Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Stieg Larsson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2010

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy is now available in a complete hardcover set.

All across America, readers are talking about Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novels, set in Sweden and featuring Lisbeth Salander—“one of the most original and memorable heroines to surface in a recent thriller” (The New York Times). The trilogy is an international sensation that will grab you and keep you “reading with eyes wide open” (San Francisco Chronicle). “[It] is intricately plotted, lavishly detailed but written with a breakneck pace and verve” (The Independent, U.K.), but “be warned: the trilogy is seriously addictive.” (The Guardian, U.K.).

“Believe the hype . . . It’s gripping stuff.”
—People

“Stieg Larsson clearly loved his brave misfit Lisbeth. And so will you.”
—USA Today
“Larsson has bottled lightning.”
—Los Angeles Times

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared without a trace more than forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to try to discover what happened to her. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist recently sidelined by a libel conviction, to investigate. Blomkvist is aided by the pierced and tattooed computer prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption on their way to discovering the truth of Harriet Vanger’s fate.

The Girl Who Played with Fire
Mikael Blomkvist, now the crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the murders. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. On her own, she will plot revenge—against the man who tried to kill her, and against the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.

“Unique and fascinating . . . Like a blast of cold, fresh air.”—Chicago Tribune

“Wildly suspenseful . . . Intelligent, ingeniously plotted, utterly engrossing.”
—The Washington Post

“A gripping, stay-up-all-night read.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Dynamite.” —Variety

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stieg Larsson, who lived in Sweden, was the editor in chief of the magazine Expo and a leading expert on antidemocratic, right-wing extremist and Nazi organizations. He died in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscripts for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (May 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307594777
• ISBN-13: 978-0307594778
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 11.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (127 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stieg Larsson, who lived in Sweden, was the editor in chief of the magazine Expo and a leading expert on antidemocratic right-wing extremist and Nazi organizations. He died in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscripts for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Moral Tale?, May 25, 2010

By 

Mike Fazey (Perth, Western Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Hardcover)

Like millions of people worldwide, I was absolutely captivated by these three books and their strange and utterly unconventional anti-heroine, Lisbeth Salander. That Larsson manages to evoke such sympathy for her, despite her anti-social nature and penchant for violence, is quite remarkable. Of course, we might feel differently if not for the monumental injustices she has suffered at the hands of a few corrupt individuals. She is a victim who has responded to her situation by becoming an outsider.

The story is certainly an intricate one, but Larsson manages to lead us through the maze without losing us along the way. In fact, one of the joys of the books is gradually realising that there are yet more levels of complexity to get your head around.

Thrilling as the storyline is, the thing I found most interesting about it was the moral dimension. Corruption in business and in government and the abuse of women are major themes, and Larsson's position on them is crystal clear. However, both Salander herself and the crusading journalist Blomqvist also act outside the law. This gives a certain moral ambiguity to the story. In Salander's case, her illegal acts take place within her own moral code - a code that is internally consistent but at odds with what we would ordinarily consider to be acceptable. In Blomqvist's case, his acts (including turning a blind eye to Salander's computer crimes) are informed by a desire to expose corruption and to achieve justice for Salander.

So, given Salander's understandable antipathy towards the society that has treated her so appallingly, and Blomqvist's laudable social justice objectives, is their own behaviour morally acceptable? Do the ends justify the means? Are the circumstances so extreme that ordinary moral arguments don't apply? These are the questions that remained with me after I'd finished the final book, and still remain.

Ultimately, this is what makes the Millennium Trilogy something more than your average crime thriller and worth investing the time and mental energy to read.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graphic, Devious, and Enthralling, December 20, 2011

By 

Mikey B. (Kittanning, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO TRILOGY BUNDLE: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Kindle Edition)

This series was amazingly captivating once one gets beyond the about the first four chapters of the first book. The reader meets Lisbeth and is immediately inclined to dislike her, however, once we become more acquainted with her, we realize that there is more to her than her appearance. I warn those with weak constitutions that this series is very graphic and does treats many social taboos as common place. Upon beginning the first book, it can seem boring and meticulous in it's detail, however, I can't stress this enough...KEEP READING! It keeps getting better and more devious as you continue. There are a few sections of these books that are sexual and violent to the extremes of the terms, however, they have purpose as they act to illustrate certain aspects of the characters and their stories. The mysteries of all three keep one turning the pages to find out what happens next, especially the ending of the second book. Before the complete edition came into being I had to buy each book separately...by the end of the second book It was somewhere around two in the morning and I had to buy the third one and begin reading it before I could allow myself to go to bed. All in all the books are extremely well written and keep you guessing until the very end. My only qualm with the series is the abundance of Swedish jargon that can be confusing at times, especially the currency that is meaningless in the beginning unless one has a complete knowledge of the currency conversions. (more power to you)

65 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The girl in a bleak world, May 25, 2010

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Hardcover)

Authors who are only published posthumously rarely get the attention they deserve', or any attention at all. Fortunately, such is not the case with the late Stieg Larsson's bestselling Millennium trilogy -- it starts off slow, and soon winds itself into a tight knot of tautly-written thriller and mystery elements. It's raw, bleak, intensely disturbing noir.

In "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," take-no-prisoners journalist Mikael Blomkvist has just lost his reputation, his savings and his freedom (hello, jail sentence!) after a nasty libel suit from an executive named Wennerström.

Then he's unexpectedly contacted by aged industrialist Henrik Vanger, to discover what happened to the guy's grandniece. He's offering evidence on Wennerström, so Mikael has no choice but to accept -- and as he investigates the sinister Vanger family, he joins forces with Lisbeth Salander, an eccentric, abused computer hacker. And as Mikael unearths the clues to Harriet's disappearance, he also finds some skeletons long kept buried.

"The Girl Who Played With Fire" finds Mikael investigating sex trafficking in his own country, and young girls who are sold into it. Unknown to him, Lisbeth is keeping very close tabs on his work -- especially since she was abused as a child, and now plots revenge on the sex traffickers. But when she's accused of murder and ends up on the run, Mikael must discover what lies at the core of these crimes...

And finally, "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest" takes place directly after the second book. Lisbeth has been shot in the head, her malevolent father Zalachenko is in the same hospital claiming that she tried to kill him, and some nasty government forces want her locked away, as she was as a child. Her only hope lies in Mikael, who must unravel a government conspiracy formed around the young hacker...

Larsson's books are a unique blend of old and new -- he takes the usual mystery/thriller tropes (locked room mystery, government conspiracies) and enfolds it in a ruthless, blistering look at modern Swedish society and sexual aggression. It's a dark, dangerous, unfair world where the truth is quashed, powerful forces conspire against individuals, and women are treated horribly -- usually shown via the eccentric, punky "girl with the dragon tattoo."

His prose is rather bleak and often quite gritty, and a certain brand of understated passion shines through -- the kind that feels the need to express itself even though it takes place in fiction. And while most of the first book focuses in Mikael, in the second and third Larssen's style splits in half -- one half is the more staid, ordinary perspective of Mikael and others, and the other half is the wild nihilism of Lisbeth ("If death was the black emptiness from which she had just woken up, then death was nothing to worry about. She would hardly notice the difference").

Mikael and Salander make an intriguing odd couple. He starts world-weary and demoralized that he seems to care about nothing, but regains his passion for the truth; the only downside is that he's a bit Marty Stuish, since all women seem to adore him. And Salander is a mass of hurts and quirks -- she's a vibrant, wild genius who lashes out at those who hurt women, and has been constantly tortured by those around her since childhood (even as an adult, she's forced to have a legal guardian).

Take your average thriller/mysteries, smother them in disillusioned, morally-bankrupt noir... and you'll have something like the Millennium Trilogy. A hard read, but worth the journey.