best Simon Stålenhag book as a gift?
October 22, 2024 2:52 PM   Subscribe

A friend really liked the aesthetic of the Tales from the Loop TV series (and pretty much everything about it). Which of Simon Stålenhag's books should I buy my friend?

It looks like these are the options:

Tales from the Loop
Things from the Flood
The Electric State
The Labyrinth

(My thought process: should I get Loop, since my friend has seen the series? Or Flood, to get something new and different? Or Labyrinth, to get something even more different?)

I can give my friend some (or all) of the other books next year or the year after, but which one should I start with?

Thanks!
posted by kristi to Media & Arts (6 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: My resident Stålenhag fan votes for Things From the Flood. While The Electric State and Labyrinth have similar vibes, if it's specifically the aesthetic your friend is interested in then go for the one that's also set in eastern Europe.
posted by brook horse at 3:03 PM on October 22, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: FYI, they've made an Electric State movie that's planned for release next year.
posted by jpeacock at 3:10 PM on October 22, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: If your friend is into tabletop roleplaying games at all, be aware that there are corresponding ones for Tales from the Loop, Things from the Flood, and The Electric State.
posted by juv3nal at 3:24 PM on October 22, 2024 [3 favorites]


Best answer: The Electric State is my favorite, hands down.
posted by nickggully at 3:31 PM on October 22, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Another vote for The Electrice State, which is definitely my favourite, as it has a genuinely gripping plot arc alongside all the lovely details that make the other books such a feast for the imagination, but if your friend enjoyed the Tales from the Loop series then the book is just different enough to be an interesting proposition in its own right, while still connecting well with the series. I'd avoid giving The Labyrinth as a gift, personally, as it's the darkest of the four books by some way, and it's pretty unrelentingly bleak - it left me feeling simultaneously queasy and utterly hopeless at the same time.

On a related note: Previously
posted by Chairboy at 3:59 PM on October 22, 2024 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: All five of these great answers are the best!

Thank you so much for sharing all this helpful info!

I'm especially appreciative of your answers, Chairboy - it's helpful to know that The Labyrinth is bleak, and the link to the music video is fab!

Thank you all so much!
posted by kristi at 11:21 AM on October 23, 2024


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