The Millenium Trilogy

This trilogy is probably the best one I’ve read. I’ve never encountered such plot with so many twists and such characters that I never thought would have etched in my heart.

At first, I was blatantly ignoring the trilogy’s first book – “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. I found the title boring. I thought that maybe reading this would only waste my time. Even with the suggestions of some of my friends to at least watch the Hollywood movie, I just shrugged it off and didn’t even given a damn to watch the trailer.

Not after a few months later did I start getting intrigued by this book when I saw it on a bookstore’s suggested reads. The bookstore was on sale, and I finally bought the book, but with a little bit of guilt. I don’t usually read books about espionage and crime. But I thought I’d give it a try.

The first book of the trilogy, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was originally entitled “Men Who Hate Women” in Swedish. I don’t know what made the editors, publishers, or marketers change the name but I think that the original title would have made more impact to the readers, and especially those looking for books. The first book serves as an introduction to the trilogy. A thriller, mystery, and crime that includes hatred against woman to the point it becomes misogynist -  it starts off with a journalist and publisher of the Millenium magazine, Mikael Blomkvist, losing a libel case against the billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Consequently, Blomkvist had to step down from the Millenium board. On the other hand, Dragan Armansky, director of the Milton Security, asked a mind blowing, intelligent but anti-social woman, Lisbeth Salander to get information about Blomkvist. Blomkvist was then called to the Milton Security to meet with Armansky – only to find out he was given a freelance job by Henrik Vanger. Blomkvist goes to Hedeby to meet Henrik. There, Henrik offers him a big amount of money in change for writing the Vanger history and solving the 40 year old case of his missing great niece, Harriet. From thereon, he is helped by Salander, and together, they solve the case that brings about horror.

What I love about the first book is that once I started reading it, there’s no stopping. Every turn of page kept me craving for more. It gave me shivers down my spine with the mystery it encompasses. The way Stieg Larsson described his characters gave me solicitous feeling towards them. Though there were contrasting emotions and morbid scenes involved, I had no choice but to finish it right away and continue on to the next book.

Although it seems as though the story from the first book already ended, the next book is just the real beginning. The second book “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is the start of Salander’s life. From solving a mystery case, the story gradually turns into government politics, sex abuse, and misuse of power. After the case was solved from the first book, Salander went abroad to relax then finally went back to Stockholm. Meanwhile, a journalist named Dag Svensson approached Blomkvist if he could work together with him on a book that would expose powerful names in the government who are involved in sex trafficking. Blomkvist agreed, got a copy of the draft, and continued with Svensson’s investigation on the names. Because Salander could hack Blomkvist’s computer, she read through Svensson’s work and was puzzled by the name she saw -- “Zala”. Unfortunately, shortly before the printing of the book, Svensson, along with his wife, was shot in his apartment. Salander’s fingerprints were found and she was the center of attention of whole of Sweden – she was wanted. This led to the investigation of Salander’s dad, with an alias “Zala”, and how Salander was declared incompetent. On the last part of this book though, Salander went to his father’s place to deal with him. But due to certain circumstances, she got shot on the head – however, she survived and tried to kill her father using an axe.

Just like with the first book, the second one also kept me awake at nights. However, there were parts that I got bored. Though I love his exceptional style, Stieg Larsson got a little bit meticulous with each of the character’s movement in this book. Unlike in the first one where there are only 2 POVs, one for Blomkvist and one for Salander, here, Larsson makes you look at the bigger picture -- having more than 3 stories of characters that connect to only one plot. It was somehow hard for me to puzzle out the bits of scattered pieces throughout the story. And in which, because of this, I was forced to continue on to the last book.

Originally named "The Air Castle That Exploded", “The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” proved the rights of women. The third book only shows how Stieg Larsson tried to change the outlook of men towards women, only if he hadn’t died. Going back from the previous book, Blomkvist found Salander on her father’s place and he called for emergency. Salander, along with his father, was brought to a hospital. Obviously, what happened in her father’s place was reported to the police and this led to a new investigation now involving the deep, dark secrets of the Sweden’s section, a secret division of the Säpo (security police). This section happens to be involved with importing a political figure from Russia in order to get information and power. They spent billions of kronor (Swedish currency) just for this single figure. Meanwhile, because Salander was accused of many violations, she had to prepare for her trial. The police tried to resort to any way of taking out information from Salander, but then to no avail. Luckily, Blomkvist’s sister, Annika Giannini, happens to be a lawyer. Blomkvist suggested her to be Salander’s lawyer. With a slight hesitation, Salander agreed. Though it was hard to make out any knowledge out of Salander, Giannini succeeded in winning the trial and putting into jail those who were expected to be.

 Lisbeth Salander is a unique character that anyone would wish to exist. With the vast criticisms against her, she managed to make her way out of it – but of course not without the help of Blomkvist. She did not dwell in the abuse and torment she had gone through in her youth, but instead, seared her way to vengeance against the men who belittled her. Unlike many other main characters, Lisbeth doesn’t mess things up. She analyzes the problem and thinks of a way to solve it. She not only helps herself but also other people.

If you are looking for a book that would give thrills, this is something I recommend. This isn’t like other books which has fillers. Every single part of it is important. You can’t miss a single information. I assure you this is a book you will not regret.