The Electric State
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
** NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM DIRECTED BY THE RUSSO BROTHERS, STARRING MILLIE BOBBIE BROWN, CHRIS PRATT AND KE HUY QUAN **
A teenage girl and her robot embark on a cross-country road trip in this beautifully illustrated science fiction story, perfect for fans of Fallout and Black Mirror.
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.
PRAISE FOR THE ELECTRIC STATE:
“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
“A haunting illustrated novel. . . . Readers of bleak, emotionally rich dystopian science fiction will be fascinated with the way Stålenhag doles out details.” Booklist (starred)
“The Electric State is a striking and strangely compelling work of science fiction gothic."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." 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." Los Angeles Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this jaw-dropping science fiction artbook (originally crowdfunded and self-published), St lenhag (Tales from the Loop) brings to life a technologically ravaged Southwestern United States circa 1997 to accompany a melancholic story of a teenager traveling with her kid robot. Interspersed with maps and quotes from an unseen narrator describing how the world got in this derelict state, the story is small, centering on the struggles of a lone girl, despite the epic backdrop of mountainous technology that dwarfs humans and their everyday lives. Michelle describes her journey with Skip, a yellow toy robot who behaves in a childlike but intelligent manner, as they travel slowly through a world pockmarked with deep scars from war. St lenhag depicts the abandoned landscapes in realistic, beautiful illustrations. Michelle's recollections of her old life in negligent foster care and her rebellious adolescence with her girlfriend are accompanied by her observations of the current world. Her birth mother was a drug addict, and her foster parents slowly gave in to the popular and widespread addiction to neurocasters, a virtual reality helmet that turns living people into shambling hordes and uses their minds to power large technological beings. This quiet, sad adventure is an excellent and visually stunning addition to any graphic novel, art, or science fiction collection.
