Skybound Books The Electric State

The visual part of book is excellent, there are no complaints at all. Same time, It seemed to me that the story itself is not enough, feels like too short. I mean that the story could somehow be finished, as it seemed to me that it broke off at the end.

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 our own but 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.

Simon Stålenhag’s “The Electric State” stirs the emotions like no other sci fi. If you are not moved by this book then you are made of stone. It is hard to compare it to anything else (and I have read a lot of sci fi). To be fair I am unfamiliar with graphic novels but this doesn’t quite fit that genre. This reminds me more of the sort of “coffee-table” book that movie studios publish showing the pre-visualisation art that went into their latest sci fi fantasy epic. It is a stirring blend of sci fi short story and artwork whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The sublime artwork and the story, by themselves, work as standalone efforts - together they are perfectly balanced, complementary, memorable and awe-inspiring. It makes you want to just curl up inside it and stay there forever. The story is pretty slim yet covers a lot of ground. It manages to say more in its chasms of emptiness than most authors manage in 300 pages. It is bare - painted with feelings of yearning, melancholy and endless foreboding. Stålenhag leaves great gaps for the story to breathe and fill your imagination. It is all so heart-achingly beautiful. Pages of artwork fly by with no text as the author lets the pictures paint the tale. The back-plot elements are told in retrospect and appear only in the text. Only the journey is illustrated – sometimes without commentary. This is an alien world albeit set in strangely familiar landscape. It is all so weirdly plausible…The tale it tells is of journey through a California in some alternate universe 1997. A young woman escapes the slow-boil-apocalypse unfolding in America’s chaotic mid-west as she travels to the west coast USA and (apparent) ‘civilisation’. Her companion is a robot drone called Skip and the reason for their flight remains mysterious for a large part of the story. Essential plot elements are slowly revealed through a series of flashbacks. We learn that people are becoming addicted to a form of immersive virtual reality entertainment system derived from military drone-control technology. The tech has evolved into a vast hive-mind that seems to have developed motivations all of its own. People no longer care if they live or die. They just rot away - or something even more disturbing… These aspects of the tale arise slowly and carefully as the author builds up to its sombre denouement. Not everything the author portrays is explained. There is just enough mystery left to keep the reader intrigued but not too much so as to frustrate. The landscape sets the mood as the story shuffles to its creepy conclusions.This is great sci fi. It is great art. The two together have created an awesome phenomena that has few parallels. This is not quite (as some claim) “post-apocalyptic” as the society it portrays still has cities, traffic, food, shops and they keep the lights on. What it portrays instead is the slow-motion decay of human life as it is enveloped by a cruel addiction. An addiction that is striving for life all of its own through the control of those addicted to it. It is a reflection of a reality equally consumed by drugs, technology and loss of control. Something about this fantasy is uncomfortably familiar as if this is all just something around the corner. It is not a long read yet it remains a stand-out experience. You will not regret investing in the hardcover. It is the only way to enjoy it. You'll be left yearning for more.

Buy it, read it and soak up the stunning images (no skipping through, you'll spoil it). This is like a great movie; dark, sparse, filling in the details/back story and building to an ending that will leave you thinking.I really don't want to give too much away. If you are a fan of an alternate history, where something has gone a little wrong, you will enjoy this road trip. Perfect sci-fi. This will win awards.

Having seen Simon Stålenhag's work and loving is style and more importantly the colours he uses this was pretty much a must buy especially at the price I got it for. The book itself is well made and presented with the work printed to a high quality (the story itself is creepy as hell and well worth the read, though the artwork can be distracting). A worthy purchase and I looking towards adding Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood to my library.

UPDATE 1/8/2019:I've read the book now and really enjoyed the story. It was detailed enough to build a picture of the world but vague enough to let your imagination fill in gaps. I really enjoyed the sections where the story was mostly told through double page spread illustrations. I think it would be a perfect story to adapt for an episode of Netflix's 'Love Death and Robots' anthology series (although the visuals probably wouldn't be quite so impressive).ORIGINAL REVIEW:I've not read the story yet but the artwork is incredible and so atmospheric. It makes me envious of Simon Stalenhag's artistic ability but also has inspired me to try some digital landscape painting myself. The book is very good quality on a nice matt paper stock and is a pleasure to look through. Hopefully the story will nicely complement the artwork.