Looking for your next read? These are the stars of Scandinavia's rich sci-fi scene which deserve a place on your shelf
Science fiction from Scandinavia has a distinct flavour. The genre’s classic elements spaceships, barren post-apocalyptic wastelands, bleak future societies, are all positively enhanced with added raw Scandinavian scenery, dystopian tech imaginings and ancient myths and legends that blend in creepily well with future-focused worlds.
There’s something in the Scandinavian clear-thinking, philosophical and sometimes nihilistic mindset that makes futuristic fiction from the north that little bit more biting. Here are some of the best works you should know.
The Employees, A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century – Olga Ravn
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, this slim science fiction epic by Danish author and poet Olga Ravn is set in deep space on a ship where humans and humanoids work together. When they start discovering mysterious objects that exert a strange power, awakening dreams and longings in both species, the rigid hierarchy starts to fall apart. It’s a mysterious, thought-provoking book that asks the question: what makes us human?
LoveStar – Andri Snær Magnason
Nominated for the Philip K. Dick prize in 2012, this book by Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason was a bestseller in his home country and has been widely praised, with comparisons made to Douglas Adams and George Orwell. In a not-so-distant post-tech future, everything is run by the LoveStar Corporation, from brain-led communications and advertising to love matches. One couple decides to defy the system, despite not being matched by the inLOVE system; the novel follows their quest to be together at all costs.
The Stars Seem So Far Away – Margrét Helgadóttir
Norwegian-Icelandic writer Margrét Helgadóttir imagines a dystopian future in the far north in this series of five stories. The last shuttles to space colonies have long gone, the earth is dying and humans migrate further and further north, where they cling to survival amid what is left. Helgadóttir's stories have been widely praised for weaving the future from aspects of Nordic history and mythology; she has also written widely on other monsters and folk tales.
After the Flood – P.C. Jersild
This Scandi sci-fi classic was written back in 1986 but its themes and set up remain strikingly fresh today. Thirty years after a nuclear holocaust has destroyed the known world, Edvin joins a band of survivors living on a barren island in the Baltic Sea in a struggle for existence. It’s a bleak post-apocalyptic tale (think: The Road), studded with Swedish scenery and a strong feeling of hopelessness.
Odin’s Island – Janne Teller
Winter in a fictional Scandinavian country, this intriguing novel finds Sigbrit driving along a road when she nearly runs over a man. But it’s no ordinary man: he’s barely one metre tall. So begins this strange tale, described by The Independent as "The Famous Five save a Norse god" – which sits somewhere between science fiction, political satire and fantasy in a strange future land called South Norseland, standing in for Teller’s native Denmark.
Aniara – Harry Martinson
The first blockbuster sci-fi novel written in Swedish, Aniara is a book-length epic science fiction poem about a space ship that leaves earth after a devastating nuclear war, but goes off course, leaving the solar system completely. Written in 1956, it still has great resonance today, with themes of man-made environmental breakdown and technological overconfidence. The author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1974, and in 2019 an extrasolar planet was named after the pilot from the book, Isagel.
