Lost Ark Dreaming
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a scholar of place and a master of worlds—his grasp of how we are shaped by the spaces we occupy makes him one of the most exciting authors writing in SFF."—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six
A Most Anticipated in 2024 Pick for Goodreads | BookBub | She Reads | Men's Health | FanFiAddict | Screen Rant
A Library Journal May 2024 Prepub Alert Pick
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.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this powerhouse tale of social inequality from Okungbowa (the Nameless Republic series), survivors of the Second Deluge, an environmental catastrophe that destroyed the city-nation of Lagos, are now holed up in the Pinnacle, a self-sustainable high-rise surrounded by ocean. Rigid protocol ensures near-totalitarian order within the Pinnacle, limiting interaction between its three socioeconomic strata: the Uppers, the Midders, and the "paler, vitamin-D-deficient" Lowers, who are forced to reside below sea level. Chaos erupts when a sea monster, believed to be the offspring of the devil Yemoja, claws its way inside the building, infiltrating Lower level nine. Three Pinnacle residents—Tuoyo, the level nine foreman; Yekini, a special operative from the mid-level; and Ngozi, a high-ranking government official—are assigned to the case. Okungbowa skillfully probes the trio's immediate distrust of each other, exposing their prejudices and ignorance, while ramping up the action to almost Dune-like intensity. The author packs this story with so many meaty themes—among them the power of history, gods, memory, and story-telling—that some inevitably get short shrift. Where the writing really shines, however, is in the small details, like the orange-peel necklace Ngozi wears in memory of his lost sister. Readers will be gratified.
