A review by megatza
Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 

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. 

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for an eARC for review. Lost Ark Dreaming is out 5/21/24!