02 October, 2015

#BookReview :: The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium Trilogy #4) by David Lagercrantz & George Goulding

This fall, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return in the highly anticipated follow-up to Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

In this adrenaline-charged thriller, genius-hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist face a dangerous new threat and must again join forces.
Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a trusted source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female super hacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering.
Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Lisbeth for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. In The Girl in the Spider's Web, the duo who thrilled 80 million readers in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest meet again in an extraordinary and uniquely of-the-moment thriller.


Unlike most people who had read the Millennium Trilogy when it released originally, I just finished reading the series for the first time. As a result the first three books are fresh in my mind. I knew that there would be some natural difference in the characters sketches and narration as The Girl in the Spider’s Web is written by David Lagercrantz, carrying on the legacy that was originally created by Stieg Larsson.

Mikael and Lisbeth are back! Their paths seem to be at crossroads every time they take a turn. This time around, we find out that Millennium has been taken over by another group and do not want Mikael to be around. So, Mikael is once again on the lookout for a good story that can give a boost to his crumbling career and trying to help a scientist seems like a promising step towards it. But soon Mikael is entangled in a new web of murder and intrigue with some mention of Lisbeth being involved as well. Where will a simple phone call lead Mikael to? And when their paths cross, how will Lisbeth react? Will their partnership work like a charm again?

What I loved the most about this book was that while David Lagercrantz kept the essence of the repeating characters intact, he has taken his own liberties with the narration at places. I was surprised to see (read about) Lisbeth’s interaction with a kid – while it was quite endearing, I couldn’t but help wonder about it. She did feel out of her character at times in this book and that I found a bit bitter to swallow. After all, I love Lisbeth for how she has been developed over the three books and the slight changes did not sit well.  The detail oriented plot with many things happening at the same time felt familiar yet there was hint of something new as well. This time around though, the change is for good and I did enjoy it for most part.

At the end of the day, the question on everybody’s mind is whether this book is as good as any of Stieg Larsson’s books. And the answer is Hell No! When an author creates hype with a particular book / plot / character set, sometimes even he himself has trouble keeping up to the expectations. So it is highly unfair to expect something equally good from a completely different person. However, I have to admit that David Lagercrantz has done a good job and while I would never compare this (or its successors) with the original three books, I have no problem in continuing to read this series. It has a quality in its pages that is not easy to come by and I for one am not going to let something good go by, for whatever reason.



Giveaway

There will be seven (7) winners. Each winner will win a copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo , The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest , The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl in the Spider's Web and one book from the titles listed below:
1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
2. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
3. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
4. Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
5. The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy
6. An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy
7. Rescue by Nicolas Sparks
8. Under the Dome by Stephen King
9. Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
10. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
11. The Elephant Catchers: Key Lessons for Breakthrough Growth by Subroto Bagchi
12. In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce
13. Living History by Hillary Clinton
14. To The Moon and Back by Jill Mansell
15. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
16. Theodore Boone,Kid Lawyer by John Grisham
17. One Day by David Nicholls
18. The Devotion Of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
19. Between The Lines by Jodi Picoult, Samantha van Leer and Yvonne Gilbert
20. The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R.Carey

Guidelines:
The giveaway prizes will be provided by Hachette India, subject to availability.
Hachette India is not responsible for prizes that are lost in the mail.
The giveaway will be in India ONLY. 
Any disputes arising from this contest are subject to jurisdiction in Delhi.
Winners will be determined by the management of Hachette India. The decision of the management will be final and no queries will be entertained in this regard.
The entries may be screened for defamatory content/language .Hachette India reserves the right for last minute cancellation and change in terms and conditions.
Participants should be Indian residents.
The contest will start on 17th September, 2015 at midnight and end on 16th October, 2015 at midnight. No late entries will be accepted.
Spam entries or entries that are not valid will be immediately disqualified
Each winner will get a total of five books, subject to availability.
All entries that are only entered in the Rafflecopter widget will be valid.
Number of entries for each task has been provided in the Rafflecopter widget. Every person who enters the giveaway needs to do at least one task that is listed above for their entry to be valid.
Winner has 48 hrs to respond to intimation by Hachette India before another winner is chosen.
Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are in no way associated with this giveaway.
Blog Tour hosts cannot enter the giveaway.

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1 comment:

  1. Damn can't believe this book released without me noticing it!! One of the best series ever!

    ReplyDelete