Title: Stjärnfall (~ “Shooting Star”)
Author: Lars Wilderäng
Series: Stjärnklart #2
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, Horror
Pages: 395
Published: 2015, Massolit
My Grade: 5 out of 5 gas masks

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION (translated to English by me)

Ten years have passed since the doom of modern civilization, when all electronics were wiped out by a high technological attack. Slowly, life has started to stabilize, but is the danger really over? The Shutdown, as the period when all electricity disappeared is called, was probably only the beginning. Now, humanity faces an even bigger threat.

Jocke, the military man is finally back in Sweden after a long assignment in the Middle East and is hoping for a calm life. The farmer Filip Stenvik is under the protection of Västra Götaland Federation but is worried about new attacks. Maximiliam is a grown man and is doing his best to break free from his childhood home and to create his own path. At Carlsten’s Fortress, Bohuslän’s governor Gustaf Silverbane, is collecting his forces, while the head of research Anna Ljungberg is trying to analyze the opponent they don’t know anything about. But what if the enemy is already among them? Maybe closer than anyone could imagine…

MY REVIEW

If I had several emotions while reading Stjärnklart, I pretty much only had one while reading the sequel Stjärnfall: hopelessness. I thought that the first one was dark and depressing, but this one was worse. It was impossible to see how it could end in a good way. I am not gonna say if it did or not.

The first 150 pages or so were very similar to the first book. Some chapters described what happened during the Shutdown, some chapters described what happened during the first few years, and then, the last two thirds of the book was only what happened 10 years after the Shutdown. And it was filled to the top with action. Horrible thing after horrible thing happened and I couldn’t put down the book. Last night I had about 100 pages left, it was late, but I couldn’t stop reading so I finished it at 3am and am surprised that I managed to fall asleep right after. Honestly, I had a nightmare two nights ago.

Like I said, the first part of the book was very similar to the first one, it was realistic and scary because it felt like this could happen to us any day. The second part was very different from the first, because now, the science fiction of it all surfaced. It was still very realisticly written and even though I don’t have too much science fiction novels to compare it to, it felt like a different type of sci-fi book. A realistic type of sci-fi and nothing at all like Star Wars for example. I am not going to spoil anything so I will leave it at that, but it is really scary.

Despite the feeling of hopelessness being my companion throughout this book, I still loved it and recommend everyone to read it now (or patiently wait for the English translation)! Start with the first one, Stjärnklart, obviously. No question about it, 5 out of 5!!