The Millennium Trilogy, Steig Larsson

It is a sad yet common occurrence that great works of art or iterature are often unappreciated by the masses until after the death of their creator. While the ‘Millennium Trilogy’ could neither be called great art nor literature, it too falls under the category of works unrewarded until post-mortem. Steig Larsson, at age 50, died of a heart attack one year before the publication of the first in the series:The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In the years that followed, the Millennium Trilogy sparked interest amongst the critics and public alike, not only in his home country of Sweden, but all over the world.In the first year of publication it won two awards and by 2008, the late Steig Larsson was the second best-selling author in the world.
So what is it that makes the series so compelling? After admitting that the Millennium Trilogy is neither art nor literature, you may be wondering “why all the acclaim”? Well, after reading all three novels in fast succession, I can firmly say they are without a doubt the most gripping books I have read in the last few years. They are lengthy, yet fastpaced; humorous, yet deathly serious; complicated, yet all with a coherent conclusion. In short, the Millennium books are exactly what they seem to be:great crime novels.


While the English titles – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl that Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – centre around the principle character of Lisbeth Salander, the Swedish title (translated) summarises the subject of the trilogy much more explicitly: Men who hate women. After reading all three books, it seems that is the only way to sum up the novels. There are no hidden messages, morals or philosophical debates. It is simply a series of books about men who hate and abuse women. However, despite the dark and often sexually explicit nature of the novel, Stieg Larsson manages to create not only likeable male protagonists,but empowered female ones too.


Set in Sweden, the story itself centres around the life of journalist Mikel Blomkvist and his dramatic encounter with punk-chick Lisbeth Salander.When Mikel Blomkvist loses face after a particularly crushing courtcase against an article he wrote, he leaps at the chance to escape fromthe eye of the media by being hired to solve a murder mystery out in the Swedish countryside, alongside private investigator Lisbeth Salander.However, as his and Salander’s lives become more intertwined, her past comes back to haunt them both.


Despite being translated from the original Swedish, very little is lost in translation. The only slight fault I could find is that the dialogue is sometimes a little stiff, mainly because there are some instances where the Swedish terms of phrase cannot be idiomatically translated into English. However this very rarely distracts from the content. So whether you’re patiently waiting for university to start, looking for a distraction from the back-to-school mayhem or simply at a loose end, I thoroughly recommend going to your local bookshop and diving into the gripping world of the Millenium Trilogy.


Errol