Fiction Review: The Millennium Series (Part 4/4)

And now we come to the final (so far) book in the series. This struck me as an unnecessary continuation of what was already a series with a satisfying conclusion, but given that Larsson actually had more novels planned out, this may not be a bad thing.

I didn't like this newest addition very much, but this is my opinion and I may be biased here. There are plenty of things to like about it, though for me, the cons far outweigh the pros.

The Premise

Lisbeth Salander, Ronald Neidermann and Alexander Zalachenko are not the only badasses in the family - there's also Lisbeth's twin Camilla Salander and she turns out to be every bit the villain their father was. She sets up The Spider Society which has illegal dealings with the NSA, and only the team of Lisbeth and Mikael are able to stop them.

The entire novel begins with Frans Balder reclaiming his autistic child August from his estranged wife. Chapters later, Frans is murdered and Mikael, who is at the scene of the crime, begins to do what he does best - investigate and report.

Along the way, he discovers that Lisbeth has had dealings with certain associates of Frans.

Meanwhile, August has seen the murderer's face, and the Spider Society is determined to stop the boy before he can give the murderer away to the police. Lisbeth steps in to save the day, and it's a desperate race to keep August alive and unharmed until he can finally put a face to the hitman.

The Characters

These characters play a major role.

August Balder. A strangely gifted child. The story revolves around him and his gifts. Lisbeth sees in him a kindred spirit, mostly because for most of the first three novels she was pretty awkward herself due to her abilities.

Camilla Salander. Lisbeth's twin, and possibly the most evil foe she's had to face to date. While their father Zalachenko was also an evil bastard, he was mostly ruthless and pragmatic. Camilla seems to inflict torture for the sheer pleasure of it, psychologically tormenting her victims through seduction and emotional manipulation.

Edwin Needham, or "Ed the Ned". Started life as a young thug but became a computer genius later on in life and took on the role as NSA's chief cyber-security tech. Aggressive, loud and a bully, but undeniably good at what he does, and admirably dedicated to his craft.

Frans Balder. A socially awkward computer nerd who also happens to be the genius who invents some artificial intelligence that someone wants to steal. He's also portrayed as an anxious father who's somewhat clumsy with his affections.

Jan Holtser. The hitman. Ex-military. Deeply conflicted. While he's a stone-cold killer, he struggles with his conscience when ordered to kill August Baldur.

Lisbeth Salander. She is somehow more action figure than super-hacker in this tale, though plenty is mentioned about her computer wizardry and cyber coups. Just as awesome as ever.

Mikael Blomkvist. Our ever-intrepid journalist who finds himself in the thick of things once more. At the start of the novel, he's in the midst of a professional crisis, having run out of compelling material and finding himself up against the challenges of emerging technology. What he needs is some motivation... and unexpectedly he's handed a huge chunk of it after witnessing Frans Balder's murder.

List of supporting characters...

Andrei Zander. A young, handsome aspiring journalist with the soul of a poet. Earnest and geeky, which endears him to the staff at The Millennium despite his lack of journalistic experience. Meets a tragic end at the hands of the Spider Society.

Gabriella Grane. Analyst at the Security Police. Pretty and wholesome. Faces some misogyny at work but lets her performance speak for itself.

Hanna Westman. Actress and Frans Balder's ex-wife, mother of August. An abused woman who has long lost the courage to break away from her abuser. Tries to cover it up with glamor, but one gets the distinct impression that her life is both hollow and miserable.

Lasse Westman. An bullying abusive drunk, rather dim and prone to fits of impulse. An actor who portrays, rather fittingly, dangerous and violent characters on-screen. Gets his ass pounded by Lisbeth in a carthatic moment near the end.

Ove Levin. A corporate stooge who used to be an aspiring journalist just like Mikael - except Mikael made it while Ove sold out. Now Ove desperately tries to convince himself that he's happy and wouldn't give up what he has for whatever Mikael's got, but the truth is that he's terrible jealous and insecure. When he fails to gain Mikael's approval, he resorts to trying to destroy him by making moves on The Millennium.

Supporting characters who play  a less prominent role.

Arvis Wrange. One of Frans Baldur's proteges. He betrays Frans Baldur for money, and this leads to Balder's death. His guilty conscience catches up to him in the form of Lisbeth Salander, who first gives his ego a severe beating by trashing him soundly at chess.  A deeply insecure man who masks it through misogyny and excessive pride.

Farah Sharif. She serves to provide some insight as to what Baldur had been working on. And also serves as a love interest for Bublanski, which was cute. Described as an elderly but very attractive woman, which made me afraid that she'd end up having sex with Mikael.

Jan Bublanski. One of my favorite characters in the series makes it to this novel! Here, he's good ol' crusading Officer Bubble, and he does a good bit of poking around. Near the end of the novel, there's even an endearing bit about a blossoming relationship between him and Farah Sharif. "It's just a date". Hah!

Jurij Bogdanov. Street punk and drug addict turned computer genius. A hard luck turnaround story except that he still works for the bad guys and loves it, the little sociopath.

Linus Brandell. He is Blomkvist's initial contact and provides the first inkling that Lisbeth is involved. Comes off as nerdy and awkward, which really hits home after he describes his initial meeting with Lisbeth.

Sonja Modig. Little part in the story, except to argue with Mikael on matters of police procedure. And be the good cop to Officer Bubble's bad cop. Sort of.

Here are the characters who play a very minor role or likely did not even need to be in this novel.

Alona Casales. A middle-aged temptress with a seductive voice and an attraction towards Gabriella Grane. Great buddies with Needham because she sees him as a kindred spirit.

Professor Charles Edelman. A Hungarian authority on the subject of  neurology.

Dan Flinck. Police Officer sent to watch over Frans and August. A divorcee experiencing the good bachelor life again. Does not come off as particularly competent.

Einar Forsberg. At Oden's, taking care of August. Infatuated with Hanna Westman.

Erik Zetterlund. Leader of the investigating team on duty from the Violent Crimes Division on the night of Frans Balder's murder. Not particularly self-assured and seems rather harried at the situation.

Erika Berger. Has little more than a bit part to play. She passes the odd message and runs The Millennium. That's about it.

Helena Kraft. Gabriella's boss. Well-starched, not a hair out of place. Gabriella first suspects her of being a mole, but this turns out to be a red herring. Not much of a personality, all in all.

Holger Palmgren. Has little to do in this story but act as exposition for more of Lisbeth Salander's backround. He and Mikael seemed to have formed some kind of bond in this novel, possibly through the harrowing experiences of The Millennium series. Much as I love this character, his presence was really superfluous.

Plague. More tales of how he and Lisbeth break into computer systems and hack their way to awesomeness.

Jacob Charro. A football player for Syrian FC. He is the driver of the car that Lisbeth hijacks to get August to safety, and later gives an accounting of the tale to the authorities. His description of Jan Holtser is particularly interesting.

Margereta Dalhgren. A woman who has endured a tragic past thanks to Camille. Her story is heartbreaking and really underlines how psychotically evil Camille is.

Obinze. Boxing gym owner. Flirts with Lisbeth shamelessly and is even a little in awe of her single-minded focus and determination.

Peter Blom. Police Officer sent to watch over Frans and August. Almost identical to Flinck, except that he's portrayed with very human fear.

Richard Ekström. As self-centered and pragmatic as ever. Dreads having to deal with Blomkvist again after the events of the previous two novels,

Roger Winter. Another small-time actor who physically abuses August with Lasse Westman's encouragement. Also gets his ass kicked by Lisbeth.

Torkel Linden. At Oden's. Short and prissy. Pugnacious when dealing with Jan Bublanski. And very uncooperative until Sonia Modig does the negotiating.

The Mood

Mostly surreal and disquieting. Even the moments where blood gets spilled just seem to happen in slow motion. At the end of it, one gets the sense that very little has significantly changed - Baldur's murderer is brought to justice, but Lisbeth's evil twin and The Spider Society escape, presumably to wreak more havoc another day.

The mood rarely changes. The pace of the story remains somewhat constant throughout.

What I liked

Tech elements. They're simply more pronounced in this novel, with a few computer nerds among the characters that don't come from Hacker Republic. Lagencratz actually does a far better job in this department than Larsson.

Mikael's studliness. I know this is something I complained about in the previous novels, and I'm glad it's been toned down.

We finally meet Lisbeth's evil twin. Right on! She tries to seduce Mikael but fails. That's pretty awesome in itself.

I liked seeing August's abusive stepfather get his arse kicked by Lisbeth. Very satisfying.

The plot's pretty lean - some might say too lean, but I see this as a good thing. Less pointless subplots, more focus.

What I didn't

Mikael's studliness. Not only was it toned down, it was removed from the story. David Lagencratz himself confessed that it never made sense to him to have beautiful women falling for Mikael out of nowhere (for the record, I agree), and so he just never wrote it into the story. Now, this is where I disagree. For better or worse, this is part of the character of Mikael Blomkvist now and has been established over the course of three novels. I could accept it if the new, non-womanizing Mikael was a result of character growth, but no - that aspect of the character was simply retconned. If Lagencratz found that he was unable to bring himself to write the character the way the original character wrote him, why the hell did he even agree to do this novel? Was the money that good?

Established facts in the previous novels just got written off with no explanation whatsoever. Whatever happened to Monica Figuerola? Wasn't she and Mikael in a serious relationship? What about Sonja Modig? Since when was Modig a single parent? This is just sloppy and disrespectful.

Character overload. There was a somewhat plausible excuse for this in The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, as characters accumulated from the first two novels and many were vital to the events conclusion, though, in my opinion, it was still overdone. Here, it's a fresh new storyline and very little baggage from previous novels. However, David Lagercrantz seems determined to match the character count from The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, for no discernible reason. Characters are introduced seemingly on a whim and have effects on the plot that could easily be carried out by an existing character. Take Einar Forsberg and Torkel Linden, for example. Was it necessary to introduce two characters at Oden's just to provide obstacles to Officle Bubble and Sonja Modig? Or Dan Flinck and Peter Blom. It was over-indulgent. What is this, some kind of pissing contest to see who can come up with more characters?

Some parts, from the NSA's spying on civilians to the loud bullying Needham, seem distinctively borrowed from Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. Ran out of ideas, Lagercrantz?

Conclusion

I'm sure David Lagercrantz is a fine author in his own right, perhaps an even better novelist than Steig Larsson. I'm just not sure he was the correct choice to carry on Larsson's legacy. The contrast in style was jarring in places. The Millennium Series was far from perfect, but despite its eccentricities, or more probably because of them, they had their distinct charm. This charm is missing from The Girl in the Spider's Web.

Part of the problem could be the fact that Larsson's characters were not created by Lagercrantz, and it shows. Apart from Lisbeth and arguably Jan Bublanski (who was a supporting character anyway), he can't seem to grasp the essence of most of the existing characters, but does considerably better when describing new characters.

Oh well, this was always going to be a thankless task.

My Rating

6 / 10

What a story. What a girl-minator.
T___T