The Girl in the Spider's Web

not nearly as bad as a lot of people would have you believe, it's not like the originals are the best thing ever either (I did enjoy them, just think their quality may a bit overstated).
I do agree that Salander is not the main character and not in it enough, but then was she ever in the earlier books?

Rating: 3.5 ⭐️ What I appreciate is that Lagercrantz kept the characters' personalities and overall behavior. However, sometimes I felt like the story was all over the place, and the pacing wasn't as the original trilogy. But I have to recognize this was a good story, and it made me curious about the next books.

I not know why I like these books. They're not particularly well written, overly complex, and none of the characters are that likeable. They rely heavily on exposition with two characters telling each other major bits of backstory, often second hand so it's not even the character concerned who's revealing something of importance. Often I found myself wondering how someone knew such detail about events they didn't even witness.
The author writes similarly to Larsson but manages to avoid some of his more irritating traits - no long passages describing which processor powers anyone's laptop here. There are some oddities: our main character is told to ditch his iPhone for an Android phone to avoid NSA hacking it - the book came out just as Apple were fighting the FBI over the right to prevent them having a back door and I can't help feeling Larsson would have devoted a few thousand words to a topic like that. Instead it feels like the author did a quick read of Wikipedia and grabbed some terms he doesn't entirely understand. There is a long exposition on autism which does read like a first year undergraduate literature review and the child's savant status is worryingly convenient.
As with the other books I found it difficult to keep track of who was who, or indeed to care who was who - there's an old Jewish detective who's lost his faith but finds love at the end (not really a spoiler) and it's difficult to care.
The story is a lot simpler than other books and maybe too simple. I was surprised that the whole thing seemed to end with a lot of book still to go - I was expecting a third act that didn't happen.
But in the end, and I think this is why I like these books (even if I don't love them), it was a good distraction and an interlude between ‘heavier' books.

I really wanted to like this book. I started with moderate expectations, thinking that this would be a nice read about the characters I like from the previous book. I got annoyed halfway through. There is way too much dialogue, a lot of explanations about the past and very little happening in the present. Too much time spent explaining ( and overexplaining) the back story and very little left for the flimsy plot.

A pesar de no ser obra del escritor original, Lagercrantz se las arregla muy pero muy bien para recrear el estilo de la serie Millenium, pero imprimiendo aún un ritmo mayor, un poco mas frenético. Los personajes no pierden ni un ápice de sus personalidades, siguen tan identificables como siempre. La historia además es capaz de conectar puntos remotos de los libros pasados sin ningún problema, e incluso es interesante ver como se pueden “revisitar” ciertos lugares comunes pero desde otra perspectiva.

El único “defecto” que le encontré es que el final es DEMASIADO feliz, atípicamente infeliz para la saga. Eso si, es lo suficientemente abierto y deja ciertos cliffhangers como para garantizar una nueva entrega de la saga a futuro.

Quienes hayan disfrutado con los libros previos sin duda encontrarán gran satisfacción al leer las nuevas aventuras de Salander, Blomkvist y demas.

Recomendable.

I had TGitSW in my TBR pile for quite a while. I was somewhat reluctant to start it because, really, how could someone take over for Stieg Larsson? Could such a writer really do Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist? Happily, Lagercrantz has written a very good story. It is doubtless quite different from what Larsson would have created, but still it gives the characters new life.
The story is at base a thriller. A multinational criminal organization comes to the attention of both Mikael and Lisbeth. The bad guys are deadly and ruthless, and they have their hooks into people in high places. Mikael and Lisbeth start working the problem from different directions. They soon find themselves being targeted by the criminals and an American intelligence agency. I don't think it is a spoiler to say that there is plenty of action. All hell breaks loose and things get bloody.
As usual in this series, there are men who abuse/neglect women and children. Also, the Millennium magazine comes under attack from envious and dirty-dealing competitors.
One thing stands out in the story. Do not get Lisbeth Salander angry; you will be sorry.
Pretty good book. A solid four stars.

I purposefully kept my expectations of this installment low due to the fact that it was written by a new author. I was pleasantly surprised, however, with the similar writing style, unique characters and an interesting, steadily paced story line. I enjoyed the read but did think that the ending could have been a little stronger. I am looking forward to new installments.

This one was interesting. A continued series after the death of the original author, that does not always go well. I was pleasantly surprised. It's a suspenseful read that was hard to put down.

Still, while Lagercrantz tells a story full of action and suspense, he sometimes gets lost in mathematical or technical details (specific Android app names?) that seem aimed at building plausibility but instead strike as a filler where plot development should've gone.

In this novel, Liesbeth comes across as broken yet determined to fight for justice as ever, but the character development remains limited to third party discussions about the childhood spent with her sister. Unfortunately, rather than more mysterious and unapproachable, it keeps her, the most interesting character of the story, looking shallower than necessary.

Overall, a good read and I have enough questions about the continuation of the story that I'm certain I'll pick up the next volume.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

I really enjoyed the original trilogy. This just didn't do anything for me. I'm not sure I would have known just from the writing that it was a different author, but the book felt different from the first three. The story line took way too long to build and ultimately wasn't as interesting. I like you Lisbeth, but don't think I'll be reading any further.

If I didn't already know that the original Millennium trilogy's author, Stieg Larsson, was dead, I probably wouldn't have realized that the fourth book in the series was written by a different author. That seemed to be off-putting to some people (I read a lot of Amazon reviews while I was reading the book, because I loved it and I didn't understand the haterz), and there was a lot of controversy about Larsson's estate and whether David Lagercrantz should have continued with the series in the first place.

Anyway.

The story was excellent, quick-paced, action-packed, and most importantly, includes way more Lisbeth Salander awesomeness. I was very sad when the first three books ended (presumably with no more to come, at the time) because Lisbeth is one of those characters that just vibrates right off the page, and the more books she is in, the better. One of the best-written female characters of all time, in my reading experience so far.

But that's more credit to Larsson than to Lagercrantz. I felt that Lagercrantz did a good job of keeping in the tone and the spirit of the original trilogy, and even managed to bring up subjects that were hinted at in the trilogy but that were never delved into deeper. The ending wrapped up cleanly (a little too cleanly, in my opinion, but what can you do), while still leaving space for more books to come.

Definitely a 4.5 star read.

I liked the book and I believe the writing was true to the original author and to the characters. My only problem is it doesnt feel finished, granted in order to continue the series there must be some questions left over but the thing the original series did very well was leave each book feeling complete on it's own. I didn't get that sense from this one.
Perhaps I need to read this one again. Overall it was an enjoyable book with some further fantastic insight into the characters. However, it really is a shame that steig passed before he was able to complete his masterpiece.