Tag: Simon Stålenhag

Review: Sunset at Zero Point

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Title: Sunset at Zero Point
Author: Simon Stålenhag
Pages: 192
Release: December 9, 2025

Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag adds another entry to his brilliant alternate-history oeuvre, this time telling a cohesive, cinematic story anchored by a compelling sci-fi hook and a tender romance between longtime friends, all brought to life through his stunning retro-futuristic artwork.

Stålenhag makes economical use of his brief word count as he bounds through time, offering glimpses into the complex relationship between Linus and Valter against the backdrop of a mysterious exclusion zone where marvels abound.

For those that dig his signature aesthetic, Netflix adapted Stålenhag’s The Electric State into a feature film – but I’d also highly recommend the phenomenal, under-the-radar Amazon series Tales from the Loop (2020), loosely based on Stålenhag’s earlier work of the same name. 

★★★★

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Tales from the Loop

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Tales from the LoopTitle: Tales from the Loop (2020; first published 2014)
Author: Simon Stålenhag
Pages: 128

This book showcases some truly spectacular science fiction artwork from Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag. The undeniably cool retrofuturistic aesthetic is juxtaposed against the seemingly mundane goings on of small town life in 1980s Sweden. The accompanying text is sometimes just window dressing to fill in the backstory behind the images, which stand on their own just fine.

If this sounds intriguing, I’d also highly recommend the Amazon show of the same name, which is loosely based on this source material. Each episode tells a self-contained story about a rural Ohio town and how The Loop that runs beneath it all fuels technological marvels that coexist amongst the townsfolk.