Lost Ark Dreaming

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 was invested in their story right away.

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

I would 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 an ARC of this book.

What a fantastic story! This book has skyrocketed onto my list of best books I’ve read and is in contention for my best book of the year. I knew from chapter one that I was going to love the story, and the rest of the book didn’t disappoint. It’s perfection.

The short chapters really set the pace, and build the tension as our characters realize they are not alone in the tower, and a vengeful water demon is hiding in the shadows. Not only that, but the higher ups think they are overreacting. Everything in this story felt so real. So painfully, beautifully human.

We follow three very different characters on the day that their lives are completely upended and changed forever. We learn about their hopes, dreams, and fears as they try to navigate the chaos. They don’t like each other, and never come to like each other, but they agree to work together to survive.

A major theme throughout the story is the human capacity for working together for good, and for turning on each other and hurting other humans, especially those who are a little different. There are no easy answers here, and the story mostly asks questions, all while providing a trilling, suspenseful tale.

The climax of the story was truly beautiful. I’m getting chills just thinking about it again. It’s an open ending, and I absolutely love it.

It’s been several days since I read this book, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I will definitely be rereading it, and I have a feeling it will stick with me for a long time.

I need more time to sit with this before I can land on a rating I think. I really loved the opening to the book and the setting was terrific. I really liked the characters too and appreciated how they each had their own motivations, unique to themselves, that had steered them all in similar directions. I think some phrasings of some things maybe lost me somewhere or maybe I lost focus on a few pages and didn’t realize it until the end but I don’t know that I fully get the end of the story. It’s left a little up to you to fill in some of what was going to happen after the last page which is sometimes fun, but I don’t think I really know what I think will happen.

I think this is more of a 3.5 stars. An interesting concept of a future where anyone left in Lagos has to survive in a single gargantuan tower, but I think I would have appreciated more meat on the bones. Some of the depth goes unexplored and the characters feel too shallow, but it's a quick and curious read nonetheless.