Neck Tattoos

5 Responses to “Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”

1. E. A Solinas says:

   May 30, 2010 at 7:56 pm

   Review by E. A Solinas for Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
   Rating:
   Authors who are only published posthumously rarely get the attention they deserve, or any attention at all. Fortunately, such is not the case with the late Stieg Larsson’s bestselling Millennium trilogy — it starts off slow, and soon winds itself into a tight knot of tautly-written thriller and mystery elements. It’s raw, bleak, intensely disturbing noir.

   In “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” take-no-prisoners journalist Mikael Blomkvist has just lost his reputation, his savings and his freedom (hello, jail sentence!) after a nasty libel suit from an executive named Wennerström.

   Then he’s unexpectedly contacted by aged industrialist Henrik Vanger, to discover what happened to the guy’s grandniece. He’s offering evidence on Wennerström, so Mikael has no choice but to accept — and as he investigates the sinister Vanger family, he joins forces with Lisbeth Salander, an eccentric, abused computer hacker. And as Mikael unearths the clues to Harriet’s disappearance, he also finds some skeletons long kept buried.

   “The Girl Who Played With Fire” finds Mikael investigating sex trafficking in his own country, and young girls who are sold into it. Unknown to him, Lisbeth is keeping very close tabs on his work — especially since she was abused as a child, and now plots revenge on the sex traffickers. But when she’s accused of murder and ends up on the run, Mikael must discover what lies at the core of these crimes…

   And finally, “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest” takes place directly after the second book. Lisbeth has been shot in the head, her malevolent father Zalachenko is in the same hospital claiming that she tried to kill him, and some nasty government forces want her locked away, as she was as a child. Her only hope lies in Mikael, who must unravel a government conspiracy formed around the young hacker…

   Larsson’s books are a unique blend of old and new — he takes the usual mystery/thriller tropes (locked room mystery, government conspiracies) and enfolds it in a ruthless, blistering look at modern Swedish society and sexual aggression. It’s a dark, dangerous, unfair world where the truth is quashed, powerful forces conspire against individuals, and women are treated horribly — usually shown via the eccentric, punky “girl with the dragon tattoo.”

   His prose is rather bleak and often quite gritty, and a certain brand of understated passion shines through — the kind that feels the need to express itself even though it takes place in fiction. And while most of the first book focuses in Mikael, in the second and third Larssen’s style splits in half — one half is the more staid, ordinary perspective of Mikael and others, and the other half is the wild nihilism of Lisbeth (“If death was the black emptiness from which she had just woken up, then death was nothing to worry about. She would hardly notice the difference”).

   Mikael and Salander make an intriguing odd couple. He starts world-weary and demoralized that he seems to care about nothing, but regains his passion for the truth; the only downside is that he’s a bit Marty Stuish, since all women seem to adore him. And Salander is a mass of hurts and quirks — she’s a vibrant, wild genius who lashes out at those who hurt women, and has been constantly tortured by those around her since childhood (even as an adult, she’s forced to have a legal guardian).

   Take your average thriller/mysteries, smother them in disillusioned, morally-bankrupt noir… and you’ll have something like the Millennium Trilogy. A hard read, but worth the journey.
2. P. Bernier says:

   May 30, 2010 at 8:22 pm

   Review by P. Bernier for Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
   Rating:
   I just received my Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy set from Amazon and I have to say I am quite disappointed. I really was expecting all 3 hardcovers enclosed in a nice slipcase but they arrived shrinkwrapped in plastic, no slipcase! I know the ad did not mention anything about a slipcase but when you buy a hardcover collection like this they USUALLY come in a nice slipcase. So for anyone who already own the first two books I have to say you don’t need this set of all 3 books, unless you want them all in hardcover…
3. Mike Fazey says:

   May 30, 2010 at 8:24 pm

   Review by Mike Fazey for Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
   Rating:
   Like millions of people worldwide, I was absolutely captivated by these three books and their strange and utterly unconventional anti-heroine, Lisbeth Salander. That Larsson manages to evoke such sympathy for her, despite her anti-social nature and penchant for violence, is quite remarkable. Of course, we might feel differently if not for the monumental injustices she has suffered at the hands of a few corrupt individuals. She is a victim who has responded to her situation by becoming an outsider.

   The story is certainly an intricate one, but Larsson manages to lead us through the maze without losing us along the way. In fact, one of the joys of the books is gradually realising that there are yet more levels of complexity to get your head around.

   Thrilling as the storyline is, the thing I found most interesting about it was the moral dimension. Corruption in business and in government and the abuse of women are major themes, and Larsson’s position on them is crystal clear. However, both Salander herself and the crusading journalist Blomqvist also act outside the law. This gives a certain moral ambiguity to the story. In Salander’s case, her illegal acts take place within her own moral code – a code that is internally consistent but at odds with what we would ordinarily consider to be acceptable. In Blomqvist’s case, his acts (including turning a blind eye to Salander’s computer crimes) are informed by a desire to expose corruption and to achieve justice for Salander.

   So, given Salander’s understandable antipathy towards the society that has treated her so appallingly, and Blomqvist’s laudable social justice objectives, is their own behaviour morally acceptable? Do the ends justify the means? Are the circumstances so extreme that ordinary moral arguments don’t apply? These are the questions that remained with me after I’d finished the final book, and still remain.

   Ultimately, this is what makes the Millennium Trilogy something more than your average crime thriller and worth investing the time and mental energy to read.
   
4. F. F. Montalvo says:

   May 30, 2010 at 9:14 pm

   Review by F. F. Montalvo for Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
   Rating:
   Amazon, please explain why I should pay almost $48 for Larsson’s trilogy bundle (hardcovers, uncased) when I can order them separately from you for about $43?
5. Silicon Valley Librarian says:

   May 30, 2010 at 9:48 pm

   Review by Silicon Valley Librarian for Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
   Rating:
   The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the groundbreaking introduction to the atypical and edgy world of Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant 20-something computer hacker, mathematical genius, and fearless force of ethical mayhem.

   Salander manifests her skills while undermining a broken-down and corrupt Swedish system which repeatedly sucker-punched both Salander and those she loved, leaving her defenseless. The take-no-prisoners avalanche of Salander’s payback catapults Stieg Larsson’s series into a majestic and non-linear reading experience.

   Other reviewers have covered the storylines of the Salander book trio, but the characterization of Salander is what really breaks the mold of traditional IT intrigue. Think the intellectual edge of Umberto Eco Foucault’s Pendulum, the dynamic sensibilities of rocker Pink I’m Not Dead (Platinum Edition), and the tech savvy of Daniel Suarez Daemon, for some sense of where this gritty and unpredictable ride will take you. The first book is tough-going in the level of Swedish political detail, but by the third book you will mourn the untimely loss of Larsson, who died of a massive heart attack in November of 2004.

   In the series the intimacy-shy Salander forms a hesitant partnership with Mikael Blomkvist, an idealistic investigative journalist for Millenium, a news magazine which he co-founded. Blomkvist is sued and eventually exonerated over allegations sited in an international conspiracy article which he authored.

   Larsson, coincidentally, founded a news magazine entitled Expo and had been subjected to ongoing death threats for exposing European Neo-Nazi’s and white supremacists via his Scandinavian magazine. It was rumored that his death was in some way retaliation for his political reporting.

   Some of these core themes are woven into the fabric of Larsson’s astonishing trilogy. The Swedish movie version of the first novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is fairly accurate, but the book still holds the key to the visceral Salander. Don’t miss it.