Soh Kam Yung reviewed Tales From The Loop by Simon Stålenhag
Interesting stories featuring a childhood playground in the midst of the Loop
3 stars
An interesting book, set as a series of stories as 'retold' by the author of his childhood in a small Swedish town that was host to a powerful underground particle accelerator known to the locals as the Loop. In the alternative past, powerful magnetic based technology has given rise to levitating transporters, walking robots and other sources of energy. But it has also given rise to various myths, like wormholes created by the Loop that let rumoured creatures like dinosaurs roam the present.
But all is not well. The stresses of living just above a machine that might twist reality causes social and communal problems (like divorce and family violence). The author's tales talk about these problems, as well as the times the author and his friends played among the debris that littered the landscape from the building and, later, decommissioning of the Loop.
The illustrations and sketches in the book give a good impression of the landscape the author imagines playing in, full of life and the unusual machines that make up the author's 'childhood'.