Swedish Machines: Sunset At Zero Point

by Simon Stålenhag (Author/Illustrator)

Kunst meets Science Fiction: Nach dem von Netflix verfilmten "The Electric State" der neue illustrierte Roman des Ausnahmekünstlers Simon Stålenhag

Zwei Jugendliche, ein Sommer in den Nullerjahren in Schweden. Linus hat gerade seinen Abschluss an einem Stockholmer Musikgymnasium gemacht, als er Valter wiedertrifft, einen alten Schulfreund. Valter nimmt Linus mit auf seine Expeditionen in die Sperrzone Svartlöten: ein riesiges Ödland, das entstand, als eine gewaltige Explosion nach einem fehlgeschlagenen Waffentest im Juli 1980 Zeit und Raum auseinanderriss. Gigantische, in der Landschaft zerstreute Architekturen beherbergen Artefakte mit rätselhaften Eigenschaften. Und während sie gemeinsam die mysteriöse Zone erforschen und die verwaisten Maschinen plündern, kochen die Gefühle unter der Oberfläche hoch.

"Ein Wahnsinnskünstler [...], ich bin aus dem Stand Simon-Stålenhag-Fan geworden.“ Juli Zeh

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

Hardcover

First published May 20, 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.

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fifth of Simon Stålenhag’s narrative art books, a combination of paintings and text. The artwork, his landscapes in particular, is brilliant as always. Also as always, this is a large-format hardback in full colour—expensive, but I can’t imagine squinting down at these wonderful images on a tiny screen. As with the first two, Sunset at Zero Point is set in the author’s own corner of rural Sweden, Mälaröarna, all forests, islands and lakes. It’s not the real Sweden though: you have to imagine an alternative-Sweden, imagine that from the 1950s onward they embarked on a revolutionary scientific programme, the remains of which—vast constructions and discarded vehicles and machines—still dot the countryside to this day.
    I wasn’t quite as bowled over this time as by those earlier ones. I understand the idea here—the forbidden territory its two young guys, Linus and Valter, are tentatively venturing out into: on the one hand, this is a literal exclusion zone, a fenced-off disaster area left behind by an experimental (and deeply strange) weapons-test; and on the other, there’s its personal counterpart, the relationship —friends? more than that?—between them. It’s saying: maybe in another world things could be different…
    What I think has happened though, having read all five, is that the emphasis has shifted. With his first two, Tales from the Loop and its follow-up, the paintings (plus maps, documents and so on), and the ideas they expressed, led the way—there wasn’t a conventional story as such—producing something unique, at once futuristic and nostalgic (they’re among my favourite books of any kind ever). It was all about the setting, about the kids growing up amongst the gigantic, in some cases sentient, hi-tech wreckage now abandoned in the forests and fields. By the time we get to Zero Point the balance has pretty much swung the other way and the story has almost completely taken over at the expense of ideas.
    Enjoyed it though, and still just love his paintings.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably could've learned more about this one beforehand, other than "ooh, Stålenhag has a new book out!" Because turns out this is "Stålenhag's most personal and intimate work to date;" i.e., an extremely gay/queer (sorry; still not sure of the distinction) tale of two young men that only peripherally involves the author's usual alternate, post-disaster worlds. Indeed, the real scifi story here doesn't kick into second (never mind high) gear until around page 130.

Not that it's a bad story; it's just not my usual genre, and so caught me by surprise. Stålenhag's drawings are up to his typical standards — although unlike earlier works like The Electric State, which involves a cross-country road trip and so exposes us to a wide range of locations, this story focuses on just one "zone," and so we get multiple views of basically the same distant towers and trashed vehicles, rather than his usual spectrum of ooh-aah images, (as you can see from the cover, this is about as exciting as his "weird tech" gets here). Indeed, as a (very former) artist myself, my favorite picture in the whole book was the below simple illustration — don't really know why, but the detail, lighting and textures just hit me.



NOTE: This book was not available at our library, and luckily I didn't order from Amazon for $25. Instead I just read it over two days/three cups of coffee at Barnes & Noble, which kindly lets you do such things; have read his two "Tales from the Loop" books the same way, cheap bastard that I am...

[Mikael Cerbing · Rating 5 out of 5]

En kontemplativ alternativ-värld sci-fi i svensk småstad. Eftersom jag bara är några år äldre än personerna i boken, så är det vardagliga väldigt igenkänligt. Vilket gör det ovardagliga desto mer anmärkningsvärt.
När det kommer till texten så är det märkbart hur Stålenhag har utvecklats som författare. Var bok han skriver är bättre än den som kom tidigare.
När det gäller konsten så tyckte jag nog bäst om hans första böcker, rent estetiskt. Men konsten i denna är väldigt, väldigt bra. Och funkar otroligt gott med texten. Stålenhag har ett otroligt bra öga för ljus, och framförallt i hur det speglas i andra typer av material. Kvällshimmelen som speglas i ett fönster i bakgrunden på en bild fick mig nästan att minnas lukten av sommarnatt ifrån min barndom. Underligt hur dessa saker hänger samman.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

War okay.
Die "coming of age" Geschichte war unnötig. Man muss als Autor nicht jeden Zeitgeist bedienen.

[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

[Alvin · 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.

[Rachel Lei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since reading The Electric State a few years back, I’ve been itching to read another of Simon Stålenhag’s books. I’d say Stålenhag is a prime example on how compelling stories can be told through ambient vignettes rather than constant plot-driven action. I love how he crafts a mesmerizingly distinct atmosphere with both his artwork and his writing. Though I wouldn’t say it lives up to the level of The Electric State, I enjoyed reading Sunset at Zero Point. While still dark at times, this one has less of a “horror” undertone than his previous stories, and instead recounts the bond between two young men over the years and how their lives intertwine with explorations of their town’s abandoned military base. The art is fantastic as usual. I said it before in my review for the Electric State and I’ll say it again: Stålenhag evokes moods and emotions in these scenes that I can’t quite put into words. There’s nothing quite like it.

For those interested but unfamiliar with Simon Stålenhag, I recommend checking out his previous books first (The Electric State, Tales from the Loop, etc.) as I think those are more representative of the style he is known for. They are worth taking a look!

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

b>"Be a dear and hit ctrl+alt+del--reset all my mistakes."

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[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.

[reherrma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dies ist der fünfte Bildband des schwedischen Illustrators und Autors Simon Ståhlenhag. Wie bereits in seinen, bisher auf deutsch veröffentlichen Bildbände, "The Electric State", "Tales from the Loop", "Things from the Flood" und "Das Labyrinth" zeichnet der Autor und Illustrator wieder eine düstere und bisweilen heimelige Atmosphäre in der Einsamkeit Schwedens, wo sich geheimnisvolle und gefährliche Apparaturen ihr Dasein nach einem missglückten militärischen Experiment fristen. Nachdem zwei junge Männer, die hier am Rande des militärischen Sperrgebiets aufgewachsen sind um Jahre später die gesperrte Zone heimlich zu erforschen, entdecken sie schließlich eine geheimnisvolle Aktivität, die nur an bestimmten, sehr seltenen Tagen zu registrieren ist...
Leider widmet sich der Autor eher nebensächlich der Erforschung dieser “verseuchten” Zone und stattdessen viel mehr die Annäherung der beiden jungen Männer, die, wenn nicht homosexuell, zumindest bisexuell sind, sich ihre homoerotischen Neigungen aber nicht wirklich eingestehen wollen. Die Geschichte, ob in textlicher oder visueller Hinsicht, erinnerte mich etwas an den großen SF-Klassiker "Picknick am Wegesrand" der Gebrüder Strugatzki (und an dessen geniale Verfilmung von Andrej Tarkovski unter dem Titel "Stalker") oder an die "Southern-Reach-Trilogie" von Jeff Vandemeer. Ich fand wieder mal die genialen Bilder des Malers Simon Ståhlenhag, die mir durch die Verdunkelung zwar etwas düster erschienen, aber ich muss auch konstatieren, dass sie zu der zurweilen deprimierenden Stimmung des Textes passen.
Wie immer ein Gewinn, einen Ståhlenhag zu lesen !...

[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…

[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.

[Adam Kynaston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely not for everyone, and involves explicit content that seems incongruent with what the narrative involves. Because of the book’s focus on drawn art, the narrative aspects feel a little shoehorned, and I felt that way particularly about the novel’s exploration of early sexuality.

The reason I would still give it five stars is because it represents something so completely underrated and literature, this combination of beautiful mature art with a somewhat thoughtful narrative. The art is simply stunning. This man is so extremely talented. It did not surprise me at all to learn that he was an artist first and then gave a narrative to his pictures. That is 100% how it reads.

Projects like this are important because it’s pushing the medium forward. This is more than a graphic novel, it’s like someone built a story at an art museum to increase engagement. And it definitely works here.

I was so interested in it and so touched by his artistic talent that I went back and purchased everything he has written. I look forward to reviewing them here!!

[Aiden · 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

[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!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

So another of Simon Stålenhag amazing books - which I was able to support through Kickstarter. The book follows the same size and print format as his other books (The Electric State, Labyrinth) and I have to say that I am building up quite a nice little collection.

The book itself now contains more of a story although the illustrations are still just as generous. However for me the storyline here is more relatable than say the Labyrinth as I feel it covers more human motivations, such anxiety, loss, isolation and fixation - though I am sure there are far more eloquent dissertations on the topics.

For me though its all about the McGuffin - the mysterious events that created the landscape (and ultimately the people who inhabit it) that I love to see - the brilliance of weaving something so fantastic and weird and in to a story so understandable

[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

[Owen]

Stålenhag's artwork is such a beautiful mix of nostalgic and fantastic that it sometimes takes a reader a little while to realize he's also a really skilled storyteller. This story is heartbreaking and sweet by turns, a peek into the rocky process of figuring out who we are and how we fit into a world that's always full of more mysteries than we can solve.

[Fny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just beautiful. From start to finish.

[Maiya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The vibes and the atmosphere are really solid, but there’s not much more to the story…

[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.

[Ian Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the first time I’m aware of, the story takes the front seat in this Stålenhag art book. It’s a queer science fiction story laced with familiar, tragic tropes (a la Ocean Vuong) but it’s the setting (and art) that takes the story to a different level for me. Teenage slice-of-life is casted against a decaying background that feels detached from the events happening within it: on one hand, it’s because the environment has literally been decayed by an military science experiment that went wrong decades prior to the story taking place, and all the old equipment has been left to rot and rust. On the other hand, it feels detached because the rusting technology is so futuristic it feels like it doesn’t belong in the setting it ended up creating. Blanketing all of that, however, is this sentiment that the characters share of wanting to escape while also wanting to never leave. Just like the character’s surroundings has decayed, so too does their sense of direction and understanding about what it is they want to get out of their relationship and their lives.
I probably shared this same sentiment before, but this art stirs something in me. It makes me nostalgic for a future I never want to happen. It feels like it’s happening in my backyard, happening far away. It feels like a shadow memory.
I’m picking up the rest of Stålenhag’s art books that I don’t own yet; I want these physically.

⚫️