Author Simon Stålenhag has a new work out this month. December is traditionally a quieter month for new releases from publishers and that's definitely true this year, with a sparser than usual science-fiction offering to chew over. That said, there are some intriguing titles out this month, and I'm looking forward to the new book from artist and author Simon Stålenhag, another illustrated dystopia, as well as a mysterious-sounding Russian novel, and the conclusion of Bethany Jacobs's excellent space opera trilogy. Jacobs has written a piece for the New Scientist Book Club about how the late Iain M. Banks inspired her own world-building. The Book Club is currently reading Banks's classic Culture novel - do join us .

Netflix has released the first trailer for The Electric State, a post-apocalyptic road movie from Marvel (and Community) mainstays The Russo Brothers. The adaptation of Simon Stålenhag's 2018 graphic novel is set in a retro-futuristic version of the '90s after a robot uprising. It tells the story of Michelle, an orphaned teenager (Millie Bobby Brown) who ventures across the west of the US to look for her younger brother with a smuggler (a mustachioed Chris Pratt) and a pair of robots. The movie's look draws heavily from Stålenhag's gorgeous artwork, right down to the oversized VR helmets. The robots, in particular the one accompanying Michelle, have a cartoon-inspired aesthetic that wouldn't look out of place in Fallout.

Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag is known for haunting paintings that blend natural landscapes with the eerie futurism of giant robots, mysterious industrial machines, and alien creatures. Earlier this week, Stålenhag appeared to experience some dystopian dread of his own when he found that artificial intelligence had been used to mimic his style. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. The act of AI imitation was performed by Andres Guadamuz, a reader in intellectual property law at the University of Sussex in the UK who has been studying legal issues around AI-generated art. He used a service called Midjourney to create images resembling Stålenhag's spooky style, and posted them to Twitter.

Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag is known for haunting paintings that blend natural landscapes with the eerie futurism of giant robots, mysterious industrial machines, and alien creatures. Earlier this week, Stålenhag appeared to experience some dystopian dread of his own when he found that artificial intelligence had been used to mimic his style. The act of AI imitation was performed by Andres Guadamuz, a reader in intellectual property law at the University of Sussex in the UK who has been studying legal issues around AI-generated art. He used a service called Midjourney to create images resembling Stålenhag's spooky style, and posted them to Twitter. Guadamuz says he created the images to highlight the legal and ethical questions that algorithms that generate art may raise.

Last week, Amazon Studios issued a series order for a new domestic-dystopia drama from Legion writer Nathaniel Halpern. The show, called Tales From the Loop, is based on Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag's award-winning artbook of the same name. Stålenhag's digital paintings, which combine bucolic visions of rural Sweden with sci-fi elements, evoke a haunting familiarity. I caught up with Stålenhag this week to understand his artistic process for Tales From the Loop and to find out what he was most excited to see translated onto the screen. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Virtual reality is becoming increasingly popular and sophisticated in the modern-day world, providing people with the opportunity to experience new worlds and enter entirely alternate realities. But there is a darker side to the ever-improving technology - one that has been candidly portrayed in a set of illustrations, which depict a desolate and empty world destroyed by a war between robots and people as a result of humans' obsession with virtual reality. Set two decades ago, in 1997, the artwork by Swedish author and illustrator Simon Stålenhag charts the travels of a young girl and her robot toy as she journeys across a horrifying wasteland, which is all that remains of the US. Thought-provoking: Many of Simon's illustrations show deserted areas that seem to reflect this reality's extreme poverty In Stålenhag's reality, there is no Bill Clinton, no OJ Simpson trial, and no Britney Spears to fill up the minds of Americans. Instead, the world looks as if it's about to end, having been crushed to ruins by the excesses of a human race overtaken by consumerism.