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.

Amazon / Goodreads

Synopsis:

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

Off the coast of West Africa, decades after the dangerous rise of the Atlantic Ocean, the region’s survivors live inside five partially submerged, kilometers-high towers originally created as a playground for the wealthy. Now the towers’ most affluent rule from their lofty perch at the top while the rest are crammed into the dark, fetid floors below sea level.

There are also those who were left for dead in the Atlantic, only to be reawakened by an ancient power, and who seek vengeance on those who offered them up to the waves.

Three lives within the towers are pulled to the fore of this conflict: Yekini, an earnest, mid-level rookie analyst; Tuoyo, an undersea mechanic mourning a tremendous loss; and Ngozi, an egotistical bureaucrat from the highest levels of governance. They will need to work together if there is to be any hope of a future that is worth living—for everyone.

Review:

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.