Welcome friend! The final book of the Forever Desert Trilogy that started with The Lies of the Ajungo is coming out next week and I finally made time to read book 2. The Truth of the Aleke takes place 500 years after the events of The Lies of the Ajungo, but it can absolutely be read as a standalone. Take a look at the synopsis below and check out my review:
Moses Ose Utomi | Goodreads | Forever Desert #2
Moses Ose Utomi returns to his Forever Desert series with The Truth of the Aleke, continuing his epic fable about truth, falsehood, and the shackles of history.
The Aleke is cruel. The Aleke is clever. The Aleke is coming.
500 years after the events of The Lies of the Ajungo, the City of Truth stands as is the last remaining free city of the Forever Desert. A bastion of freedom and peace, the city has successfully weathered the near-constant attacks from the Cult of Tutu, who have besieged it for three centuries, attempting to destroy its warriors and subjugate its people.
17-year-old Osi is a Junior Peacekeeper in the City. When the mysterious leader of the Cult, known only as the Aleke, commits a massacre in the capitol and steals the sacred God’s Eyes, Osi steps forward to valiantly defend his home. For his bravery he is tasked with a tremendous responsibility—destroy the Cult of Tutu, bring back the God’s Eyes, and discover the truth of the Aleke.
The Truth of the Aleke – Review
For returning readers like me, the opening twist — a very different retelling of Tutu’s story — was jarring and deeply emotional. Seeing Tutu painted as an oppressor and evangelist broke my heart. He was no such thing! The City of Truth — as it’s now called — worships the Spearman who ended Tutu’s life, and the version of history Osi has grown up with is skewed, shaped by propaganda and power.
From the very beginning, I didn’t trust the narrative that Osi believed. His dream to be someone is sincere, but his understanding of the world is narrow. After knowing the web of lies from the last book, I was prepared for a similar unraveling — and it came.
Truth as a Weapon
The City of Truth is supposedly a place of freedom and peace, yet the story questions these ideals constantly. The author explores the idea that “truth” can be manipulated and given time, events of the past are remembered as what is told by those in power, not the ones who were there or lived it. Wherever there is a power structure — warriors, religious figures, or heads of state — there are lies.
History is only a story, told by those with power to justify why they have it. The truth does not bend to power’s whims.
The Truth of the Aleke
This theme was present in the first book too, but I found it to be much more of a rude awakening for Osi than it had been for Tutu. Maybe that’s because Tutu, in his travels, had made friends and learned from many. Osi, though he had a best friends growing up, was mostly estranged and isolated. He didn’t have someone looking out for him.
TRUTH IS A CRUEL TEACHER. It does not appease. It does not reconsider. Its lessons vary in delivery—sometimes trickling in over decades, sometimes crashing down all at once—but consistently disregard the desires of the student.
The Truth of the Aleke
Osi’s Journey: Loyalty, Manipulation, and Awakening
Osi’s journey was a heartbreaking one to read. I felt sad for his relationship with his mother and the pressure he felt as the only son in the family. He is impulsive with a good heart but this often leads him into trouble and makes him open to manipulation. He is in awe of the Peacekeepers and this partly blinds him to the dynamics of the group and how they influence him to think and act a certain way.
He sees many flavours of loyalty throughout the story but I didn’t find him to be someone who could grasp the big picture. He is emotionally invested in the events that transpire and I felt for him. He just couldn’t see the pattern that linked them all together until much much later when he had to accept he was just another dispensable puppet in some powerful person’s scheme.
Challenging the Idea of Evil
Power, oppression and control in the Forever Dessert have been the themes of the series. When Osi finally meets the leader of the Aleke, he’s shocked. He had imagined a young, powerful figure — instead, he meets an old man with a family, a storyteller, someone who doesn’t match the myth at all.
The Cult of Tutu is demonized by the City of Truth, but when Osi meets its members like Obasa, many are just ordinary people who are suffering. The author challenges black-and-white notions of good vs. evil and I really like that about this series.
Obasa tells Osi the story of Tutu that I knew from the first book and I was relieved that someone remembered that. It made me reflect: in a fictional world, what is story and what is truth? In the Ajungo or the Aleke, there’s always an oppressor — whether the scarce resource is water, iron, or something magical, it all comes back to power.
“Power is like water.” He rolled the die. One. “It is not loyal. It is not honest. It has no desire but to grow.” He rolled again. One. “Even when defeated, it simply changes shape or place, filling any vacuum it finds, persisting until the day it can resume its growth.”
The Truth of the Aleke
Magic, Memory, and Meaning
Seers are more common in Osi’s time than in Tutu’s. I found the differences in how both characters learned, understood, and used their abilities fascinating — a quiet thread of comparison running through the novella.
Like the first book, the writing here is immersive and lyrical. The author says so much in so little space. I found many thought-provoking lines, and I want to share one more:
What if there was no way to punish the guilty without also punishing the innocent?
The Truth of the Aleke
This is such a timeless question, and I love that fantasy can ask this of the reader and the reader can answer it in context of the real world. Our world is riddled with power struggles, wars and agendas. Who suffers when systems fail? When leaders lie? When justice is used as a weapon?
A Note for First-Time Readers
The Truth of the Aleke can absolutely be read as a standalone, even though it follows the events of The Lies of the Ajungo. If you’re entering the Forever Desert for the first time, this novella offers a complete story arc — one that still carries emotional weight and narrative tension even without prior knowledge.
But I can’t help wondering: if this is the first version of Tutu you meet — a violent zealot, a cult leader, a threat to peace — what would you think of him? Would you believe the story told by the City of Truth? For those who haven’t read the first book, Tutu’s legacy is presented through a distorted lens. That ambiguity is intentional, and powerful. It’s a reminder that history always has more than one version, and the one you hear first isn’t always the one that’s true.
The Truth of the Aleke is only about 2 hours of reading time, yet it packs in philosophical, political, and emotional weight. I appreciate the short length and the delivery. It’s heavy but with sharp writing, it speaks volumes with minimal words. This is one reason I keep returning to this world!
I’m excited to see how the trilogy concludes in the final book, The Memory of the Ogisi.
Add this book on Goodreads, read my review of the first book, The Lies of the Ajungo.
Let me know in the comments if you have/plan to read this series. 🙂
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