BookDragon Blog

Sweden’s Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004, but his internationally famed, mismatched hacker/journalist duo are proving to be immortal. Yes, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are back in a fourth installment of what is now the Millennium series (a ‘trilogy‘ no more) with a new writer, Swedish journalist and bestselling author David Lagercrantz, a new Swedish-into-English translator George Goulding, and thankfully – for us aural addicts – the very same narrator, the inimitable Simon Vance. Although Larsson and Lagercrantz now share the same protagonists – at least in name – readers are sure to notice a few character differences, especially in Blomkvist who seems overly muted here, who again gets more pagetime than Salandar in spite of her name on the cover (that part hasn’t changed since books 2 and 3, ahem). That said, for lucky audio-aficionados, Vance’s measured, distinct narration provides the convincing continuity to make this latest make-believe believable.

As with the previous three Millennium thrillers, the narrative here is sprawling with multiple threads in far-flung directions – at least one of which ensures a fifth installment must be forthcoming. Oh, but I jump too far ahead …

Here, Blomkvist’s career seems washed up (again), with his Millennium magazine suffering greatly. He manages to be in the right place at the right time when computer scientist Frans Balder is murdered. Few understood the scope of Balder’s artificial intelligence research, but enough recognized its potential power to do evil to make him a victim of his own genius. His autistic, silent, 8-year-old son August is the crime’s sole witness.

Meanwhile, Salander’s been working on her own projects – hacking her way into places no one else can, including the National Security Administration, “a U.S. federal authority that reports to the Department of Defense,” as the novel warns readers on the first page: “Time after time [the NSA’s] powers have increased, and now it monitors more than twenty billion conversations and messages every twenty-four hours.” Only Salander can see all … which, of course means Blomkvist needs his missing sidekick more than ever. She appears deus ex machina-style to not only save young August from his father’s executioners, but manages to figure out how to harness the boy’s savant capabilities to help her solve murder, fraud, and the rest of the NSA’s secrets.

Beyond Balder, Lagercrantz’s Web is teeming with seemingly disparate side plots, including a missing evil twin’s comeback, more family dysfunction, double suicides, a Marvel Comics Avenger superhero, internal moles, a tarnished film star, torture sessions, quantum computing and neural networks. Oh, and Nietzche, too, from whence the original Swedish title – That Which Does Not Kill Us – derives: “Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich starker. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”

The phrase, which functions as a key in the novel, seems to be quite the ironic nod to the newest incarnations of Salander and Blomkvist, as well. Even Larsson’s death couldn’t kill off this dynamic duo … with skyrocketing sales and bestselling list positions around the world, these two are proving to be stronger than ever. Let the series play on …

Readers: Adult

Published: 2015