Millennium series

I really enjoyed the Millennium series created by Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson. In 2013, the publisher awarded author David Lagercrantz the contract to continue the series with these three books (rumored to be the end) since Larsson died in 2004. There is much debate whether Lagercrantz’s continuation respected Larsson’s legacy, an analysis beyond this simple review, but I do believe that the spirit of the Lagercrantz stories is quite different than the original author intended.  

The (new) Millennium books don't necessarily follow Larsson’s part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposé on social injustice formula. Larsson also introduced readers to Lisbeth Salander, one of the most original inventions in popular fiction. Although Salader remains a vengeful, homicidal, self-destructive love rat (yet surprisingly admirable because of Larsson’s careful attribution of her psychological wiring to survival instincts developed during a terrifying early life), her emotional depth is diluted in Langercrantz’s portrayal. Does this mean that these books are not as good as the originals? Not necessarily; the style and characterization is just different, but that translates into a death knell for purists. 

Posted by: Regina C.  

The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz   399 pages

Lisbeth Salander is Sweden’s answer to Wonder Woman, Stephen Hawking, and Mike Tyson all rolled into one five-foot, 98-pound package. She can debate the finer points of quantum mechanics and number theory with the world’s top physicists and mathematicians, hack her way into the most secure computer system on the planet, punch out a gang of the meanest, nastiest bikers you can imagine - and she has an evil twin. In other words, Lisbeth Salander is completely unbelievable. Yet this novel, and the three that preceded it, are crafted with such skill that you’ll probably get so caught up in the sheer complexity and suspense of the story that you won’t even think about how unlikely it all is.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz   347 pages

Lisbeth Salander has never been able to uncover the most telling facts of her traumatic childhood, the secrets that might finally, fully explain her to herself. Now, when she sees a chance to uncover them once and for all, she enlists the help of Mikael Blomkvist, the editor of the muckraking investigative journal Millennium. And she will let nothing stop her -  not the Islamists she enrages by rescuing a young woman from their brutality; not the prison gang leader who passes a death sentence on her; not the deadly reach of her long-lost twin sister, Camilla; and not the people who will do anything to keep buried knowledge of a sinister pseudoscientific experiment known only as The Registry.

The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz   347 pages

Lisbeth Salander has left Stockholm, seemingly forever, and gone to Russia on a mission to finally hunt down, ruin, and kill her sister and nemesis Camilla. Meanwhile, Mikael Blomkvist, suffering from a slump due to a lack of interesting news stories, gets roped into a case involving a homeless man who may have been murdered and who had Blomkvist's phone number on him.

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