Ankit Agrawal's Reviews > The Millennium Trilogy

I don't know what to say about this Triology or not a triology but an incompleted series. I have loved this all in all but at the same time I have regretted reading it as well. It has kept me awake at nights but at the same time bored me. It has left me wanting to read more but at the same time left a bad taste in my mouth. There are so many contradicting emotions this series has left me with.
This has to be the most weird series or the most weird set of books anyone can read. Its so filled up with flaws that at the start you can't understand what the hype is about but the more you read the more you can't resist giving it 5 stars as well.

The Hype and Introduction
The hype that surrounds these books is probably understandable. Especially in Sweden where these things (abusing women) really happen. Swedish people can feel all the concept brought around in these books.
Let me tell you that this is a series and it would be totally wrong for anybody to rate each book differently or to make a certain good or bad opinion just after reading 1 book. Every book is incomplete at the end and continues into its next part.
The 1st book is just a start. It by no means a great sensation. It just leads into the introduction of characters through a sub-plot of the actual series. The plot is irrelevant of the whole series but it is very interesting mystery and a good development of the characters for the rest of the series to follow. Many might say just after reading this book that it is over-hyped, I also had the same feeling when I read further into the series the opinions started to change and I realized that this is actually a proper series and not individual threads.
The second book is where this series actually starts. The story gradually morphs into a tale of sexual prejudice, abuse of power, and governmental conspiracy. This book starts to thrill, get into your nerves, forces you to stay awake at night. The same thing continues into the third with much more excitement and thrill. The third book is also incomplete as Larsson had planned a 10 book series and could only finish 3.

Why you love it?
The character development is the essence of this book and is the most striking thing about these books. Larsson make you dwell so much deep into the characters that you can feel each and every character's each and every emotion and activity. You can have sympathy for Lisbeth, like Blomkvist's friendly and smart behavior, hate Sapo's secret force and so on with every character not matter how small or big roles they played. I have never seen a better character development and feel for the characters in any other book.
Besides Character Development there are many other lovable things as well.
The Thrill - It takes some time in every book to get into. The first 100-200 can be very boring. But once you get into it there's no stopping. You will be forced to stay awake at nights, turn page after page until you complete it. The more you read the more you will like it.
The Plot - Larsson has done an exceptional work in this department. Not only is the plot very believable but he mixes up so many characters and so many things into a single plot that it becomes impossible to keep a proper track of things. Lisbeth the heroine, Blomkvist the hero, Erika the supporter, Different levels of police, millennium staff, murder, mystery, thrill, suspense etc... etc... so many thing involved. That makes it a must read.
I am utmost sure that Larsson has created memorable characters and plot which I even if I try my hardest would not be able to forget.


Why you regret it? What went wrong? What messed it up all?
As I mentioned above the book is most weird one could ever read. It had a great, great characters, overall a mesmerizing series. Then what it was that messed it all up that some people talk about it being over-hyped and what it was that made you feel regret reading it. I guess there are two separate answers to these questions and both are equally important.

Firstly I want to talk about what went wrong or what messed it up all.
I have never seen a 5 Star book with so many flaws and I am pretty sure that I won't see any 5 start with more flaws than this. This all goes down to 1 reason and that is COMMERCIALISM. The publishers and the marketers are the sole ones to ruined these books. Just to make some good, quick money they have damaged this heavily.
TRANSLATION - They say that poor translation can ruin a good story. This book is a perfect example of it. It was originally written in Swedish and then converted into English worldwide. Now let me tell you that Reg Keeland is no mug of a translator. He has done translation for years and most of the books english versions have been quite successful. So the reason for bad translation are again the marketers and publishers. If you search the internet you would find it that Reg Keeland whenever he's used this pseudonym has been because he's not satisfied with the time he's been given for the editing by the publishers/marketers (he's original name is Steve Murray and he uses that as well when he has his terms clear with the publishers but when its not he uses a pseudonym). The same thing has happened in this case.
EDITING The commercials people have done a great in messing up this as well. Editing if it has been done at all has been really really poor. If it hasn't been done then its even more to feel sorry for Larsson. There are parts in the series where you feel the story just goes on passively without any interest. Those parts feel a little bit stretch and take the original excitement of the book to some extent. All this is down to editing. Larsson was a journalist not a writer so these books needed a very good editor but the marketers have again not allowed this to happen.
Bit parts and pieces in the series are rather quite awkward. Not fatally so, but a few sharp-eyed beta readers could have done wonders for ironing out these books. (The style improves steadily through the trilogy, but not without hiccups.) And that's a shame, because there's a really good story here, and some terrific characters. Again a editorial mistake not allowed to rectify by the marketers
There were many other reasons which have messed it up all, I won't go into much details about that since all is down to Commercialism. They have done a perfect to fuck this more than a 5 star worth book down to a lot less degree. So the people who complain about the hype are not totally wrong.
TITLE The original titles of these books were different. For the first book it was "Men Who Hate Women" and I think the original Swedish titles would have suited all the books rather much better even though it would not have been that catchy. The stories are rather surrounded around the Swedish titles than the English ones. This thing was discussed when Larsson was alive and despite serious protests he wasn't allowed The Swedish Titles.

Why do you regret reading it
One reason you regret these books is it was actually planned out to be a 10 book series and Larsson had wanted it to write in that way. But since he died midway he could only finish 3 of them. Because of just 3 books planned out of 10 the triology doesn't fit well into parts. After reading the end of every book it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Each book got better than the previous one. The first was good, the second was lovable and the third set a different level for crime books and the 4th never came. You could just wonder how good all would have been had all 10 books been published. Also another thing happened since only 3 books were published is that many things were left unsaid or incomplete, that upsets a to quite an extent.
The main reason for the regret is if you feel so sorry for Larsson after reading it. I have never ever seen any book in which one can get so realistically involved. As you read you would probably come to know that Larsson was on his way to change the world, atleast Sweden or Europe if not the whole world & also go on to become one of the greatest writers of all time but unfortunately he couldn't do it. I felt so sorry for Larsson at the end that I was almost brought to tears. And adding salt to injury the marketers fucked it off even more. I wish Larsson had completed all 10, I am not content with 3 moreover I feel regret that I read this because I was so deeply involved in this that I couldn't read 7 more sensations
This was clearly not how Larsson had planned to end the series. The ending left so much scope for other stories to come after it.


Conclusions
These are not just normal books, they are thought provoking , burning your chest, making you feel raged. These books are violent. The treatment of women is ghastly to the point of misogynistic. I'd be tempted to call Larsson on it, but is the world so different from the horrors he portrays? No, it's not. Terrible things happen to women all the time, but here the author makes you look at them and understand that justice is not about what's right or wrong but who holds the power and common man like me & most of you just cannot do anything about no matter how much we feel like doing so. By the end of the last book I wished that these characters actually existed. The world is in dire need of more Blomkvist and Salander's. Some things must be put to right.
The memorable characters Larsson created will forever be etched into the mind of us readers. I am sure that I will never forget you as long as I live. I don't have words to describe how good the writing was, all i can do is bow down to Mr. Larsson. I am also pretty sure that after reading this I won't be able to give any other crime fiction book 5 stars because then this book would also fall into the same category as the others. This series has set a different category, a different bar for everything else to come. It's first Millennium, then 5 stars, then 4 and so on.
THE MARKETERS, PUBLISHERS AND ALL OTHERS INVOLVED IN COMMERCIALISM OF THIS SERIES COMPLETELY FUCK OFF. I wish I could grab hold of them kill them badly if I was allowed to do that.




To be updated.......