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A review by saareman
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz
2.0
Not my Salander
Review of the Audible Audio edition narrated by Simon Vance
After my disappointment with The Girl in the Spider's Web (2015), the first of the post-Stieg Larsson continuation series of Millenium novels, I didn't have any great compulsion to pick up "The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye" when it was released in 2017. I did pick it up though when I saw it on sale at Audible and also noticed that veteran narrator Simon Vance was the reader.
Continuation series have become a guaranteed income generator in the detective and thriller genres since the time of Sherlock Holmes. The best of them are able to recreate the beloved traits of the lead characters in recognizable ways for fans while increasing the scope of their experience. The worst of them read as barely acceptable fan-fiction. Lagercrantz's Millenium series continuation falls somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Lisbeth Salander captured people's imagination as an underdog character who possessed unique computer skills which she often utilized to assist co-lead character Mikael Blomkvist in investigative journalism. She would act as a nerd vigilante hero to right wrongs that society was unable to correct. On the surface this might seem easy to duplicate, but Lagercrantz just doesn't seem to be able to do this in any sort of compelling manner. The setups are all in place but there is a lack of authentic feel to the follow throughs.
This somehow results in Salander and Blomkvist feeling like secondary characters in their own series. A subplot related to separated identical twins (no further spoilers here) is actually more intriguing than the main plot here. You can't just capture Salander by putting in a few defenses of the weak, some random computer hacking and a vigilante revenger fantasy. Some actual in depth character development is required. Otherwise it just feels like going through the motions and ticking off boxes in a paint-by-numbers recreation of a character that first captured readers' imagination.
The narration by Simon Vance was outstanding of course, no fault to be found in that.
Review of the Audible Audio edition narrated by Simon Vance
After my disappointment with The Girl in the Spider's Web (2015), the first of the post-Stieg Larsson continuation series of Millenium novels, I didn't have any great compulsion to pick up "The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye" when it was released in 2017. I did pick it up though when I saw it on sale at Audible and also noticed that veteran narrator Simon Vance was the reader.
Continuation series have become a guaranteed income generator in the detective and thriller genres since the time of Sherlock Holmes. The best of them are able to recreate the beloved traits of the lead characters in recognizable ways for fans while increasing the scope of their experience. The worst of them read as barely acceptable fan-fiction. Lagercrantz's Millenium series continuation falls somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Lisbeth Salander captured people's imagination as an underdog character who possessed unique computer skills which she often utilized to assist co-lead character Mikael Blomkvist in investigative journalism. She would act as a nerd vigilante hero to right wrongs that society was unable to correct. On the surface this might seem easy to duplicate, but Lagercrantz just doesn't seem to be able to do this in any sort of compelling manner. The setups are all in place but there is a lack of authentic feel to the follow throughs.
This somehow results in Salander and Blomkvist feeling like secondary characters in their own series. A subplot related to separated identical twins (no further spoilers here) is actually more intriguing than the main plot here. You can't just capture Salander by putting in a few defenses of the weak, some random computer hacking and a vigilante revenger fantasy. Some actual in depth character development is required. Otherwise it just feels like going through the motions and ticking off boxes in a paint-by-numbers recreation of a character that first captured readers' imagination.
The narration by Simon Vance was outstanding of course, no fault to be found in that.