The Millennium Trilogy are Good Reads

Earlier this year, I read Stieg Larsson’s “The Millennium Trilogy” – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest.

When I say “read”, what I meant was “listened to”, because I checked out the audiobooks from my local library. These audiobooks were read by Simon Vance, who I think was the perfect choice to read these books!

For those of you who like to read the book before watching the movie, I strongly suggest you check with your local library to see if they have the audiobooks. You will not regret listening to the books, as opposed to actually reading the books yourself.

If you haven’t read The Millennium Trilogy yet, here is a rundown of each book’s plot summary.

According to the author’s website,  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is about “disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist, who is hired by Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of Vanger’s great-niece Harriet. Henrik suspects that someone in his family, the powerful Vanger clan, murdered Harriet over forty years ago.

“Starting his investigation, Mikael realizes that Harriet’s disappearance is not a single event, but rather linked to series of gruesome murders in the past. He now crosses paths with Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker, an asocial punk and most importantly, a young woman driven by her vindictiveness.

“Together they form an unlikely couple as they dive deeper into the violent past of the secretive Vanger family.”

The Girl Who Played With Fire starts out with Lisbeth Salander being “wanted for a triple murder. All three victims are connected to a trafficking exposé about to be published in Mikael Blomqvist’s magazine Millenium, and Lisbeth’s fingerprints are on the weapon.

“Lisbeth vanishes to avoid capture by the justice. Mikael, not believing the police, is despairingly trying to clear her name, using all his resources and the staff of his magazine. During this process, Mikael discovers Lisbeth’s past, a terrible story of abuse and traumatizing experiences growing up in the Swedish care system.

“When he eventually finds her, it’s only to discover that she is far more entangled in his initial investigation of the sex industry than he could ever imagine.”

And finally, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest begins with “two seriously injured people who arrive at the emergency ward of the Sahlgrensa hospital in Gothenburg. One is the wanted murderer Lisbeth Salander who has taken a bullet to the head and needs immediate surgery, the other is Alexander Zalachenko, an older man who Lisbeth has attacked with an axe.

“In this third novel in the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth is planning her revenge against the men who tried to kill her, and even more importantly, revenge against the government which nearly destroyed her life. But first she must escape from the intensive care unit and exculpate her name from the charges of murder that hangs over her head.

“In order to succeed with the latter, Lisbeth will need the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist. He is writing an exposing article that will shake the Swedish government, the secret service and the whole country by its foundations. Finally there is a chance for Lisbeth Salander to put her past behind her and finally there is a chance for truth and justice to prevail.”

After listening to the first book, I then rented the U.S. version of the movie. The books have already been made in Sweden, but I couldn’t find those versions and I didn’t know if I could read the subtitles fast enough to keep up with the movie.

The U.S. version featured Daniel Craig as Michael Blomkvist and Ronney Mara as Lisbeth Salander.

The Swedish version featured Michael Nyqvist as Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as Salander.

There is a lot of information on Steig Larsson and his life on his website.

He was born in northern Sweden in 1954 and died of a sudden heart attack in November 2004. The Millennium Trilogy were published posthumously. The first book was published in 2005, one year after his death; the second book, in 2006; and the third book, in 2007. The Trilogy has sold over 20 million copies and he was the second bestselling author in 2008.

Again, if you haven’t read (or listened to) these books, I encourage you to read/listen to them before you watch the movie. I saw the previews for the movie at the end of last year before I checked the audiobooks out this past spring, so I had already mentally cast Ronney Mara and Daniel Craig in their roles as Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomkvist.

In my opinion, the movie was great and Ronney Mara captured my idea of what Lisbeth Salander looked and acted like. It took me a few months to realize that Ronney Mara was in The Social Network and played Mark Zuckerburg’s girlfriend at the beginning of the movie. These two characters were vastly different in both their looks and their mannerisms, so her performances in these two movies showed what an extremely talented and versatile actress she is! (Yes, I know I shouldn’t have ended that sentence with the word “is”, but whatever!)

I’ve always been a fan of Daniel Craig, so it was great to see him in such an intriguing role as Michael Blomkvist. He puts such emotions into this character that you feel pain when he is… oops, I almost spilled a spoiler (if you haven’t read the book or watched the movie)!

I just hope they hurry up and make the next two books into movies! I’d love to see the books played out on screen!

Anyway, this trilogy is great! Have you read the books? If you’ve watched either the U.S. or Swedish version of these movies, I’d love to hear from you!

Have a great day!