I had reserved expectations for this book and it feels great for it to exceed those expectations in the most unusual way. As great as this book was, it wouldn't be something I'll recommend to just anyone but if you love Arabian/Persian/Northern Nigerian fantasy, you'll love this.

I went in with no prior knowledge of how the book flowed. According to the summary, it drew inspirations from books like "Magana jari ce" and "One thousand and one nights", so I was expecting a collection of interesting short stories; what I found was something different but also similar. It wasn't a collection of short stories but a collection of ramblings.

The best way to describe my perception of the flow of the book is like having a discussion with (forced to listen to a story by) that old man from your village that swears he's seen all the wars, people don't really believe him and everyone unanimously agrees that everything he says is probably only 50% true, mixing reality with his fantasies and silly stories from times only he can remember but the stories are so interesting and he never seems to mix them up even though he keeps pulling in and out of certain timelines; so everyone just enjoys it.

I know it sounds like a weird description 😅, which is why I said I wouldn't be recommending it to just anyone.

After the title page, there was this

Someone proposed searching by regression: To locate book A first consult book B, which tells you where book A can be found; to locate book B first consult book C, and soon, to infinity... Jorge Luis Borges

I found out this quote is from the book, "The Library of Babel" and now I'm looking for it. Anyways, my book fantasies aside, I didn't think much of this quote until I was nearing the end of the book, that was when I realised, every section is explained better in the next section (if that makes sense 😅) . Did I mention this book doesn't have chapters? Yup, it's just sections.

Gosh! I'm beginning to sound like Garba, rambling on 🫠.

My favourite line from the book is this from page 206:

"By God, some books should be scarce"

The incredible dreams of Garba Dakaskus in its on way is an ode to books and literacy. It personified characters and alphabets. It revolves around the search for and origin of a book within it called "A Guide to the Secret of the Alphabets". It takes the reader through several journeys on how the search for it transcends time, topples empires, destroys men and unites species.

I'm not going to tell you all that happens in the book because where's the fun in that but I will also like say that I'm not being cryptic or mysterious, the book just makes it so.

This was less of a review and more of gushing but I'm happy Nigerian authors are exploring fantasy like this. I'm looking forward to reading more from Umar Abubakar Sidi.