Sunset at Zero Point

by Simon Stålenhag

From the renowned creator of The Electric State—soon to be a major movie from Netflix on March 14th, 2025!—Simon Stålenhag returns with his long-awaited new work of retro-futuristic dystopia within the mysterious zone of an abandoned Swedish military facility.

Beginning in 2024, yet set largely during the early 2000s, Sunset at Zero Point unfolds on a secluded Swedish island, home to a secret weapon lab that has been off-limits for years, evoking the bestselling works of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven.

Stålenhag’s masterful storytelling and hyper-realistic art transports you to an alternate history revealing his most intimate work to date, delving into themes of masculinity, friendship, and sexuality through the lens of a queer science fiction tale. The story spans decades following two young men, stuck in the past and each other’s orbit, as fleeting moments become defining memories as they set out to explore the forbidden zone together.

Set against the backdrop of Stålenhag’s native Sweden and based on the alternate version of Mälaröarna outside of Stockholm, Sunset at Zero Point juxtaposes giant futuristic machines with the inner turmoil of its characters facing a social dystopia, crafting a narrative that is both visually stunning and emotionally resonant.

Genres: Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fiction, LGBT, Audiobook, Art

192 pages, Hardcover

Published December 9, 2025

About the author

Konstnären och författaren Simon Stålenhag är mest känd för sina digitala målningar som ofta visar vardagliga scener med fantastiska inslag. Efter sitt genombrott 2013 har Stålenhag publicerat två böcker om ett alternativt 1980- och 90-tal på Mälaröarna utanför Stockholm. Ur varselklotet (2014) och Flodskörden (2016) har hyllats både i Sverige och utomlands. Den ansedda tidningen The Guardian korade Ur varselklotet till en av tidernas bästa dystopier, i sällskap med Franz Kafkas Processen och Andrew Niccols Gattaca.

Simon Stålenhags evokativa och filmlika bildspråk har väckt uppmärksamhet även i film- och datorspelsvärlden. Han har verkat som konceptillustratör och manusförfattare i ett flertal projekt. Stålenhag har medverkat i Searching for Sugarman (regisserad av Malik Bendjeloull) och i datorspel så som Ripple Dot Zero (2013).

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I really love about Simon Stålenhag’s art is that unsettling feeling you get from the juxtaposition of incongruous bucolic landscapes and Stålenhag-beloved rotting rusting husks of giant retrofuturistic machinery, all viewed through the trademark Stålenhag patina of dreamy nostalgia. It’s his signature style in his alternate retro futuristic history told through haunting art and a few words, and it works wonderfully.

Back in his first book, Tales from the Loop, Stålenhag relied primarily on the art to tell a series of vignettes united by a common theme, with text illustrating the art rather than the other way around. But with every subsequent book, while still heavily relying on the art, the story told becomes more conventionally streamlined, more cohesive, and in this book we are approaching the shift in the balance with the hauntingly surreal yet photorealistic oil painting-like art sliding into the more usual role of illustrating the story.

The story here is a slow burn friendship to love between two childhood friends who grew up in the shadow of Black Fallow, an exclusion zone after a fallout of a failed futuristic weapon test that led to non-Euclidean geography in the area and abandonment of the zone, culminating in those haunting giant husks of machinery dotting that bucolic Swedish countryside. (And, by the way, Stålenhag, being my age, makes me feel old by making me realize that even early noughties can already be viewed through the prism of nostalgia no matter how just-around-the-corner they may seem to me).

And, regardless of the odd and macabre surrounding them, people will go on being people, living lives against the strange backdrop that to them is routine.

The artwork in the book feels more subdued and quieter than in the earlier works, with the unusual machinery fading more in the background even if it’s front and center. I suppose it really goes along with the more prominent human focus of the story with its bittersweet sadness.

Stålenhag’s books have progressively become darker, culminating in the frankly depressing The Labyrinth, which made me worry a bit about where we will end up with this one. But Sunset at Zero Point is lighter, with eventual hope shining through. It tightly focuses on just two people, with indeed very personal and intimate look at what passes between them over the decades.

This may not be my favorite Stålenhag (Tales from the Loop and The Electric State The Labyrinth are tied for that spot) but it still captivated me through the gorgeous artwork that tends to tickle exactly the right spot in my brain.

4 stars.
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Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Also posted on my blog.

[The Speculative Shelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

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[Dre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a fan of Simon Stålenhag’s “retro-futuristic” narrative art stories. His illustrations are as beautiful as they are haunting, blending bucolic landscapes with these intrusions of the past: hunks of rusted metal, abandoned terrain vehicles long past their use, and on the horizon, giant factories promising arcana. They resemble a marriage of something from the mind of Philip K. Dick and Stranger Things. The internal lives of his characters mimic their surroundings. They keep secrets all their own, and the author has become increasingly adept at peeling away the mysteries of his subjects and the spaces where they come of age. Sunset at Zero Point reflects a maturation that may disappoint those who come for the cool sci-fi designs but will please readers who love the way his images speak for the lives of his characters.

Giant, rotting monuments to former glories lie abandoned. The people of this version of Mälaröarna, Switzerland opened doors that should have stayed shut, unearthed uncanny sources of power that inspired innovation and industry when it should have urged caution. The curiosity and ambitions of the past always loom large in Stålenhag’s worlds. They are anthropological exercises in alternate realities where mankind toys with cosmic forces they are ill-equipped to handle, let alone understand. Wounded by the consequences, what once seemed like promise and adventure has since turned gangrenous.

None of this is explicitly communicated in Simon Stålenhag’s stories. He doesn’t need to. The negative and positive spaces of his artwork speak of loneliness, loss and failure, juxtaposed against the time in our young lives when everything seems so much bigger, or we seem so much smaller. We stare at the backs of the adolescents or teenagers that make up much of his stories (we never really see their faces) and feel our own sense of inconsequential scale against these grand designs. The result is every image feels layered with a specific type of melancholy - the type that may only be derived from time, mistakes, and regret. And the wonder melts away.

You can read the rest of this review on MY SUBSTACK

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories and graphics

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. Captivating. Beautiful artwork as always. Just brilliant!

[Louis (audiobookfanatic) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sunset at Zero Point by Simon Stålenhag is a genre-bending retro-futuristic sci-fi. The story follows young men Linus & Valter as they navigate a Swedish exclusion zone, The Black Fallow—home to old weapons & clues to past projects that hint at alternate dimensions.

Linus & Valter’s evolving friendship & heartbreaking romance is beautifully written, intertwined with mental health issues, family legacy, & early 2000s nostalgia. Valter is an underachieving genius, & his obsession with the secrets of Black Fallow will grip readers. This book had the potential to be 5 stars, but the fever-dream-like ending leaves too many questions unanswered. 1-2 more chapters would have been perfect!

🗣️Narrator Chris Andrew Ciulla brings a cinematic vibe to the story & gives emotionally nuanced portrayals of Linus & Valter, especially in more introspective moments. His pacing & tone make the listening experience very immersive & atmospheric—the perfect complement to Stålenhag’s beautiful prose!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book and then playing ARC Raiders immediately afterwards is a trip.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunset at Zero Point was more moving and emotional than I expected. Granted it's been a number of years since I read Stålenhag's Tales from the Loop series, but I don't remember it being this beautifully written. His talent continues to grow and I can't wait to see what he does next.

You will get much more from this than the alternate timeline 80's punk technology landscape. It is also a tale of a male friendship that grows into something more while working through their tragic backstories. It is still set in the backdrop of weird science fiction with amazing imagery, but I was ready to cry at several points. The combination of a moving tale and an exclusion zone full of scifi mysteries was right up my alley.

I love the way it wrapped up but would easily take a second book where they explore more of the Black Fallow. I need to run and buy The Labyrinth by Stalenhag so I can own all these beautifully illustrated books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own. Fans of Stålenhag such as myself will not be disappointed with this one.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuter than I expected! The Labyrinth was such a dark and horrific tale that I was worried this one would be the same. Instead I found a quite moving depiction of a friendship and love that mirrored the best parts of The Electric State. Stålenhag’s storytelling improves with each book!

I was given an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Kate Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two boys mess around in a fallout zone and eventually fall in love. Even though the setting felt very unsettling and creepy, the two characters friendship developing into something more grounded the story. The formatting of the book was interesting.

[Alvin Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is the fourth book by Simon Stålenhag for me this year (which is not about reading a lot, as these are coffee-table books more full of gorgeous art than text, but an indication of my adoration of Stålenhag’s work). Each is set in an alternate Sweden, where imagined experiments with radical science have left behind environmental transformation and legacies of technological contamination on the local area: derelict-yet-futuristic vehicles, altered landscapes, and hazardous sites which bend natural laws. Nevertheless, the science-fiction plays as mellow backdrop and locals interact with everything in an ordinary, day-to-day fashion. To them it seems very normal, while we readers admire how extraordinary it all is.

Experienced in sequence, Stålenhag’s books started out with less story, and more as narrative flashes and descriptive glimpses which built up this alternate world from loosely connected pieces. With The Electric State, there was more of a plot, and a set of protagonists who went on a quest to reach the coast. Now with Sunset at Zero Point (which was titled “Swedish Machines” in its original Kickstarter edition), we are exclusively following the story of two young men, Linus and Valter, and their relationship over a few decades. They live in the small town called Torsvik, which is on the edge of an exclusion zone which was once contaminated by the development and testing of a major weapon known as the Tetrahedron. After the failure of that work, the area was closed off and left to be managed by the company that Valter works for as a security guard. He is very interested in the heart of this zone, known as the Black Fallow, and sneaks out with the company vehicle, equipment and brings Linus along, to explore and scavenge.

The entire book is told to us by Linus, talking to Valter (so it’s an oddly second-person perspective), which was a bit strange to me at first (especially when Linus would say “you said” and quote to Valter something that he said). However, I would say that it works, especially given how close the two become over the years. Most of the first half of the story foregrounds the burgeoning romantic/sexual aspects of their relationship. However, I was a bit disappointed in how much time was spent with them (and their other “horny teenager” friends) as they goof around, attend music festivals and Halloween parties. While the expression “Dude!” was never uttered, its spirit was strongly felt for most of the early portions of the book. The context of Torsvik existing on the edge of the exclusion zone and in proximity to the Black Fallow seemed to be a very miniscule portion of the story up to that point. It got me worried that Stålenhag was trying to lean more into mundane character-based storytelling and abandoning the atmospheric science-fiction aspects he is known for, after he’d hooked his readers in. Thankfully the latter third of the book was where things kicked into gear from that perspective. Information that Valter had collected from the zone led the two boys to discover something that was (in classic Stålenhag fashion) universe-altering; but in the context of this story meaningful and significant only to the people around the phenomenon: our two protagonists. Though I had doubted him, Stålenhag manages to bring something cosmic down to the level of the personal for these two characters.

As expected, in this book, Stålenhag’s accompanying art does a masterful job of drawing the reader into this universe. Unlike in previous books, where the images were not necessarily one-to-one matches with what was described in the text, this time the images serve to illustrate events and scenes from the story. However, they’re almost never action shots or even key moments, often depicting instead the location or surroundings before or after the main scene occurs. On the other hand, because the text focuses on Linus and Valter’s story exclusively, there are a lot of similar-looking images of the landscape that the two see on their journey into the Black Fallow and, compared to previous books, less of the diverse sci-fi elements that the zone may contain (no robots or dinosaurs or stuff like that this time). Nevertheless, these vividly painted images of an imagined reality are still very immersive and do a great job of telling the story on their own, as well as with the text.

Overall, I was very engaged and invested in this story, despite how intimate the scope of it was. I would have preferred a more expansive look at the exclusion zone and what else it had done to this region, generally a more sci-fi heavy story. Still, I really enjoyed the ending and how it tied the story of the relationship of these two boys to the phenomenon in the Black Fallow. I also really like this character-driven direction that Stålenhag is continuing to develop in his books. If this story gets picked up for adaptation as well, I think it will make a great arthouse science fiction film that I would be eager to see.

[Aiden Aprt · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS GUY NEVER MISSES!!!!! ANOTHER MASTERPIECE!!!

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really quick, really enjoyable read. More about the relationship between two men and growing up/apart with the scifi stuff looming there in the background (I love when scifi stuff is just... there amid a really human story).

[Adri Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once upon a time in Sweden, in an alternate reality, there was a company called Swedish Machines. This company purchased the Black Fallow, a simple wrecking yard. In their version of 1980, after several years, Swedish Machines completed the build of a long-range weapon called the Tetrahedron. The utmost concern should have been executed around this monstrosity of a weapon. Alas, it was not, and it exploded, causing a nuclear fallout. The families living in the area had to be evacuated, the scientists and military remained but ended up experiencing neurological issues unexplained. Eventually, it was decided to just allow nature take back the land of The Black Fallow. Amongst all this destruction, heartache, and tragedy, two boys kindle a decades long friendship around this very land.

This was such a well-written sci-fi tale. I love how the author incorporated pictures into the book that connected them to the story. I’d read anything by Simon Stalenhag after this fantastic sci-fi adventure.

#ThxNetGalley #SunsetAtZeroPoint #SimonStalenhag

Merged review:

Once upon a time in Sweden, in an alternate reality, there was a company called Swedish Machines. This company purchased the Black Fallow, a simple wrecking yard. In their version of 1980, after several years, Swedish Machines completed the build of a long-range weapon called the Tetrahedron. The utmost concern should have been executed around this monstrosity of a weapon. Alas, it was not, and it exploded, causing a nuclear fallout. The families living in the area had to be evacuated, the scientists and military remained but ended up experiencing neurological issues unexplained. Eventually, it was decided to just allow nature take back the land of The Black Fallow. Amongst all this destruction, heartache, and tragedy, two boys kindle a decades long friendship around this very land.

This was such a well-written sci-fi tale. I love how the author incorporated pictures into the book that connected them to the story. I’d read anything by Simon Stalenhag after this fantastic sci-fi adventure.

#ThxNetGalley #SunsetAtZeroPoint #SimonStalenhag

[Nathan B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Advance copy provided by publisher.

I really enjoyed this book. The art was wonderful and perfectly supplemental to the story.
The story itself was enjoyable too — a dark, Nordic setting, an intriguing disaster fallout, and an endearing love story. I thought the sci-fi elements were tame, but it worked well that way. Although the story is short, you go on a journey with the two young men that feels longer than it is.
4 stars

[Jacob Betts · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s a German word — sehnsucht — that captures a particular kind of ache: a longing that sits somewhere between memory and imagination. It’s the feeling of reaching for something you can almost remember, even if you’re not sure you lived it. Sunset at Zero Point carries that feeling on every page.

The book takes place in an alternate-history Sweden on a fictional version of the Mälaröarna islands outside Stockholm. The setting feels familiar and strange at the same time, like returning to your childhood home through the hazy lens of a dream. A failed scientific experiment has left parts of the region fractured and unstable, and the exclusion zone reflects the way memory behaves — bending, repeating, pulling moments out of order.

At the center of the story is Linus, looking back on his childhood and adolescence with his friend Valter. Their relationship grows, changes, and complicates as they navigate a landscape marked by both emotional and literal instability. Stålenhag captures the intensity of growing up with someone who shapes you in ways you don’t recognize until years later—the juxtaposition of quiet, tender moments against sweeping, often desolate landscapes grounds this foreign-yet-familiar setting. Oh, and that brings me to the illustrations…

The gorgeous, haunting images immediately set the emotional tone for a heartfelt, nostalgia-drenched journey. Stålenhag’s paintings create a sense of atmosphere that the text alone could never hold. The landscapes feel haunted, quiet, and strangely intimate. Machines rust into the earth and light fades across open fields.

What stayed with me most was the sense of longing rising through both the narrative and the art. The book stirred up thoughts of my own past, the friendships that defined it, and the versions of myself that feel close and far at the same time.

Reading Sunset at Zero Point felt like stepping into a parallel life: familiar, haunting, full of longing you feel in your soul. It’s a beautiful, aching work that lingers long after the final page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for providing a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

There's something about time bending and folding onto itself that's always affecting to me, the way a bottle of milk or the smell of vanilla can be recontextualized depending on their place in time.

Five years after The Labyrinth, after stopping and starting different iterations of what would eventually become this book, Simon Stålenhag has returned with potentially his most thematically complex story yet, Sunset at Zero Point. (Which is a much better title than its original title, Swedish Machines, especially as its context within the book is revealed. It feels much more fitting of the overall tone, and I love a title that can mean different things depending on how far you've gotten into the story.)

The story opens in 2025, when the main character, Linus, is looking through old boxes after a divorce. In one box, he finds a key and a list of dates that only he and one other person know the meaning of. One of the listed dates is only three days away. He gets in a car and starts driving, and then the story jumps back to 1999.

Stålenhag employs a similar tone to the flashback portions of his biggest breakout success The Electric State, except here it's pretty much the whole book rather than short portions. The book takes place in Torsvik, a fictional Swedish town that abuts a wasteland called the Black Fallow Exclusion zone. The Black Fallow is a former weapons test site that, after a test gone wrong, is now fenced off and inhospitable. By 1999, Linus has moved away from Torsvik, while his childhood friend Valter still lives there.

The story recounts moments from 1999 to 2007 when Linus visits Valter in Torsvik. Valter, motivated by a pivotal moment in his past, is obsessed with the Black Fallow, and throughout the story he brings a skeptical Linus on excursions into the exclusion zone, where space and time aren't what they should be: You can walk in a straight line and end up going in a circle, you can walk through one valley and end up at one you've already gone through. Parallel universes seem to collide in one place, planting "shadow memories" in the characters' minds of lives they haven't lived.

Through all of this, they are also both grappling with their sexuality and what their relationship with one another really is, and they both deal with mental health difficulties and general feelings of alienation within their respective communities of Torsvik and Stockholm.

Like much of Stålenhag's work, it all feels nostalgic and bittersweet, and the implicit framing device of recollection that his debut Tales from the Loop had is made explicit here, with the main character looking back on his life while driving to an unknown location. The book deals with some rather heavy themes, but I wouldn't say it's nearly as dark as his last couple works. Compared to the coldness of The Labyrinth, this is downright optimistic, though I wouldn't want to hint at where the journey all goes.

The Electric State and The Labyrinth had very distinct visual styles, but I'd say this one doesn't really break any new ground. Fittingly, the art seems very Tales from the Loop adjacent -- all that golden hour nostalgia -- though it does also have some gloomier imagery that seems akin to his more recent books.

But I think the storytelling here is very distinct among his work, as it wears its emotions and themes on its sleeve a lot more than his other books. The science fiction aspects are as strange and cryptic as ever and lend a poignancy to the important moments, but they feel relatively light compared to the focus of the story. It's much like a Tales from the Loop vignette expanded into a full book with a narrative style closer to his more recent work. Fria Ligan, the Swedish publisher, describes it as the author's "most personal" work, and the US blurb from Saga Press describes it as his "most intimate." I wouldn't want to ascribe anything in the story to his personal life, but both descriptions feel accurate to me. There's a level of specificity here that goes beyond his previous books, which he's able to achieve by keeping the focus very tight and exploring both the mundane and fantastical aspects of the characters' lives. And, while the framing device could be superficially compared to that of The Electric State, the difference is that there's no motivation here to be cryptic or withholding about the details of the past being described. It's all laid out relatively bare.

There are some aspects of the prose/dialogue that ignited some minor pet peeves of mine (spelling out "haha," using multiple punctuation marks like "!!" or "!?", this is probably just me), but I'm more forgiving of those in this form than I might've been in a full length novel, and, considering this is a translation, I'm also not sure what the conventions are in Swedish lit.

It's a beautiful book, and it's been great to see Stålenhag come into his own as a storyteller and really find his groove when it comes to narrative.

Thank you to Saga Press and Netgalley for the eARC.

[HermitCrab · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not think anything could top the electric state but this book has such a vein of tenderness through its core that I feel shaken and not the same after reading

[David Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25*

Stalenhag's near futuristic art juxtaposed with the exhaust life of 90s and 2000s Sweden create an otherworldly feel. This book takes place near an area now off limits due to contamination from a weapons testing facility.

Focusing on two friends who grew up near the Exclusion Zone, they are grown up now. One had moved away, Linus, they other staying at home, Valter. The friendship reblooms over time, turning romantic as they rekindle the teenage fumblings of sexuality.

The story of the land is more backgrounded in this book as compared to the others. Kind of like the giant rusted hulks dotting the land, the story to what happened here is mostly set dressing for the story of the two young men.

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was approved for this ARC in May, and just got to it in in my efforts to finish some stuff before the end of the year. Im so glad I got to this! Sunset at Zero Point is ultimately a coming-of-age story. Set in and around an abandoned military facility in Sweden, and told through a series of vignettes, we follow the relationship of two boys who have been friends since they were young. The story itself is beautiful and strange, but what really put this story over the top were the illustrations. They added so much to the eerie vibe of the story and were absolutely stunning. I've thought of this book frequently since finishing it and will be revisiting!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a review!

[Etienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stalenhag evolve in his story telling, providing a more fluid and a longer story in his new book. Like always the art was superb, but the story had high and low. I couldn’t have care less about the romance. I also find that the science-fiction aspect of the story could have gone further down that path instead of just staying on the surface. I might have expected a little more from it. It was okay…

[Mike Piero · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, nuanced portrait of queer love and friendship among young men, Sunset at Zero Point is a stunning coming-of-age portrait of pursuing one’s love, one’s obsessions, all that affirms the good in life, and surviving—together. Thank you for writing this, Mr. Stålenhag.

[R E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both inventive and absolutely beautiful.

[Rich Rosell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a number of these over-sized Stålenhag books, seemingly all of which were acquired via various Kickstarter campaigns. I fell in love with the artwork first, and then it was the narratives that brought the images to life. In this world its Sweden before/during/after a range of technological advancements, armed conflict, and mythical wreckages that litter the landscape.

With 'Sunset At Point Zero' it's about two high school friends who reconnect over the years, all with a dangerous exclusion zone - the result of a top-secret governmental experiment -at the center.

As with other Stålenhag works I was never quite sure where things might go, and it is the same here. With 'Sunset At Point Zero' it is bittersweet and touching, as the passage of time over a couple of decades bonds two friends in a very special way.

Gorgeous artwork and a moving story make this a wonderful treat.

[Giniro · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What's the point of money if you're dead inside"
My favorite quote and what is the point of anything if you are dead inside. Live and do what makes you happy or scared as long as you have no regrets after.

This is a story about a strange sci-fi zone where strange things happen. Following two young men over the span of many years. The story is a mysterious one and the characters are just living in this slightly altered reality with everyday problems. Leave the small town, get a job, get married, but still stuck on the 'what if' of things. LIttle things in a relationship and going back.

The cover art is amazing, there is more inside the book as well. I would recommend reading this in paperback or hardcover. I felt I lose a bit of the impact of the photos reading it on an e-reader. This does not impact the rating.

[Badger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon Stålenhag's books are simply incredible. I've burned through all of them now, and I hope there will be many more to come.

Sunset at Zero Point is my second favorite work of his, right after The Electric State. They feel like siblings, in a way. Lost love spread too thin by time and desolate landscapes. The text and the story are what make this volume shine. It felt like a big moment of growth for Stålenhag, in my opinion, where the art supplemented the text, rather than carried it. I love the emotion that his stories are packed with as well, and the end of this one knocked loose some waterworks. I loved it.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early digital review copy.

[Steve J · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting book! I have enjoyed other works by Simon Stålenhag including Tales from the Loop and The Electric State. His latest novel is set in a similar landscape, with an eerie post-apocalyptic collection of disused secret military vehicles and buildings, brought to life by many excellent illustrations. In addition there is a strong gay subplot which I liked.

I hope there will be a movie or TV version of this book!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

[Jenny Clifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of the art books by Simon Stålenhag, and this one was very good. I love the concept of using the art to tell this beautiful, haunting story that is kind of a love story and also kind of a mystery. Beautiful.

[doowopapocalypse · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC from Netgalley

The scenes are gorgeously rendered. I don't know that its at the same level as Tales from the Loop/Things from the Flood, but a solid entry into his own personal apocalypse.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.

Being a dyed-in-the-wool nerd, I first learned of Simon Stålenhag from the role-playing game adaptation of his first book, Tales From The Loop (still haven't played it tho, as is tradition.) I also haven't had a chance to watch the TV version despite having a crush on Rebecca Ferguson, and will likely never choose to watch the Netflix version of Mr Stålenhag's The Electric State, due to my aversion to the current incarnation of Crisp Rat.

So it was a bit of a surprise to learn that the latest art book from Mr Stålenhag is actually his wordiest yet. I still haven't been able to read any of the earlier volumes but between the comments and, perhaps more quantitatively, the audiobook run times, Sunset At Zero Point would seem to have a lot more story than prior books, which were primarily art with snippets of narrative. The reason why becomes clear the further along you go in the story.

Let's talk about the art first tho! Mr Stålenhag's impressive photorealistic style features an alternate universe Sweden where developments strange to our reality are commonplace. He juxtaposes the surreal with the bucolic and the exotic with the everyday, for a vibe that's only mildly unsettling due to its Uncanny Valley-ness. There is a bit of repetitiveness in some of the paintings depicting winter highways and abandoned machinery in the barrens, but that only serves to underscore the cyclical nature of the story.

As to that story! In SaZP, a collaboration between the US and Swedish militaries resulted in a catastrophic accident in the 1980s. A powerful explosion created an exclusion zone in a sparsely inhabited region of Sweden. The negative effects seem to be gradually wearing off with time, so that when the narrative picks up at the turn of the century, the existence of the EZ outside the small town of Torsvik is commonplace, even if it's certainly extracted its toll on the residents there already.

Linus is ready to get the hell out of Torsvik as an adolescent, but after suffering a depressive episode while living with his mother in the city, is sent back to stay with his father for a summer. There he reconnects with his childhood best friend Valter, who's dropped out of secondary school and taken a job as security guard on the EZ perimeter. The job lets Valter indulge his fascination for the area, as the relaxing of regulations over the years have allowed him not only to explore but map what's also referred to as a Non-Euclidean Zone, as the rules of time and space no longer seem to apply to the EZ.

As the young men begin exploring the EZ together, their complicated feelings for one another -- confounded further by life in rural Sweden at the turn of the century -- begin to take precedence in the narrative. Eventually, Linus leaves again, hoping to build his idea of a normal life in Stockholm. He tries to persuade Valter to leave Torsvik and come with him but Valter refuses. While their parting this time doesn't result in the same sort of estrangement as when they'd been younger, it still cools their relationship... until a grown-up Linus in 2025 realizes the importance of an impending date and begins his long trek home.

It isn't much of a spoiler to say that the duo's journeys through the EZ serve as a stand-in for their sexuality. Linus and Valter's tale is touching and occasionally traumatic, as the two bisexual men learn how to accept their feelings, both for one another and for the difficult situations in which they find themselves. As someone who's been spending a lot of time recently providing sympathy to baby gays, this was a very affirming book -- I can only imagine how much more impactful it would be for young people struggling with their sexualities.

Sunset At Zero Point by Simon Stålenhag was published yesterday December 9 2025 by Saga Press and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!

This review first appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.