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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

By Stieg Larsson

(351)

| Others | 9781906694166

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Critics

Good women and bad men

Just in case you hadn’t guessed after nearly 1,800 pages of the ‘Millennium’ trilogy, the late Stieg Larsson has his alter-ego hero Mikel Blomkvist spell it out. ‘This story is not primarily about spies and secret government agencies,’ he says. ‘It’s ... (read full critics)

spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

The Girl in the £20m Inheritance Battle – partner of late novelist Stieg Larsson fights for share of fortune

As the author of three dark and violent crime novels, Stieg Larsson was at home in a dysfunctional landscape of simmering resentments and rancourous family secrets. But the Swedish writer cannot have foreseen how, almost five years to the day after h ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

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24 Reviews

4 people find this helpful

I've enjoyed the trilogy but I do think the first book has the strongest plot arc. This final installment takes about 300 pages to get going, the main problem being that Salander is pretty much incapacitated for the first half of the book and plays little part. This is a shame because she is the mos ... (continue)

I've enjoyed the trilogy but I do think the first book has the strongest plot arc. This final installment takes about 300 pages to get going, the main problem being that Salander is pretty much incapacitated for the first half of the book and plays little part. This is a shame because she is the most interesting and complex heroine in recent crime fiction history. Without her we are left with a fairly dry investigation into the Swedish secret service. The book does pick up however and the courtroom scenes at the end are compelling. It's obviously a shame that the author died without knowing his success and overall the series has been a triumph. However, this final book could have done with a bit more editing.

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Lunarossa said on May 6, 2010 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

The third book of Stieg Larssen's trilogy is the longest, but definitely enjoyable and worth reading.
Trilogy is not the best word to describe the series since book 1 contains a full story that begins and ends while it is obvious that the idea of a sequel has sprung inn the authors mind only after h ... (continue)

The third book of Stieg Larssen's trilogy is the longest, but definitely enjoyable and worth reading.
Trilogy is not the best word to describe the series since book 1 contains a full story that begins and ends while it is obvious that the idea of a sequel has sprung inn the authors mind only after having completed the first tome. This is also the reason why I have been a little disappointed by book 2: besides lacking the enjoyable mysterious setting of the first book, it ends abruptly once the author seemed to think that it was getting too long although there's no conclusion. Thus only book 3 is a real sequel where the story which started in book 2 is continued and completed.
I'd say that book 3 is the second best of the series. It still carries the problem of having characters that are too artificially and too obviously ascribed either to the clan of the good or to the clan of the evil, and several events lack credibility. However, I was very impressed by Larsson's thorough knowledge of so many different topics (medicine, politics, structure of the Swedish government administration, law) or at least he presented these topics with surprising credibility.
Seeing the story started in book 2 coming to an end was also a reason to be satisfied by the third book.

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Alessandro Persia said on Jun 16, 2010 | Add your feedback

Even though the finale of Larsson's wildly successful Millennium Trilogy still packs enough thrills to put most crime novels to shame, it is also easily the least compact, suspenseful and engaging in the series.
Its biggest problem is its sheer length, which, at nearly 750 pages, is simply way too ... (continue)

Even though the finale of Larsson's wildly successful Millennium Trilogy still packs enough thrills to put most crime novels to shame, it is also easily the least compact, suspenseful and engaging in the series.
Its biggest problem is its sheer length, which, at nearly 750 pages, is simply way too long for a story that is mostly occupied with tying up loose ends and giving closure to its two predecessors. The book's relative looseness and lack of suspense and also come from the fact that, unlike in the previous two, there's hardly any new mystery to solve in this one. We know from the get-go who the bad guys are and what they did. The whole book is basically just a detailed description of the political organization behind it all and an account of how the good guys finally connect the dots and reach a conclusion that the reader has known all along. That said, it's a testament to the formidable writing skills of Larsson that even with this little to work on, he managed to deliver a thriller that's better than most. His direct, objective, almost journalistic prose is sharp, concise and carries an edge that's cold to the touch and sharp enough to draw blood. His structure of individual scenes is as brilliantly heart-stopping as always, and his characterization of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, especially the subtle connection between them, is among the best I've read in crime fiction.
Overall, this book offers plenty to chew on and enjoy, its introduction of the Swedish secret police and its place in Sweden's history is fascinating to read, but the good stuff is spread out too thin over a killer volume and hence loses steam in many places.

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Tony Su said on Aug 29, 2011 | Add your feedback

The movie is better.

Or more like The Girl Who Surfed the Web From Her Hospital Bed. All the side characters (and there are a lot of new ones) get larger roles than our headliner in this, the 3rd story. As with the other books you need to give the first 200 pages over to letting Larsson get himself setup. The end of ... (continue)

Or more like The Girl Who Surfed the Web From Her Hospital Bed. All the side characters (and there are a lot of new ones) get larger roles than our headliner in this, the 3rd story. As with the other books you need to give the first 200 pages over to letting Larsson get himself setup. The end of this trilogy is worthwhile sticking with though. Is there a 4th book out there? Wouldnt surprise me if the answer is no and maybe that is for the best as we can leave Salander and Blomquist to their own and not hanging. Also first ebook I've read and that was a good experience too.

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John Trigg said on Jul 28, 2011 | Add your feedback

This book opens up where The Girl Who Played With Fire left us hanging and as well as the other two is full of surprises and one of those you just can not put down once you start reading!
If you like murder mysteries and page turners this is the book for you!
I'm sad to know that there will no mor ... (continue)

This book opens up where The Girl Who Played With Fire left us hanging and as well as the other two is full of surprises and one of those you just can not put down once you start reading!
If you like murder mysteries and page turners this is the book for you!
I'm sad to know that there will no more books in the series.....

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Nini said on Apr 13, 2011 | Add your feedback

I don't get why everybody is so excited about these books. Yes, it is ok if you don't have anything better to read, but that's it. I got a bit tired of so many details that have nothing to do with the story: what they buy at the shop, what they have for breakfast... even the spam they receive! I thi ... (continue)

I don't get why everybody is so excited about these books. Yes, it is ok if you don't have anything better to read, but that's it. I got a bit tired of so many details that have nothing to do with the story: what they buy at the shop, what they have for breakfast... even the spam they receive! I think the book would be better if it were a lot shorter.

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Belen said on Mar 1, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback