Review by Richard Miller:

What a bummer!

Not The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

But the sad realization that once you’ve finished the trilogy, there is (probably, see below) no more Steig Larsson to look forward (to).

This final book in the Milleniumseries is every bit as good as the first two  - - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (reviewed here) and The Girl Who Played with Fire (reviewed here).

In fact, it may be the best of the three.

But it’s a bit different than the first two.

While this one is as involving and as hard to put down as the others, it is less filled with nonstop action and, sadly, has a bit less of our heroine Lisbeth, although it is mostly about her.

Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that Larsson succeeds in completing unanswered questions from the previous two books (it’s a necessity to have read them both before enjoying this one). 

And he doesn’t wait until the last chapter to do so.

I don’t think you need to know much more.

Except, maybe, how to get a copy of it.

For some hard to fathom reason, the American publishing date is not until May, 25, 2010.  What’s with that?

If you can’t wait, simply go to Amazon.uk.com and order the book, which will be shipped to you and will arrive in about a week to 10 days.  (Disclaimer: I have no stake or stock in Amazon, etc.). I did notice this morning that there are also some used copies available if you do not want to pay full price.

I suspect this trilogy will become to the genre of suspense/mystery writing what Lord of the Rings is to fantasy writing, and thus you may want to own all three books in case e-books take over the world.

For more on Larsson, his background, and his writing, there is a website that may interest you. Click here.

              

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Review by Elizabeth Miller:

The way I see it, Steig Larsson owes me several good nights of sleep.

It was just a mere few days ago when I was lamenting to my father via text that I had no time to read the third book in Steig Larsson’s exhilarating Milleniumtriology.

Sure I felt badly; he paid for the shipping of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest all the way from London after all (the book won’t be released here until May, 2010).

What with book clubs, a visit from my mother, a paper for school, a friend’s birthday dinner, oh, and not to mention my day job, when would I find time to finish the monstrous 600-page book?

Well, I should have known better.

Each night when I should have been fast asleep under the covers, I read.

It reminded me of when I was little I use to sneak a flashlight into my bunk bed so I could read after my bedtime.

So read after my “bedtime” I did the past few nights.

Steig Larsson hardly missed a beat between the second and third books.  Besides bringing back favorite characters like Lizbeth and Blomkvist, he introduced some new great ones too (although I still probably can’t pronounce those tricky Swedish names).

If you haven’t started the trilogy, I suggest you do.

And if you’ve started it, I suggest you finish.

But be prepared to be sleep deprived.

I can’t ever recall a series of books where each one seems better than the previous one!

Was it worth losing several nights of sleep?

Definitely, although I may be singing a different tune as I potentially could fall asleep in class tonight.

Well, I guess it’s back to reading about cyberspace, media policy, and digital technologies. I think I’m seriously behind for this week’s reading.

So just where exactly is my copy of Henry Jenkin’s Convergence Culture...