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THE MEMORY OF THE OGISI

Moses Utomi

The epic conclusion to Moses Ose Utomi's critically-acclaimed Forever Desert series, The Memory of the Ogisi shatters every truth, interrogates every lie, and is a story of oppression you'll never forget.
Even deserts have a beginning. Even gardens have an end. Even water has a story.

The City of a Thousand Stories stands resolute on the edge of the Forever Desert. It is a lush metropolis, where water flows into every mouth that thirsts and knowledge sprouts in every mind that craves it. Yet despite their prosperity, no one can remember how the city began. It is a dire state of affairs: a people who do not learn their past cannot chart their future.

Ethike is an Ogisi, one of the City's many historians, who has devoted his life to studying a little-known figure named Osi. He believes Osi to be the key to the city's origins, but his years of research have only raised more questions about Osi's identity. Until, one day, he believes he has found the answer.

Spurred by his love for his city and his family, Ethike ventures into the Forever Desert in search of the Lost Tomb of Osi. If he can find it, he will finally be able to prove his worth to the City's Elders and cement Osi's role in history. But history is a story told by the powerful. What Ethike uncovers beneath the sand is a power far beyond anything he could have expected...and it wants vengeance.

Moses Ose Utomi is a Nigerian-American fantasy writer and nomad currently based out of Honolulu, Hawaii. He has an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and short fiction publications in Fireside Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, and more. He is the author of the novella The Lies of the Ajungo and the YA fantasy novel Daughters of Oduma. When he's not writing, he's traveling, training martial arts, or doing karaokewith or without a backing track.
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Published 2025-07-15 by Tor Books

Comments

This is the close of a great epic and a beautiful but terrible-to-hear story about oppression, repression, suppression, and the discovery of truths that only lead to more terrible lies.

The Memory of the Ogisi reads with the force of an oncoming sandstorm: inevitable and unrelenting. Over the course of this trilogy, Moses Ose Utomi has grown so sure and skilled with using the power of myth (and memory), his storytelling is like a blade wielded by a master.

Utomi sharply dissects the conflation of truth and lies in this poignant fable featuring the kind Ethike, who never loses his faith in people no matter how often they choose the comforting lie over the difficult truth.