The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
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Book Reviews of The Girl Who Played with Fire
Book Review: If you loved the 1st one, you'll definitely like this
Summary: 5 Stars
I know there are some people who feel this book isn't as good as good as the first, but I still think it's well worth it.
It has one of those James Bond type openings that don't actually have a lot to do with the rest of the book, but it's still enjoyable.
This is a lot more focused on Lisbeth Salander, which is a good thing. In the circles of my youth, a lesbian punk with a violent streak wouldn't have been considered that unusual, and I'm a bit surprised that she has such mainstream appeal. I guess times have changed.
I'm not sure why Larsson felt this compulsion to focus on her domestic routines, and what she shopped for, etc. I would have edited that stuff out.
The plot twist that takes place after the first third(?) of the book really was a shocker, and it defines the rest of the story. Safe to say that Lisbeth gets in quite a bit of trouble. For much of the time, she isn't even in the narrative, you just have other characters talking about her. It's fascinating how long Larsson is able to sustain this approach.
To be honest, the secret behind the narrative is a bit more conventional than what one finds in "Dragon Tattoo." It's worthwhile reading, but it's a bit more like the typical malfeasance-in-high-places that has been done equally well elsewhere. There are plenty of thriller action movies that have plots that are more sinister and conspiratorial. Unlike "Dragon," when the mask is finally stripped and the characters reveal the true nature of their plotting and their fundamental nature, you're not shocked. It's more like tidying up. I wish that Larsson could have spent more time coming up with something a bit more earth-shaking and scary.
However, the character of Lisbeth Salander makes up for these drawbacks. It's funny how you find yourself rooting for someone whom so many other characters in the book consider a dangerously unbalanced individual. It's definitely worth investing your time. Ten bucks for the hardcover is a screaming good deal. I'm glad that Larsson wrote these books, and I'm certainly going to read the third one. So obviously, he must have done something right.
Book Review: The Best Novel I've Read So Far in 2009
Summary: 5 Stars
"Godly people find life; evil people find death." -- Proverbs 11:19
If you enjoyed Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you're in for a treat: This is Lisbeth's story, explaining how such a brilliant woman came to be a ward of the state, taken "care of" by a pervert lawyer. What's more, she's on the run . . . first from her disappointment in loving Mikael Blomkvist, and later from the authorities who rely on circumstantial evidence to decide that she's a murderer. With all of Sweden after her, can Lisbeth outwit her foes?
The story is very much a David and Goliath conflict: Tiny Lisbeth is pitted against rich, powerful, and evil enemies who wish her the very worst they can wish. In developing that theme, Stieg Larsson raises fascinating fundamental questions about duality in the reader's mind such as when strength is weakness and weakness is strength, when doing good leads to evil and when doing evil leads to doing good, when friendship is more important than love and love leads to friendship, what the basis for personal morality should be and when public morality is immoral, and how the family bonds can be horrible while friendship bonds can be redeeming. You'll walk away from this book with a more objective view of the next news story you read about a crime and its punishment.
Stieg Larsson makes quite a bit of Lisbeth's extraordinary intellect. When she's running circles around conventional people, you'll feel like you are reading all about Robin Hood again. Those sections provide something of a letdown however for readers when they have to go back to following the conventional people as they bumble around. I found myself impatient for the next dose of Lisbeth several times in the book's middle.
As in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this book pulls off the respectable front of the rich and powerful to reveal the evil underneath, the sick predators who will stop at nothing to satisfy their every whim. Be ready to be dragged through the mud of gross human depravity. Like a modern-day Joan of Arc, Lisbeth doesn't let the muck stick to her as she slogs through it.
Enjoy!!!!!!
Book Review: Crime writers take heed
Summary: 5 Stars
This how it's done!
One of the best modern crime novels I've ever read. The character of Lisbeth Salander is super and you're behind her all the way. She's what all us girls dream of being (except for the sex with girls thing); a get-er-done, smart as a whip, photographic memory, take no bs from bad people, fearsome judge and executioner, physically/mentally svelte, agile and confident, star grey hat hacker who has unlimited funds. This is book two of three. The ending will take your breath away.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (book 1) is just as good only more sedate.
"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is the third and final novel in the million-selling Millennium Trilogy by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2007 and will be published in English in October 2009. The novel is a direct sequel to The Girl Who Played with Fire, and is part of the award-winning Millennium Series by the late Swedish columnist Stieg Larsson, and will feature most of the same characters from the first two novels."
I can't wait!
Best author I've run into in quite awhile. To bad he passed away. Here's a good article on the man http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4587806.ece
"As a courageous campaigning journalist, Larsson took on some dangerous opponents, neo-Nazis and other groups from the far Right, ensuring that his death at the age of 50 prompted much speculation. Was it simply - as the official verdict had it - a heart attack? Or did his enemies, who often told him that his days were numbered, have a hand in his demise?
He was celebrated as an authority on extremist organisations and his battles with them often put him in physical danger - something that seemed not to faze him. His name was known in this country from the pages of Searchlight, the anti-fascist and anti-racist magazine, while the journal he launched in Sweden, Expo, is still going strong after his death."
http://expo.se/about-expo.html
www.stieglarsson.com
Book Review: The Continuing Saga of Lisbeth Salander
Summary: 5 Stars
This book did not draw me in at first. Having just finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I wondered how someone who had not read Tattoo could feel any empathy for Lisbeth Salander, clearly the main character in Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire. As the book begins, Salander, 26, is filthy rich (literally, because she stole a fortune from a very dirty man), and she has an affair with a sixteen year old boy. Larsson bores us with details of her IKEA shopping spree and purchase of a luxury apartment. So, for the first hundred pages or so, I though of tossing the book. But it picked up. The last four hundred pages made it all worthwhile.
The book pivots off of Salander's involvement in a triple murder. Just how dirty is she? Strong evidence points to her guilt. The police think she is guilty and launch a massive hunt for her. The media spreads stories all over Sweden about her bizarre past.
But Salander has friends. There's the resourceful Mikael Blomkvist, star of Tattoo. There's a champion boxer who punches his way into the mix. There's a former guardian who grew to respect her. There's Miriam Wu, Salander's (part-time) lover.
Salander is one of the most intriguing fictional characters that I have encountered. She's a "waif," very short and thin. She's brilliant. She's fierce. She must have total revenge, and she is cold and tough enough to get it. And, at least according to the title, she plays with fire.
Other key characters include an evil Russian defector who is shielded by top Swedish officials and a malevolent "blond giant" who can feel no pain. A key plot element is the imminent publication of an exposé of sex-trafficking and the johns involved.
So, there's a lot going on. Lesser authors could not have drawn it all together. But Larsson does, in a skillful and exciting manner.
This book, combined with Tattoo, make it clear to me that the world lost a master wordsmith with Larsson's early death.
Book Review: Now I Cannot Wait to Read the Third!
Summary: 5 Stars
Absolutely riveting follow-up to 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.' Whereas the first book in this series had Mikael Blomkvist as the main protagonist, with Lisbeth Salander along to help and intrigue him, this one is centered on Salander and the way in which her past comes hurtling back to catch up with her.
When the book starts, Blomkvist and the "Millennium" magazine staff are working on exposing a sex trafficking operation with highly placed Swedish society and government targets about to be named. Salander returns to Sweden after globe-trotting for a year on the money she `earned' in the last book's operation, and tries to explore the idea of putting down roots in a new home.
Before the expose can be published, however, its author and his partner are murdered, and within hours, Salander is the prime suspect. Naturally, the resourceful young woman eludes capture as she embarks on her own campaign to root out the murderers and face down her connection to the ugly business at hand, deeply rooted in her hidden (up to this point) past. Blomkvist begins his own investigation, convinced when no one else is of Salander's innocence. Ever the computer genius, Salander hacks into Mikael's computer and answers his hidden message to her, and the two begin a tentative collaboration to clear her name, and in the process, to reveal who Lisbeth really is.
The police investigation is never dull, with a cast of good characters drawn with fine details. The action moves along at a suspenseful pace, and Salander and Blomkvist are reunited for the book's climactic scenes. Did not want this book to end, and sighed when it did, knowing I'll have to wait a full year for the next (and last) installment. I disagree with those reviewers who found this book inferior in any way to the first. I did not become bogged down or feel the action sag in the middle. Nope. Thoroughly satisfied.