The Truth of the Aleke is the sequel to Moses Ose Utomi's The Lies of the Ajungo and the middle novella in Utomi's Forever Desert trilogy. It takes place 500 years after The Lies of the Ajungo, which was a really good novella following a protagonist who sets out into the desert from an oppressed city to find water for his mom, only to discover the world he knows was lies and who then in the triumphant-esque climax takes action to end the true source of that oppression (I'm trying to leave out some spoilers here). I liked that novella a lot so I put this novella on my list to try to read as soon as it came out, even if its description made it sound a more spiritual successor and stand-alone than a sequel.
That assumption was wrong - The Truth of the Aleke is a true sequel, despite the centuries that have passed since the first work, and tries to very deliberately set up another world dealing with potential oppression from outsiders and then use the parallels to the first novella to surprise readers who are expecting more of the same. It's an interesting result, with a strong lead character, but I found the final swerve of this book kind of too abrupt to work fully for me. That said, it's an interesting way of portraying cycles of oppression and the idea of how truth is what those in power portray, which is a central theme of this series. More specifics below the jump: