The Girl in the Spider's Web
Ratings155
Average rating3.5
Even though it's a different author, I felt like the integrity of the series was kept, and I almost didn't notice it wasn't Steig Larsson writing.
There are a couple things that put me off this book a bit in comparison to the original trilogy. One of those is just the nature of some mystery thriller's. Each book tends to escalate the mystery that needs solved and it reaches a point where it becomes so large I can no longer suspend my disbelief.
The other one is that this is a new author. Putting aside what I personally think about the Larsson estate issue, any time you have a new author trying to fill very large shoes you're going to have some growing pains. I do feel Lagercrantz by the end had gotten a handle on the characters, so that while not quite the same, still captured that familiar voice.
There is an odd disconnect between the third book and this one though. Millenium is having familiar issue's, but it not only doesn't feel convincing but serves no real purpose to the narrative imo. Blomkvist has a relationship by the end of the third book, but that's mysteriously missing, not mentioned in any way, so it's back to the status quo 'ladys man' which I was never a huge fan of.
It's not all bad though, the payoff still delivers and one benefit of Lagercrantz writing is that he's not nearly as prone to writing about the minutia of the characters lives. There's no grocery list included or a detailed breakdown of what's for breakfast and I certainly can appreciate the lack of that as it was one of my main complaints with the trilogy.
I'm still not certain this series needed to go beyond the trilogy which was a nice wrapping up point. None the less 3 big brothers out of 5.
Good Book. It took a long time to build the story. In the beginning all the characters seemed to ‘feel' something was off, over and over again.
The book is definitely entertaining and the style doesn't shift that much from the original author, but somehow I found the story a little shallow if I compare it with the original trilogy, with characters not having the same level of consistency.
Absolutely brilliant read!
Although you can tell that it's not Larsson, as he did have a very peculiar way of writing, Lagercrantz has done an absolutely superb job here.
The story is rich, the pace fast, the vision clear.
Rating: 3.5 ⭐️ What I appreciate is that Lagercrantz kept the characters' personalities and overall behavior. However, sometimes I felt like the story was all over the place, and the pacing wasn't as the original trilogy. But I have to recognize this was a good story, and it made me curious about the next books.
Estoy siendo demasiado amable al colocar esta calificación, y lo estoy siendo porque a pesar del enojo que siento ahora mismo, valoro el esfuerzo del autor, porque siendo esta mi “Saga” (Que en realidad seguirá siendo trilogía para mí) favorita, y creyendo que Lisbeth Salander es, sin menor duda a mi propio juicio, el mejor personaje femenino creado, entiendo lo intimidante que puede llegar a ser, tanto dentro de una historia, como para alguien (Que no sea su creador original) escribir sobre ella; además la tercera estrella va porque a pesar de todo logró tenerme entretenida y a la espera de lo que ocurriría.
Entonces... Dicho esto vamos a hablar del libro en sí, y trataré de no spoilear mucho. Deberían ver como estoy de frustrada frente a la pantalla tratando de acomodar mis ideas para ver como expresarme de mejor manera sobre esto.
La historia gira sobre la premisa del robo informático y las super inteligencias, algo que al inicio te puede emocionar como lector que sabe que esa es el área experta de Salander y que prometería algo interesante con nuestra supuesta “Protagonista”, y toca ponerlo así porque se pone en duda todo el tiempo quién es realmente el protagonista de esta historia, dudando incluso de que lo sea Mikael. ¿Y por qué digo esto? Bueno, pues porque tanto el uno parece solo un comodín que usar para conectar algunas partes de la historia, y que se maneja de manera endeble, como la otra, entre otras cosas, empieza a salir luego de la página... ¿Cien? Y si bien esto no debería ser un problema al inicio, luego de que aparece con una frase muy Salander, y tú como lector te emocionas al tope porque... ¡SÍ, SALANDER DE NUEVO A LA JUGADA! te das cuenta en la siguiente línea, que esa no es tú Lisbeth, nuestra Lisbeth, que ha perdido todo aquello que la caracteriza y que la hizo volverse un personaje amado por muchos y el epicentro de todo aquel que se interesaba por Millennium, es simplemente vergonzoso ver en lo que convirtieron a nuestra antihéroe.
Seguimos con la historia que, hay que reconocer, tiene sus momentos atrapantes, y algunos personajes nuevos interesantes, pero no dejas de sentir ese punzón que te dice que esto que lees, más que una cuarta parte de una saga, parece un FanFic muy elaborado de esos que se encuentran en Wattpad, y entonces te empiezas a desesperar.
Y te desesperas más con cada página que pasa porque, dicho sea de paso, ves un recurso desperdiciado de la manera más absurda, y es el personaje de Camilla, la hermana gemela de Lisbeth, que ya nos habían presentado por las ramas en los anteriores libros, y que uno esperaría que tuviese más impacto al momento de su aparición, pero no, no es así ni por asomo.
De hecho David se lanzó a tratar de contar una historia intensa y macabra (Casi sobrenatural) sobre este personaje para intentar magnificar el odio entre las hermanas, luego dejando huecos enormes de la misma historia, para que al final de tanta explicación, Camilla, aún cuando es otro de los supuestos personajes protagónicos de esta entrega, se vea con realmente poca fuerza, y usada solo para salvar algunos momentos y generar más tensión en la lectura, cuando quizá ya te habías aburrido de nuevo hasta donde ibas.
¡Y al final ni siquiera pasó gran cosa! Eso fue lo que más me molestó, que sentí un desperdicio de recursos que la historia regalaba en los tres primeros libros, pero de manera demencial, que los personajes perdieran aquello que los hacía realmente interesantes, y que pareciera que todo el tiempo estuvieran exclamando cosas y realmente sorprendidos 24/7, quiero decir que ESTOS: ¡¡¡¡!!!! no dejaban de aparecer cada dos diálogos y en personajes como Salander que poco y nada va con ese estilo de habla, luego de ser una persona tan parca, y poco dada a hablar.
Lo que me lleva a... ¿Desde cuándo Lisbeth es tan locuaz y parlanchina? Creo que antes podías contar con los dedos de tus manos, y te sobraban dedos, de los diálogos que tuvo en todo el libro (Y mira que es bastante grueso) y en cambio aquí me daban ganas de ponerle una cinta en la boca ¡Era desesperante!
Me estoy quedando corta con todo lo que quiero decir de este libro, pero creo que esto es básicamente un buen “Resumen” de lo que me ha parecido.
Y como recomendación si eres un fan como yo de Millennium... Deberías hacerte un favor y no leer el cuarto libro, yo hubiese sido más feliz si no hubiera salido, no de esta manera, y que la historia de Salander y Mikael hubiesen acabado en la tercera entrega.
This one was interesting. A continued series after the death of the original author, that does not always go well. I was pleasantly surprised. It's a suspenseful read that was hard to put down.
Still, while Lagercrantz tells a story full of action and suspense, he sometimes gets lost in mathematical or technical details (specific Android app names?) that seem aimed at building plausibility but instead strike as a filler where plot development should've gone.
In this novel, Liesbeth comes across as broken yet determined to fight for justice as ever, but the character development remains limited to third party discussions about the childhood spent with her sister. Unfortunately, rather than more mysterious and unapproachable, it keeps her, the most interesting character of the story, looking shallower than necessary.
Overall, a good read and I have enough questions about the continuation of the story that I'm certain I'll pick up the next volume.
3.5 rounded up to 4.
I really enjoyed the original trilogy. This just didn't do anything for me. I'm not sure I would have known just from the writing that it was a different author, but the book felt different from the first three. The story line took way too long to build and ultimately wasn't as interesting. I like you Lisbeth, but don't think I'll be reading any further.
Compared to Stieg Larsson we revealed the plot too early. Anyways, it's a good book and it fits in the series. Almost loved it!
I had TGitSW in my TBR pile for quite a while. I was somewhat reluctant to start it because, really, how could someone take over for Stieg Larsson? Could such a writer really do Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist? Happily, Lagercrantz has written a very good story. It is doubtless quite different from what Larsson would have created, but still it gives the characters new life.
The story is at base a thriller. A multinational criminal organization comes to the attention of both Mikael and Lisbeth. The bad guys are deadly and ruthless, and they have their hooks into people in high places. Mikael and Lisbeth start working the problem from different directions. They soon find themselves being targeted by the criminals and an American intelligence agency. I don't think it is a spoiler to say that there is plenty of action. All hell breaks loose and things get bloody.
As usual in this series, there are men who abuse/neglect women and children. Also, the Millennium magazine comes under attack from envious and dirty-dealing competitors.
One thing stands out in the story. Do not get Lisbeth Salander angry; you will be sorry.
Pretty good book. A solid four stars.
I really wanted to like this book. I started with moderate expectations, thinking that this would be a nice read about the characters I like from the previous book. I got annoyed halfway through. There is way too much dialogue, a lot of explanations about the past and very little happening in the present. Too much time spent explaining ( and overexplaining) the back story and very little left for the flimsy plot.
I struggled at the start of the book as I found the translation a bit. Howbeit got better (or I got used to the style) and I enjoyed it.
I not know why I like these books. They're not particularly well written, overly complex, and none of the characters are that likeable. They rely heavily on exposition with two characters telling each other major bits of backstory, often second hand so it's not even the character concerned who's revealing something of importance. Often I found myself wondering how someone knew such detail about events they didn't even witness.
The author writes similarly to Larsson but manages to avoid some of his more irritating traits - no long passages describing which processor powers anyone's laptop here. There are some oddities: our main character is told to ditch his iPhone for an Android phone to avoid NSA hacking it - the book came out just as Apple were fighting the FBI over the right to prevent them having a back door and I can't help feeling Larsson would have devoted a few thousand words to a topic like that. Instead it feels like the author did a quick read of Wikipedia and grabbed some terms he doesn't entirely understand. There is a long exposition on autism which does read like a first year undergraduate literature review and the child's savant status is worryingly convenient.
As with the other books I found it difficult to keep track of who was who, or indeed to care who was who - there's an old Jewish detective who's lost his faith but finds love at the end (not really a spoiler) and it's difficult to care.
The story is a lot simpler than other books and maybe too simple. I was surprised that the whole thing seemed to end with a lot of book still to go - I was expecting a third act that didn't happen.
But in the end, and I think this is why I like these books (even if I don't love them), it was a good distraction and an interlude between ‘heavier' books.
not nearly as bad as a lot of people would have you believe, it's not like the originals are the best thing ever either (I did enjoy them, just think their quality may a bit overstated).
I do agree that Salander is not the main character and not in it enough, but then was she ever in the earlier books?
At first I was afriad to read the book since it was in part not written by the original author but took a chance and it was a great continuation for the Millenium series. New ennemies were introduced but Lisbeth and Mikael were the same. Great story, the suspense was on point. Great work!
Good, but not great followup to Stieg Larsen's books
+1 for Stockholmness
If I didn't already know that the original Millennium trilogy's author, Stieg Larsson, was dead, I probably wouldn't have realized that the fourth book in the series was written by a different author. That seemed to be off-putting to some people (I read a lot of Amazon reviews while I was reading the book, because I loved it and I didn't understand the haterz), and there was a lot of controversy about Larsson's estate and whether David Lagercrantz should have continued with the series in the first place.
Anyway.
The story was excellent, quick-paced, action-packed, and most importantly, includes way more Lisbeth Salander awesomeness. I was very sad when the first three books ended (presumably with no more to come, at the time) because Lisbeth is one of those characters that just vibrates right off the page, and the more books she is in, the better. One of the best-written female characters of all time, in my reading experience so far.
But that's more credit to Larsson than to Lagercrantz. I felt that Lagercrantz did a good job of keeping in the tone and the spirit of the original trilogy, and even managed to bring up subjects that were hinted at in the trilogy but that were never delved into deeper. The ending wrapped up cleanly (a little too cleanly, in my opinion, but what can you do), while still leaving space for more books to come.
Definitely a 4.5 star read.
Another captivating story with the characters so carefully crafted by Steig Larsson. I was impressed with how smooth the reading went. Kudos to David Lagercrantz for carrying this on.
I liked the book and I believe the writing was true to the original author and to the characters. My only problem is it doesnt feel finished, granted in order to continue the series there must be some questions left over but the thing the original series did very well was leave each book feeling complete on it's own. I didn't get that sense from this one.
Perhaps I need to read this one again. Overall it was an enjoyable book with some further fantastic insight into the characters. However, it really is a shame that steig passed before he was able to complete his masterpiece.
A pesar de no ser obra del escritor original, Lagercrantz se las arregla muy pero muy bien para recrear el estilo de la serie Millenium, pero imprimiendo aún un ritmo mayor, un poco mas frenético. Los personajes no pierden ni un ápice de sus personalidades, siguen tan identificables como siempre. La historia además es capaz de conectar puntos remotos de los libros pasados sin ningún problema, e incluso es interesante ver como se pueden “revisitar” ciertos lugares comunes pero desde otra perspectiva.
El único “defecto” que le encontré es que el final es DEMASIADO feliz, atípicamente infeliz para la saga. Eso si, es lo suficientemente abierto y deja ciertos cliffhangers como para garantizar una nueva entrega de la saga a futuro.
Quienes hayan disfrutado con los libros previos sin duda encontrarán gran satisfacción al leer las nuevas aventuras de Salander, Blomkvist y demas.
Recomendable.
I purposefully kept my expectations of this installment low due to the fact that it was written by a new author. I was pleasantly surprised, however, with the similar writing style, unique characters and an interesting, steadily paced story line. I enjoyed the read but did think that the ending could have been a little stronger. I am looking forward to new installments.