Lost Ark Dreaming x Suyi Davies Okungbowa (DRC)

182 pages.

Expected publication date: May 21, 2024 (tordotcom).

SF/AfroSF.

One of my favorite things about non-Western SF is how each story’s (or story universe’s) associated cosmology allows the author to set the reader up for a wholly different way of seeing the world than what our Eurocentricised (possible neologism!) imaginations allow. This is not the world of your Enlightenment philosophers; the rules of cause and effect obey ancient laws and beings.

In Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s novella, something catastrophic has happened, and sea levels have risen, causing Lagos to flood. A farsighted businessman has set up five offshore towers—arcologies, really—called the Fingers, with upper levels reserved for those who can afford to move there, and lower levels for refugees (a few) and the grunts who keep things running. Two of our protagonists are from the middle levels—essentially, management, one higher up than the other; the third is from the lower levels, but has lived in the middle before. The story begins when there’s a breach below ocean level; is it a mechanical failure, or have the monsters of the deep broken in?

Well, monsters are not usually what we think, and we are so often more monstrous than those we fear. This is a great novella about class and revolution, and loss, and memory, set in West African cosmology: I loved (and was gutted by) how Okungbowa linked Mami Wata with the transAtlantic trade in enslaved persons. I also loved the transformation of one particular character when we really got to know them, along with the things driving them. This novella has warmth and humour all the way through, setting it apart from lots of other SF that takes itself soooo seriously because It Has Things To Say; Okungbowa makes his points without being didactic. Additionally, the forays into a different form for the messages from outside of time are beautifully poetic.

So, recommended: this was a fun and thoughtful read. Come for the speculative elements of the story; stay for the Afro in AfroSF. Lost Ark Dreaming feels like the introduction to a whole story universe, so perhaps readers can look forward to more. (Also, what a gorgeous cover!)

Very many thanks to the author’s team for early access.

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