I’ve read the first of the Millennium trilogy. Bit clunky, but I enjoyed it.

I’ve got the 3rd (Hornets Nest) and I’m off on a short trip tomorrow where a bit of reading matter might come in useful (while sitting on the beach at Tarifa waiting for the wind to pick up and wondering if the bird in the yellow bikini is going to take her top off)

If I read the third without reading the second will I regret it forever, or do I need to make time to nip down to a bookshop today?

They follow on from each other, so you may get a bit confused reading the third before the 2nd, and it will spoil reading the 2nd as you will know the final outcome.

Great books and also great films. Not sure what the ‘american’ remakes will be like but the original Swedish ones are brilliant.

Not sure you’ll regret it forever, but the second one is kind of vital if you want to get the plotting of the third one.

I’d just buy the 2nd one at the airport

Buy something else at the airport as 2 and 3 are a bit rubbish?

I enjoyed the first two films but am not sure about the 3rd. I heard it is slow and that she is in ICU for most of the film. Is it worth a watch?

Buy something else at the airport as 2 and 3 are a bit rubbish?

Best answer so far 🙂

Now about that bikini…

Buy ‘Racing through the dark’ by David Millar at the airport in Paperback – a very good read instead!

Yes. You need to read the second before starting the third.

Waterstones, here we come.

sorry bigjohn I don’t do bikinis. I do shorts and self conscious vest tops.

enjoy your hols 😀

I’ve got the second here, you can have it for nothing!

Do we need spoiler alerts??

OK DezB, I need to leave Stafford at 4:15 tomorrow morning to get to Luton by 6:15. If you can be at one of the junctions in time, I’ll be in the red Mondeo estate (without a spoiler) and you can toss it in through the window.

2 and 3 are a bit rubbish?

I thought the 1st was kack – might I like the others, or will I dislike them more.
Or might they be just the same
Or what if I guess the end when I’m half way through and it sounds brilliant so I keep going to see how it happens and then my guess turns out better then the real end, and …

JESUS !!!!

What am I going to do ?? 😥

I thought the 1st was kack – might I like the others, or will I dislike them more.
Or might they be just the same

Probably just the same.

I thought 1 was quite good, in a summer reading sort of way, 2 was fairly gripping, and 3 a bit disappointing.

They have some silly stuff – the descriptions of what computer he is using always seems naff, and the general idea of a super-hacker is far-fetched, but they are entertaining.

Or you could buy a proper book. Sorry, but they are all trash. The clue is that you can buy them at airports. Misogynist trash too.

OK DezB, I need to leave Stafford at 4:15 tomorrow morning to get to Luton by 6:15. If you can be at one of the junctions in time, I’ll be in the red Mondeo estate (without a spoiler) and you can toss it in through the window

Sorted! I’ll be there, honest I will.

Or you could buy a proper book. Sorry, but they are all trash. The clue is that you can buy them at airports. Misogynist trash too

Calm down dear 🙂

Misogynist trash too

?? In what way ??

DrJ

the main girl character…she’s like a wish list fantasy heroine for IT nerds, eats pizza, super intelligent, **** anything that moves, wears black, has emotional issues…dull tedious one dimensional crap for men to drool over.

and for some reason, can’t think why, likes to sleep with unattractive overweight middle-aged writers. Hmmm…

It’s cringeworthy.

They might as well have named her “seven of nine”.

Every hero or heroine is a fantasy wish list for somebody – that’s not the same as misogyny, it’s just not very profound writing. The main man character – forgotten his name, even – could just as easily be held up as evidence of .. umm .. misanthropy.

yes but every woman he meets wants to shag him aparently!!

Salander, his partner in the mag, there’s a police woman! it’s just silly after a bit.

and for some reason, can’t think why, likes to sleep with unattractive overweight middle-aged writers

Being an unattractive middle aged writer doesn’t seem to have harmed Woody Allen’s sex life.

yes but every woman he meets wants to shag him aparently!!

Salander, his partner in the mag, there’s a police woman! it’s just silly after a bit

That’s 3 in a trilogy of thick books. I could probably manage that success rate myself 🙂 No-one is claiming it’s great literature, but it is quite entertaining beach reading.

Karl blomkvist iirc. yeah weirdly seems to be a bit of a pulling machine, but then again some of the misogynistic tools I’ve known have had plenty of GFs so who knows what attracts (some) women.

Well, I read quite a lot of novels and it’s surprising how many feature male middle aged overweight writers/journos/lecturers dealing with their dilemnas about gorgeous intelligent young women who are begging to sleep with them. I am sure the last Ian Mckewan I read was like that. Pathetic, really and not very interesting.

Maybe I should write one ?

Why do so many people just criticise things on threads (that’s my criticism :-))?

Back to the original question – definitely read the 2nd book before the 3rd.

goslow – it’s called conversation ! It meanders. Life isn’t all yes/no answers. This forum can be educational in unexpected ways sometimes.

Kite or Windsurf?

In order of importance

Windsurf OF COURSE. Will be trotting along to Spin-out to see Christine and Mark. Or maybe Club Mistral as we’re staying at the Hurricane.

I went down the market and picked a used copy up for £1.50. Not bad as I got No 1 through a book exchange at Neilson last month, my mate spotted No 3 at a boot sale and got it for me for nowt.

Yes, it falls a little short of literature, but hey – I’m on holiday, and you can’t deny they’re page-turners.

And I’m an unattractive overweight middle-aged writer. Well, I would be if I was a writer. And I might be pushing the middle-aged definition too. I can’t see me making 116.

The whole theme of the series was criticising men who are violent toward women. The first one was even called “Men who hate women” in the original swedish.

Almost all the strong characters in the book are women, and all the most flawed ones are men.

I don’t think Michael Blomqvist was ever described as unattractive and overweight, in fact he was supposed to be very good looking wasn’t he? He was older than Lisbeth of course, but how many young women fantasise about George Clooney, it’s not exactly far fetched. Also his other affairs were with a woman his own age and an older woman, so old fat journo shagging inappropriate young women could hardly be described as a central tenet of the plot.

in answer to the OP – definitely read them in order.

+1^^^

After this trilogy I started reading Jo nesbo. Found them to be better written and more chilling plots. Snowman is great…

I went on to Jo Nesbo after these too. Good books.

stuey, yes no doubt, I’m not arguing about the aim of the books, just how some of the parts are written (intentionally or not). Espicially Salander

I agree entirely with hels and emz.

I read the first one and was amazed at how bad it was and how blatantly the protagnoist had been modelled on the writer’s fantasy version of himself.

As well as clunky it was hugely unrealistic, ridiculously po-faced and the writer seemed a bit rubbish at conjuring up a scene. Unless it involved sex or computers.

OP – Get Freedom by Jonathan Frantzen instead, that should be in the airport shop.

Jo Nesbo is in a different league. I also like the gloomy Icelandic stories by someoneorother Indridason. Recommended for when you finish your Proust.

The 1st book was 2 books sandwiched into one, with very little to link the two, apart from the central character. & it takes, iirc, 156 pages to actually get going. I only read it coz it was everywhere last year.

I didn’t bother with 2 or 3. The trailer for Fincher movie looks good (but nearly all of his films look just great).

Update.

Book 2 is turning out to be a bit of a chore but the windsurfing, mountain biking, food, drink, music and beach beauties was so consistently brilliant I didn’t need it.

Tarifa is just one of my favourite places on the planet.