The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
by Stieg Larsson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stieg LarssonReader: Simon Vance
Translator: Reg Keeland
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Published: 2010-05-25
ISBN: 0739384198
Publisher: Random House Audio
Book Reviews of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Book Review: 20.5 hours never went by so fast
Summary: 5 Stars
THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE RANDOM HOUSE AUDIO PRODUCT (my review of Stieg Larsson's actual story and writing style will come later)
For me this was the easiest of the three sets of CD's to rip to Itunes. All of the discs are tagged correctly, which was not the case in the last two audiobooks.
Again Simon Vance is the reader and again he makes the book an engaging read. I would not be able to get past all the foreign place names and character names without Vance. Plus he puts the emphasis right where it needs to be in each narrator sentence and each piece of character dialogue. There is just one problem with this particular book in the series that was not a problem with the other books. There are a lot of female characters in Nest. Which is as it should be since one of Larsson's sub themes in the trilogy is an undercurrent of mysogyny in Sweden. When Vance only had to give major character voices to Salander, Salander's girlfriend Mimi, Blomkvist's editor Erika Berger, Blomkvist's sister Angela Ginnini and one female police detective named Merk (?), he did alright. He gave each character her own distinctive voice. This helped me to keep up with each character. But now there are many more female characters who have a big part in the story and Vance's repertoire of female character voices is getting repetitive, which is making it more difficult for me to keep up. I don't blame Vance for this. He is, after all, a man. He does a great job of giving each of the many male characters a distinctive voice. I don't necessarily expect a male actor to have as deep a well of female character voices from which to draw. I think, in the case of this particular book, it would have been a good idea to actually invite a female actress in to voice all the female parts since there are so many of them.
THIS IS A REVIEW OF STIEG LARSSON'S STORY
I'm impressed that Stieg was able to keep this thriller thrilling even while the heroine spent a good portion of the book confined to a sick bed. I'm also impressed that the many asides about the newspaper business did not detract from the overall story. I liked this book a great deal and found it a fulfilling enough end to the series. I was annoyed by some plot turns Stieg decided to take. The sideplot of Erika Berger having a stalker gave me no insight into her character or the character of her husband or the Swedish newspaper business. The side plot seemed to only serve as a way to introduce the character of Lisa (Liza?) from Milton Security as a kind of rogue ex-cop. Perhaps Stieg intended to use Liza as a continuing character in his decalog but then he dropped dead and the decalog was never completed. But in this particular book the stalker storyline is superfluous. I also thought it was just so wholly unoriginal that the woman for whom Mikael thinks he might fall happens to be an amazon goddess who works out three hours a day and came close to being an olympian. Really Stieg, really? The most gorgeous female character you've introduced in the series is the one who indescribably falls in love with Mikael and with whom Mikael seriously considers going monogamous? When Mikael began a sexual relationship with Harriet Vanger I interpreted it as Stieg showing that Harriet herself was free of her past. The fact that Harriet, a victim of child sexual rape and torture, could have a purely sex-for-pleasure relationship with a man with whom she was not in love and had not built up a history of trust (the way she had with her husband) showed me that Harriet no longer had any inner curses hanging over her head from the things to which her father and brother had subjected her. She was free and this was shown by her freedom to enjoy sex for pleasure without any neurosis. So it was about her and not about Mikael so much. But to have a Constitutional Protection cop with the body of Venus and Serena Williams fall for the admittedly soft Mikael who is also a smoker, well I just couldn't buy it. I'll give Stieg the benefit of the doubt and assume he intended to exploit the relationship for plot purposes in future books in the decalog. That would make sense considering she is a cop who spies on other cops and members of the government who might be suspected of breaking the law. But in this particular story, their relationship annoyed me. What I did like was the very end where the reader could see Lisbeth progressing as a member of society. The pivotal choice she makes at the end of the book, her visit to Paris, her remembering those for whom she needed to buy Christmas gifts, her acceptance of being in debt to others, I really liked these little touches of her budding sense of her own membership in society. I imagine Stieg had hoped to develop Lisbeth's since of that membership and the belonging it confers as the decalog progressed. It's a real shame he was taken from the world of literature at age 50.
Summary of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
The stunning third and final novel in Stieg Larsson?s internationally best-selling trilogyLisbeth Salander?the heart of Larsson?s two previous novels?lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She?s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she?ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge?against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.
Once upon a time, she was a victim. Now Salander is fighting back.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2010 As the finale to Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is not content to merely match the adrenaline-charged pace that made international bestsellers out of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Instead, it roars with an explosive storyline that blows the doors off the series and announces that the very best has been saved for last. A familiar evil lies in wait for Lisbeth Salander, but this time, she must do more than confront the miscreants of her past; she must destroy them. Much to her chagrin, survival requires her to place a great deal of faith in journalist Mikael Blomkvist and trust his judgment when the stakes are highest. To reveal more of the plot would be criminal, as Larsson's mastery of the unexpected is why millions have fallen hard for his work. But rest assured that the odds are again stacked, the challenges personal, and the action fraught with neck-snapping revelations in this snarling conclusion to a thrilling triad. This closing chapter to The Girl's pursuit of justice is guaranteed to leave readers both satisfied and saddened once the final page has been turned. --Dave Callanan
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