The Electric State

By Simon Stålenhag

** Soon to be a Netflix film starring Millie Bobbie Brown and Chris Pratt **

Stranger Things meets On the Road in this hypnotic, lavishly illustrated novel.
 
In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her small yellow toy robot travel west through a strange American landscape where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, along with the discarded trash of a high-tech consumerist society addicted to a virtual-reality system. As they approach the edge of the continent, the world outside the car window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.

Told in achingly melancholy, spare prose and featuring almost a hundred gorgeous, full-colour illustrations, The Electric State is a novel like no other.
 
Rights in The Electric State have already sold in thirteen territories and Deadline reports that the film rights were snapped up by the Russo Brothers’ production company (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War) with Andy Muschietti (Mama, It) attached to direct.

“A jaw-dropping science fiction artbook . . . This quiet, sad adventure is an excellent and visually stunning addition to any graphic novel, art, or science fiction collection.” ― Publishers Weekly (starred)

“A haunting illustrated novel. . . . Readers of bleak, emotionally rich dystopian science fiction will be fascinated with the way Stålenhag doles out details—all the way to the open-ended, heartbreaking conclusion.” ― Booklist (starred)

“An awe-inspiring vision of a species committing suicide, perhaps to be reborn as something new. [. . .] The Electric State is a striking and strangely compelling work of science fiction gothic. Providing a series of snapshots of an alternate Earth of yesteryear, it tells the story of how that world ended.” ― New York Journal of Books

"One part art-book, one part picture-book—the mundanity of everyday relationships play out alongside science fiction imagery that is as beautiful as it is unsettling." ― Waypoint

"[Simon Stålenhag's] stories crawl into my brain and mess with my memory of history, time, and place. His art (photorealistic, washed out, laced in neon or icicles, nostalgic and futuristic both at the same time) gets into my eyes and stays there. [. . .] If you're anything like me, you'll take those images to bed with you for a long time and dream of Stålenhag's America — lost to sand, to drought, to war, to loneliness, and stalked always by the low, distant rumble of something terrible rising out of the earth and coming for you." ― NPR Books

"[The] mix of science fiction and real world pop-culture nostalgia is instantly compelling, but there are layers to The Electric State that take the story beyond surface value. [. . .] In a way, it is an extremely American story, bringing together themes like the intersection of war and technology; fire-and-brimstone religion and its effect on LGBT youth; families separated by great physical distance while still being a part of the same country." ― Los Angeles Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Sep 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781471176098

Simon Stålenhag

Simon Stålenhag (b. 1984) is the internationally acclaimed author, concept designer and artist behind Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. His highly imaginative images and stories depicting illusive sci-fi phenomena in mundane, hyper-realistic Scandinavian and American landscapes have made Stålenhag one of the most sought-after visual storytellers in the world. Tales from the Loop was ranked one of the “10 Best Dystopias” by The Guardian, along with such works as Franz Kafka’s The Trial and Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca.

Reviews for The Electric State

[osdolai · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A girl and her robot travel to the California coast while civilization slowly crumbles in a dystopian 1997. Surely this is an appealing premise for sci-fi enthusiasts. Unfortunately, the novelty wears off very quickly. You get treated to a succession of digital West Coast landscapes, invariably featuring the back of an Oldsmobile and some colossal electromechanical structure in the background. A blue hue is overused in *every single image* to convey sadness, dread and pessimism.The accompanying narration is linear and underwhelming. The protagonist is an unrelatable, borderline sociopathic, anachronistically millennial teenager. She enumerates generic West Coast place names. "We drove along Canyon Lane past Cedar Woods, Woodrington Heights and Coast Terrace trying to reach El Rancho before heading off to El Mezcalito". Repeat on every single page. All toponyms are entirely fictional, so even if you are from California, that won't add any relevant information. Nothing really happens and the pace quickly changes from what we may at best call brisk to glacial. We find out very little about this world, how it works, what has happened, when, why. We don't get any clues to answer these questions ourselves in our imagination either. There's also the cliché teenage angst about foster parents and failed romance. The book is marketed as a tour de force travelogue across a cyberpunk phantasmagoria, in a world similar to ours that took a wrong turn somewhere in the early 1990s. But it really is an oversized collection of postcards with a one-dimensional, poorly written narration on the side.To finish on a positive note, this could make a wonderful TV series if the basic concept is put in the hands of a capable screenwriter who can spin the story into an action-packed suspense/drama/road movie. Stalenhag certainly is a talented artist with some original ideas, but he would benefit from the help of a more entertaining storyteller next time. He could also add more variety and some spice into his art. It's all very static, scenic and scripted. Probably not enough to drive a narrative on its own. A succession of decently crafted images a good story does not make.

[modioperandi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to NetGalley & Edelweiss for the ARC. Stunning artwork. Absolutely thoroughly imagined and jaw dropping artwork set to classic and engaging sci-fi themes. Simon Stalenhag has put together, yet again, a totally engrossing and compelling art-book set to vignette stories. Pairs well with: Dinotopia - primarily because of the short form fiction work put up against stellar illustrations. Pamphlet Architecture. The entire series but mainly works from Lebbeus Woods and Zaha Hadid.Borne, Dead Astronauts, and Strange Bird - Jeff Vandermeer for visualizations of the broken places.

[aadyer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A really beautifully illustrated hardback art book this time looking at a dystopian post future war setting on the west coast of America. Largely concentrating on a road trip with some references to what has gone before this is evocative stuff. It’s accessibility is improved by amazing illustrations. If you like Tales From The Loop then I’d be very surprised if you won’t be captivated by this.

[zoes_human · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This darkly beautiful book lies somewhere in between a graphic novel and an illustrated novella. Whatever else it may be, it is incredible.The art is magnficent. I would be happy simply looking through a book of these pictures. However, Simon Stålenhag has also given us a mysterious, retrofuturistic, post-apocalyptic road trip story that has left me with as many questions as it has given me answers and a deep longing to return to this universe.

[needmoreshelves · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Part graphic novel, part dystopian coming-of-age story, with a sprinkle of "The Road" thrown in, this illustrated novella was unlike anything I'd ever read before, and I very much enjoyed it.