture of these a bit more. They are also just beautifully written and conveyed, and Okungbowa's command of style and voice is marvelous here. Novellas are one of the best formats to experiment with different storytelling styles (while still having the space to push the traditional narrative), and in that regard Okungbowa utilizes the format to its full potential.

Lost Ark Dreaming also quite viscerally condemns power structures and the oppression of lower classes. What particularly struck me, as a white American, is how many of these similar stories (Snowpiercer, Silo, etc.) come from the white perspective. Heck, almost the entirety of post-apocalyptic media comes from white perspectives and are about white people facing discrimination and oppression (The Hunger Games as just one clear example). While I was reading Lost Ark Dreaming, I couldn't help but think about the ways in which we don't hear these stories from the people who would be the most impacted by them - people living outside of the so-called "Global North". Perhaps this is because it is only affluent white people who need to imagine futures that are so dystopian, which the current world order works to create dystopians all over the place. When Okungbowa confronts the impacts of climate change in Lost Ark Dreaming, he doesn't hold back from condemning the local political structure's role in the managing of the towers, but also how the global power players created the circumstances for which something like this can emerge. If you are burned out by cli-fi or dystopians, still give this one a go because it comes from a perspective rarely represented in the genre (in traditional American publishing at least).

Okungbowa further explores issues of oppression and social memory - and how what we THINK we know may just be deep-seeded propoganda that has become so naturalized that we don't even realize its propoganda anymore. But discussions of these ideas are starting to get into spoiler territory, so I'll just leave it at that. If these are things you like explored in your sci-fi, then you'll be increasingly enamored as the book goes on.

In general, Lost Ark Dreaming sacrifices its plot, worldbuilding, and a bit of its character work in favor of novel and exciting storytelling styles and exploration of prescient themes from a perspective that isn't given enough of a space in traditional American publishing. And I think that this is a good thing. There are so many books published each year that have stupidly complex plots and Robin Hobb-level character arcs. Not every book (and especially novella) needs to be judged to those terms. We need space to explore non-Western storytelling styles, experimental prose, and books with thematic heft to them.

Lost Ark Dreaming is an exciting novella that all climate fiction readers should pick up ASAP. I would definitely read more from Okungbowa doing shorter, experimental works like this, whether set in this world or something completely different.

Concluding Thoughts: Lost Ark Dreaming is a near-future climate dystopian (kind of) novella that doesn't do anything particularly new with its plot or worldbuilding (it is vertical Snowpiercer), but expertly uses that familiarity to experiment with storytelling style and theme. Cli-fi and dystopian fiction have been the purview of one single group of authors for far too long in American publishing, and it is exciting to get these kinds of stories from a wide variety of perspectives and viewpoints. This is different from Okungbowa's epic fantasy series, and I think it is the more exciting entry point for new readers. Highly recommended.

An emotional adrenaline rush, Lost Ark Dreaming is an eco dystopian novella following three people through the literal ups and downs of the Pinnacle, the massive tower that holds that last of humanity. I found the comparisons of this story to both Snowpiercer and Rivers Solomon's The Deep incredibly accurate.

“What are we but stories that touch?” This crucial question arises early in one of the poetic interludes of this absorbing novella about the drowning world of a future Lagos – Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa. While most of the city is now underwater, survivors live in the Pinnacle, highest of five towers built offshore for the wealthy by the Diekara family. Four of these great structures have already failed, and some of the survivors, including the grandparents of the central character, Yekini, have managed to rebuild their lives in this last great tower.

This is a powerful story about the nature of story itself, of myth, of memory, of belief shaped by propaganda, of hope arising from the willingness to risk privilege for truth, and the critical choices that must be made when reality overturns a rigidly imposed hierarchy of status and value.

Lost Ark Dreaming begins appropriately enough with a dream. Yekini sees a great Ark, helmed by a robed figure resembling at times Olokun, god of the sea, or Noah or Deucalion or any great survivor figure of a world flood, who is reaching for a basket Yekini holds. In the basket is a baby with her face or the face of someone she knows whom she could choose to save, but she clings to the basket as the waters are rising over Lagos. Then she awakens to the mundane world of her middle level apartment and realizes that she has slept late. She lives in the Pinnacle where she looks after her Maame and needs to rush to her job as an analyst for the Commission that runs the huge tower.

Yekini’s story touches those of Ngozi and Tuoyo when the three are assigned to deal with a difficult problem on one of the lower, submerged levels of the Pinnacle. There has been a dangerous breech in a wall that holds back the sea. The rigidly stratified social life of the tower is reflected in the careers of these characters. Yekini, whose family climbed slowly from the undersea Lowers to the Midders, is an analyst now assigned to her first field problem. But since it’s at an undersea level, she interprets it as a kind of punishment for some unknown offense. Tuoyo is a mechanic and foreman of the level where the breech occurred and who has never really recovered from the death of her wife at sea. Ngozi is a higher status bureaucrat from the Upper levels, who can’t understand why he has to endure an embarrassing assignment in the undersea levels.

...........
Okungbowa weaves a beautiful story, with echoes of Rivers Solomon’s The Deep, that gives a whole new meaning to the trope of human society surviving catastrophe through life in towering buildings. It is a story that brings us to a powerful moment of human choice, referring back in an image to the first dream of Yekini. It is a fully satisfying climax that pulls all the strands of the story together and which could either lead to a sequel or simply end where it does. Either way, the poetry and myth blend beautifully with the action of a strong adventure. Lost Ark Dreaming is a remarkable piece of writing.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading Lost Ark Dreaming. Suyi Davies Okungbowa has beautiful style of writing. I was immersed in the fast-paced plot from the beginning and equally engaged with the main characters. The additional excerpts and lyrical interludes between chapters are what really set this novel apart for me. There were a few moments where I felt more in-depth explanations were needed and would have contributed to the overall richness of the novella.That said, these lacking moments were inconsequential to the arc of the storyline and the novella as a whole.

I hope to see more speculative fiction by this author in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor.com for the ARC!

Oh my God! I absolutely love this book! Lost Ark Dreaming tells the story of Yekini, a government official working in what used to be Lagos, but is now a skyscraper within which people are grouped according to class with the most affluent at the top. When cracks start to emerge in the system, Yekini must work with Ngozi and Tuoyo to find a solution.

The author writes about heavy themes like class, politics and religion without detracting from the beauty of the story. I love details and can’t stop raving about how good the world building in this book is. I can’t wait to see what else this author releases.

If you’re looking to get into African sci-fi/fantasy, this is the book for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the concept of this novella. For fans of Snowpiercer, this cli-fi dystopia set off the coast of West Africa was exciting and high-stakes. Following three POVs, the society in this world is divided between Uppers, Midders, and Lowers in the high-rise tower where people now live after climate change causes disastrous flooding in Lagos. The worldbuilding was very well done, and I liked the character Tuoyo the best.

I wish it had been more character-driven and less plot heavy, but that is more of a personal preference than a problem with the novella itself. This definitely packs the punch of a full-length novel and I will certainly pick up more from Suyi Davies Okungbowa.

I was honestly shocked at how good this was, purely because it takes such an incredible writer to be able to successfully write large pieces of work AND novellas. If Okungbowa writes it, I'm going to read it.

Okungbowa showed in his Nameless Republic series that he has an incredible imagination when it comes to worldbuilding, and that skill is on display in this piece. Taking place in the near-future when climate change has caused flooding that results in humans living in giant skyscrapers. For such a short book, this book touches on so many different aspects of society. This book is incredibly deep, and I feel like numerous college-level essays could be written regarding the number of points Okungbowa was trying to make about what our world has become and where it is going.

This had me thinking so much, both about the book and the world, and I was just so impressed.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

My Rating: 3.5 stars

First, I would like to thank NetGalley, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, and their publisher for the ARC.

Here is my honest review:

I am a huge fan of Snowpiercer, and I have been itching for something similar. Lost Ark Dreaming delivers that with its in-depth brutal class system. I enjoyed how the story talked about and questioned immigration, humanity, and class. The story makes you think, and I enjoy works that linger with me afterwards.

Overall, the premise of the book was very intriguing. Unfortunately, the characters fell a bit flat for me. The character development was slow, and I couldn’t develop an attachment to any of the characters. As a reader, I found the book lacking in its understanding of the characters' motivations. The progression of the plot begins only when we meet the final character and by then it was too late for me. I think that the main character’s motivation should have been presented sooner in the book, because it threw me out of my reading experience trying to keep up with their goals. This caused the story to be very slow-moving even though it was marketed to be fast paced.

Despite this I was still captivated by the world-building I think this would have been better suited as a full-length novel as opposed to a novella. That way the author would have more room to go in-depth with world-building and character-growth. As previously stated, I enjoyed the journey and the premise, I just think the characters need a bit more work. However, for people who love fast-paced dystopian books that make you question humanity and society and are fans of Snowpiercer, this book will be for you.

I’ve read a few things by Suyi Davies Okungbowa in anthologies, and enjoyed them. This novella is the first thing I’ve read from him longer than a short story. Okungbowa is Nigerian, and as I’m always a sucker for books that draw on cultures I’m unfamiliar with, I was happy to snap this one up.

It’s set in the not-too-distant future, post climate collapse. The entire book takes place in the Pinnacle, an arcology (not a word used within the novella, but it's what the Pinnacle is) that had been built off the coast of Lagos before the seas rose. Life in the Pinnacle is strictly hierarchical; everyone lives on their assigned level, and is only permitted to travel to a different one if their job requires it. The elite, the Uppers, live on the top floors of the tower; the Midders live between the Uppers and the waterline; the Lowers live on the levels that are underwater. No one leaves the Pinnacle. The status of the not-flooded lands are never addressed in one way or the other, and there are stories of strange creatures in the water, evolved out of the wreck of the old world.

The story addresses such themes as class divides, responsibility for climate change, coping with climate change, and valuing indigenous cultures. On the whole, I enjoyed it - it was creative and compelling, and (as implied above) I love getting a window into a different culture. But it also felt lacking to me, like it was trying to do too much in too few pages. I felt like it tried to do too much, at the cost of not doing enough of anything. So it left me rather unsatisfied. It left me more interested in Okungbowa’s novels - I’d like to see what he can do in a longer form.

Within the confines of its short page count, Suyi Davies Okunbowa deploys truly impressive economical worldbuilding to situate us right into this literal fish(creature)-out-of-water tale.

The narrative unfolds within a massive skyscraper that towers above the flooded African coast, where societal classes are physically stratified – akin to turning the train from Snowpiercer vertically – the higher class residing above and the lower class below the ever-rising sea level, a literal manifestation of social hierarchy.

What sets this novella apart are the deeply felt interludes scattered throughout. These reflections delve into the complexities of humanity, trauma, displacement, class, intergenerational oral tradition, immigration, and more. It's a tapestry of themes carefully woven throughout the narrative.

Lost Ark Dreaming is not only profound, but also approachable and exciting. It left me wanting more, and I look forward to seeing whatever Okungbowa writes next.

Climate change sci-fi just isn't for me, but I did enjoy elements of this, particularly the Africanfuturism. I wish some of the revealed details of past events hadn't been so poetic and dreamy - I was left unclear as to what actually happened at some points. All told, a pretty fun, short read.

This is the first thing I've read by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, and now I need to read more.

Lost Ark Dreaming is an imaginative novella set in the wake of a climate change disaster. Off the coast of Lagos, five towers were built (known as the Fingers) to house elites. Years later, the seas have risen, and survivors live in the various levels of the Fingers, knowing only the world within these walls. The story follows three characters, each one from a different echelon of the tower (Upper, Middle, and Lower) as they solve the mystery of a leak in the Lower level, and a greater mystery involving the creatures known only as the Children.

The world created by Okungbowa is fascinating. I was easily sucked into the political and social implications of the world of the Fingers. This short novella only gave us a taste of the society created within these walls, and I was disappointed when it came to a too-quick end. The mythology behind the Children and what actually happened to the people of Lagos was especially interesting. As someone who has not read a lot of speculative fiction, I was easily drawn into the story and enjoyed every minute of it.

I highly recommend this book to those looking for a new speculative fiction story, or those who would like to simply try something new. Lost Ark Dreaming is a fantastic read, and I can't wait to discover more works by Okungbowa.