Tuesday, August 30

Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson

8:58 PM | Posted by Dawn & Winnie Book Reviews

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)

by Stieg Larsson

A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.
It's about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.
It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it--who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism--and an unexpected connection between themselves.
It's a contagiously exciting, stunningly intelligent novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.

OK I technically can never not finish a book. I started reading this after being encouraged by so many to pick it up, but all my excitement and eagerness quickly died away after having to tumultuously (not sure if that's a word) get through the first say third of the book before even moving anywhere. I feel as if authors who has a small story line always seems to fill the book up by explaining every single detail of every birds'a feather and the type of carpet they walk on. Good story, good characters, weary thrilling and suspenseful tale. Not my typical reading but say gotta think out the box right. The story basically follow three to four main characters with multiple sub and supporting characters entering and exiting through the book. obviously one or two of them is the keep to the puzzle. Mikael B is hired to solve a mysterious murder/ disappearance, his career as a journalist is hanging by a thread, so he takes on this case with a mind blowing offer, and hires Lisbeth S to help him solve the crime. After running all around Switzerland and where else and digging through archives and questioning almost everyone but the prime minister, they hunt to solve this mystery. but wait they have a time restriction. And so it goes if you love stories that gives clues in a minuscule scale and then piece all of it together after having you read on and on and on, this is the book for you. Still contemplating if to read the other two books, just out of curiosity.Great story, but definitely dragged. three stars.

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millenium #2)---Published July 28th 2009 by Alfred A. Knopf (first published 2006)
by Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.

But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander—the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire.
As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium #3) --Published May 25th 2010 by Knopf (first published 2007)

by Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland (Translator)

Lisbeth 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

Labels: Millennium Series