Stieg Larsson (1954–2004)
Author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
About the Author
Prior to his sudden death of a heart attack in November 2004, Stieg Larsson finished three detective novels in his Millenium series. Before his career as a writer, Stieg Larsson was mostly known for his struggle against racism and right-wing extremism. In the middle of the 1980s he helped start the show more anti-violence project "Stop the Racism". This was followed by the founding of the Expo foundation in 1995. In 1999 he was appointed the chief editor of Expo, a magazine published by the organization. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Stieg Larsson
Millennium series 6 Books Complete Collection Box Set by Stieg Larsson & David Lagercrantz (Books 1 - 6) (2020) 9 copies
[unidentified works] 4 copies
Afterword 4 copies
The girl with the dog 2 copies
1〜3 2 copies
ミレニアム 2 copies
ミレニアム ３ 眠れる女と狂卓の騎士 上 1 copy
ミレニアム ３ 眠れる女と狂卓の騎士 下 1 copy
ミレニアム 2 火と戯れる女 下 1 copy
ミレニアム 2 火と戯れる女 上 1 copy
The Girl that lived twice 1 copy
Rommes tou sinchronou kosmou : skepsis tou diasimou singrafea schetika me tis rogmes stin prosopsi tou sinchronou kosmou (2011) 1 copy
Millenium : correspondance 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Larsson, Karl Stig-Erland
- Other names
- Στιγκ Λάρσον
- Birthdate
- 1954-08-15
- Date of death
- 2004-11-09
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- graphic designer
journalist
editor
crime novelist - Organizations
- Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå
Expo
Skandinavisk Förening för Science Fiction
Swedish Army - Awards and honors
- General Council of the Judiciary, Spain (Contribution to the Fight against Domestic Violence ∙ 2009)
- Agent
- Ben Ringel
- Relationships
- Gabrielsson, Eva (partner)
- Short biography
- Stieg Larsson (15 August 1954 - 9 November 2004) was a Swedish journalist and writer, active in left wing politics. He was born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå, Sweden as Karl Stig-Erland Larsson. He is notable for his authorship of the Millennium series of crime novels which are being successfully published posthumously. Larsson was initially a political activist for the Kommunistiska Arbetareförbundet (Communist Workers League), a photographer, and one of Sweden's leading science fiction fans. In politics he was the editor of the Swedish Trotskyist journal Fjärde internationalen. He also wrote regularly for the weekly Internationalen. As a science fiction fan, he was co-editor or editor of several fanzines, including Sfären, Fijagh! and others; in 1978-1979 he was President of the largest Swedish science fiction fan club, Skandinavisk Förening för Science Fiction (SFSF). Larsson worked as a graphic designer at the largest Swedish news agency, Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) between 1977 and 1999. Larsson died in Stockholm at the age of 50 of a massive heart attack.
- Cause of death
- heart attack
- Nationality
- Sweden
- Birthplace
- Skelleftehamn, Sweden
- Places of residence
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Place of death
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Burial location
- Högalid Church Cemetery, Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden
- Map Location
- Sweden
Members
Discussions
And what movies were better than the book that inspired them? in Jo's Book Group (February 2022)
novel I read a few years ago - I'm thinking epic fantasy, "mathematics" in Name that Book (February 2013)
Reviews
What do I say about this book?
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest the Return of the King of exceedingly trashy thriller novels. Conspiracy! Fraud! Illegal Wire Tapping! Chase scenes! More chase scenes! Good cops! Bad cops! Evil cops! Hacking! Hot heroic women! And, of course... MURDER. Oh, and don't forget the sex, the yugoslavian mafia guys, the biker gangs, the evil government officials, and the Heroics of Mikhael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander and the Millennium crew! When I say show more "trashy" I don't mean it in a bad way. Trashy is good. Trashy is often great! But art it is not and boy is this novel trashy. It transcends cheese and right out the other side into glorious, glorious trash.
The story is 600 pages of chase novel. It opens with Lisbeth Salander in the hospital after being shot in the head (!!) and then the quest to clear her of All Wrongs and her eeeevil father, the ex-Soviet military spy and defector to Sweden, just down the hall plotting her horrible demise. Meanwhile, a super secret government group called the Section comes out of retirement to deal with their wayward spy, cover all their tracks, destroy Millennium before evidence is published, and bury Lisbeth Salander forever in a mental institution. No one is going to keep Mikhael Blomqvist from getting the story -- and along the way a girl -- about something as scandalous as a bunch of old Cold Warriors who will do anything to keep an old Soviet Spy who has moved into sex trafficking a secret.
And then everyone runs all over Sweden -- except Lisbeth, who spends 80% of the novel lying in bed in a hospital hacking. The Girl who Kicks the Hornet's Nest is the book where Stieg Larsson figured out how to write. The scenes are short and breathless. The chapters are laid out day by day so while Horrible Things happen one day you just have to know what happens on the next. Despite having an enormous cast, the plot moves along at breakneck pace. It's a fun read! And surprisingly, fairly well plotted.
Most of Lisbeth's hacking actually manages to pass the smell test. It's a little exaggerated in places simply through time compression but otherwise its likely plausible enough. My only true quibble with this book is the Erika Berger B plot which seems to serve no purpose other than for Erika to leave, run around, whine, and then return to Millennium older and wiser and having learned a Valuable Lesson. Perhaps I simply do not like the Erika Berger character, but I found the B plot to be a little tedious and pointless. Otherwise, I enjoyed most of the second fiddle characters -- the Milton Security guys (and gal), the Constitutional Protection Police in SIS, the regular cops, and, overall, the bad guys who, to their credit, are immensely bad.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest firmly earns its 5 star rating by bringing the story to a complete conclusion. The very end is a tad rushed but it ends. The trilogy concludes. I feel comfortable walking away from Lisbeth Salander and Mikhael Blomqvist and all their friends and enemies. The story has been told.
I feel comfortable recommending the series after the conclusion of the Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I know, you're probably looking at the books and going: "Man, these books are everywhere. Should I really read them?" My answer: yep. The third book is all payoff, baby. show less
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest the Return of the King of exceedingly trashy thriller novels. Conspiracy! Fraud! Illegal Wire Tapping! Chase scenes! More chase scenes! Good cops! Bad cops! Evil cops! Hacking! Hot heroic women! And, of course... MURDER. Oh, and don't forget the sex, the yugoslavian mafia guys, the biker gangs, the evil government officials, and the Heroics of Mikhael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander and the Millennium crew! When I say show more "trashy" I don't mean it in a bad way. Trashy is good. Trashy is often great! But art it is not and boy is this novel trashy. It transcends cheese and right out the other side into glorious, glorious trash.
The story is 600 pages of chase novel. It opens with Lisbeth Salander in the hospital after being shot in the head (!!) and then the quest to clear her of All Wrongs and her eeeevil father, the ex-Soviet military spy and defector to Sweden, just down the hall plotting her horrible demise. Meanwhile, a super secret government group called the Section comes out of retirement to deal with their wayward spy, cover all their tracks, destroy Millennium before evidence is published, and bury Lisbeth Salander forever in a mental institution. No one is going to keep Mikhael Blomqvist from getting the story -- and along the way a girl -- about something as scandalous as a bunch of old Cold Warriors who will do anything to keep an old Soviet Spy who has moved into sex trafficking a secret.
And then everyone runs all over Sweden -- except Lisbeth, who spends 80% of the novel lying in bed in a hospital hacking. The Girl who Kicks the Hornet's Nest is the book where Stieg Larsson figured out how to write. The scenes are short and breathless. The chapters are laid out day by day so while Horrible Things happen one day you just have to know what happens on the next. Despite having an enormous cast, the plot moves along at breakneck pace. It's a fun read! And surprisingly, fairly well plotted.
Most of Lisbeth's hacking actually manages to pass the smell test. It's a little exaggerated in places simply through time compression but otherwise its likely plausible enough. My only true quibble with this book is the Erika Berger B plot which seems to serve no purpose other than for Erika to leave, run around, whine, and then return to Millennium older and wiser and having learned a Valuable Lesson. Perhaps I simply do not like the Erika Berger character, but I found the B plot to be a little tedious and pointless. Otherwise, I enjoyed most of the second fiddle characters -- the Milton Security guys (and gal), the Constitutional Protection Police in SIS, the regular cops, and, overall, the bad guys who, to their credit, are immensely bad.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest firmly earns its 5 star rating by bringing the story to a complete conclusion. The very end is a tad rushed but it ends. The trilogy concludes. I feel comfortable walking away from Lisbeth Salander and Mikhael Blomqvist and all their friends and enemies. The story has been told.
I feel comfortable recommending the series after the conclusion of the Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I know, you're probably looking at the books and going: "Man, these books are everywhere. Should I really read them?" My answer: yep. The third book is all payoff, baby. show less
The genius of the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson is the Girl of the titles. Lisbeth Salander alone is worth diving into these books for. Her specific vision of the world and her extreme reactions to almost everything are a delight. This intro to the series was my favorite of the three books largely because Salander is more actively involved throughout. The story sets up one mystery that quickly turns into parallel mysteries that span generations and tease along throughout the book. show more Journalism is the hero in the person of sexual vagabond Mikael Bloomquist. His heated idealism balances nicely against Salander’s cold pessimistic practicality. Either character alone might tend to smother the narrative but bouncing back and forth between them constantly injects fresh air. My eyes widened at several of the surprises in the book, and my pulse pounded at a couple. One mystery involves family drama and murder while the other corporate malfeasance in the extreme but throughout both extend the ideals of responsibility and watchfulness. The book is busy enough with its mysteries not to dwell on these themes heavy handedly. While the two mysteries have connections, their solutions remain separate—calming my fears of one big tidy solution. Fortunately, not much is tidy about this book especially the relationship of the two main characters—devout individuals realizing their situational dependence on each other and not always liking it. show less
When I began this trilogy of books, I was sceptical; critical acclaim upon the scale that these works had received, often leads to disappointment. In this case, I have not been let down once: this final instalment rounds off all the major threads of the story and, yet again, six hundred pages fly past. It is quite an achievement to write three thick tomes and not lose the pace once.
Larsson's characters are always consistent to their attributes: it must have been tempting to subsume show more Salander's anti-social attitudes when she finds herself before a court of law; but no, he maintains her shortcomings and the character remains true.
One of the satisfying sidelines of reading these books has been in trying to understand the author: the heroic journalist, Blomkvist, is clearly an idealised self portrait. His women are all 'good guys', they are often physically stronger than the men, and always morally superior: even Blomkvist is blamed for his lack of concern for the women he beds - ironically, by the married Berger who has an 'open marriage' which seems to have only one opening!
Larsson's interest in the Swedish secret service is also fascinating; whilst this fable is clearly all fiction, one does wonder if he is extracting a certain revenge for stories that might have crossed his journalistic desk and which he was unable to follow through. Sadly, his untimely death in 2004 means that there will be no more novels through which to hone these observations: a great pity. show less
Larsson's characters are always consistent to their attributes: it must have been tempting to subsume show more Salander's anti-social attitudes when she finds herself before a court of law; but no, he maintains her shortcomings and the character remains true.
One of the satisfying sidelines of reading these books has been in trying to understand the author: the heroic journalist, Blomkvist, is clearly an idealised self portrait. His women are all 'good guys', they are often physically stronger than the men, and always morally superior: even Blomkvist is blamed for his lack of concern for the women he beds - ironically, by the married Berger who has an 'open marriage' which seems to have only one opening!
Larsson's interest in the Swedish secret service is also fascinating; whilst this fable is clearly all fiction, one does wonder if he is extracting a certain revenge for stories that might have crossed his journalistic desk and which he was unable to follow through. Sadly, his untimely death in 2004 means that there will be no more novels through which to hone these observations: a great pity. show less
Oh, how I patiently sat on this book, after that terrible, terrible cliffhanger of an ending in Book Two, until I had the time to sit down and read this in several giant gulps! If I were in a habit of reading crime thrillers, this trilogy would get a solid five stars from me. It is lethally detailed, exactingly precise, and so deliberate you want to claw your eyes out as you simultaneously want to read the whole thing in one go or slow down to savor it. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S show more NEST was a spectacular ending to an astonishing trilogy, and I’m going to go have a drink or something and nurture my suspicion that Larsson was murdered by the real-life equivalent of Sapo for his incredibly thorough “creation” of government corruption and conspiracy. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 37
- Also by
- 8
- Members
- 111,715
- Popularity
- #76
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 3,609
- ISBNs
- 691
- Languages
- 41
- Favorited
- 223
