The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

by Stieg Larsson

This is the third and last book in the Millennium trilogy. Note that this summary may contain spoilers if you have not read the first 2 books (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire) It follows on from where book 2 ended. Lisbeth Salander had just had a confrontation with Zalachenko and is badly injured and so too Zalanchenko. They are both sent to hospital and awaiting recovery upon which they would be awaiting trial. In that confrontation, Niederman had managed to escape and in at that moment still at large. Whilst this is going on, there are powers working deep within the crevices of the Secutiry Police, known as The Section, that look to undermine Lisbeth and would see her again locked up in a psychiatric ward. In all this, Mikael Blomkvist and a barrage of people are trying to build a case to see that The Section's plan does not come to fruition. The result is about 750 pages of nonstop action and political espionage.

I started reading this book 4 days back and could not stop. The writing is realistic to the point that at one point or another one wonder if one is really reading piece of fiction. The plots is so disjointed at times that you really do wonder if these events actually occurred. This halting plot however does not take away the pace of the story, it is well-paced for such a tome of a book. To the contrary, it makes you wonder what is at the next turn as things are just so unexpected. Things however do tone down approaching the last quarter of the book, and I felt it went slightly anti climactic. So again, it just felt so much like actual occurrences.

Adding to the realism is that the characters though numerous, are very believable and moreover one can relate to them and their situations. My favourite character has to be Lisbeth Salander because she is one of the most unique female protagonist I have come across. She is a recluse, uncommunicative but extremely resourceful. The characters in this book are quite multi-dimensional and comple, so not at all cliche.

Some minor criticisms is that as a whole, books I seem to be quite disjointed from II and III in that I could have sat alone. But this was Stieg's first major work of fiction so I guess it was reasonable for the first book to be more self encapsulated, for fear that he was ever allowed to publish the first one. But I would also have liked books II and III to be more self encapsulated whilst maintaining intricate interweaving with revelations from books I and II. But all this is perhaps is just nit picking in an absolutely wonderful trilogy that I would probably re read again all three together.

What a great loss to the literary world it is that Stieg Larrson has passed on. RIP.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

by Stieg Larsson

This is the 2nd book in the Millennium trilogy. The second book follows on where the first book ended with Lisbeth Salander disappearing from Sweden and spending time abroad. She has broken all contact with all her contacts in Sweden including Mikael Blomkvist and Armansky. Though they both still were looking for her for she left without any notice at all, and with no provocation. Lisbeth then returns to Sweden about a year later and is caught up in an entangled mess. A researcher and a journalist investigating the sex trade in Sweden is murdered in a very gruesome manner and the prime suspect is somehow Lisbeth. And the manhunt for her heightens when the police find a third body of Nils Bjurman, her social officer because she was deemed incompetent. So Blomkvist now has to find Lisbeth to figure out what is going on, and furthermore the journalist killed was working with Millennium magazine where Blomkvist is one of the editors. So it really is the perfect storm and from start to finish the book does not halt. Even up to the last word of the story.

I watched the Swedish version of this movie with English subtitles first before reading the book. Watching this movie, I felt the movie was quite a letdown, the story was very simple, so I was hesitant to read the book. But the book really is something else altogether. As movies always do, they take some liberty and changing the plot slightly to make it more understandable but it really took out what I felt was important from the book and took out the intricate plot weaving created by Larsson. It was no longer a wonderful web of suspense and intrigue, but what was left in the movie was singular plot direction. But the book is absolutely wonderful has the same high standard as the first. I cannot wait to read the last book in the series.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson

I thought this book was crap because on one of the book covers there was a picture of a young punk goth looking girl with a middle-ages guy. I thought it was one of those guy falls in love with girl half his age kind of story.

 So goes the saying, Don't judge a book by its cover. And indeed that's true for this. Ok, I bought the book with this cover which looks better than the other cover anyways. And I bought it only after my sister told me it was a good read.

Well, it does not disappoint. it follows the life of Mikael Blomkvist, an economic journalist. He is convicted of libel case for writing things that did not have sufficient proof to back it up. And so his reputation and career was going down the drain. Then came the retired business mogul, Henrik Vanger with a very interesting proposition. He wanted Mikael to investigate the death of his niece who died almost 2 decades ago. Mikael was reluctant but agreed after Henrik convinced him by providing him with a significant financial compensation. Henrik also promised he would deliver him with a story to destroy the company that originally charged him with libel. So there begins the fun.

Parallel to this story is that of Lisbeth Salander, who is a anti social computer genius. The story gets interesting when Mikael and Lisbeth's paths intersect and they work together to solve the mystery of Henrik Vanger's niece, Harriet Vanger.

This is such a wonderful book. You get a feel that the characters are real people and multi dimensional. Sometimes reading books like Sheldon, thought the pace is riveting, the characters can seem to serve the purpose too well. But with this book, their development seem very true to their own personality and it really is a clash of all these personalities that bring about a truly remarkable story.

I love this book and can't wait to read the other 2 in the series. Rest in peace Stieg Larsson, I wish you had more time to write more wonderful stuff.