Stieg Larsson

[Cambo]

The second was my favourite too. I thought all of them were good, though. Interested to see how well Hollywood does the film version(s).

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GF said the Swedish films were excellent. I doubt I hold out much hope for the Hollywood versions, but that may be my bias showing.

As I said, not going to watch either version myself. I'd rather reread.

--A

[stonemaybe]

Well, went straight from work on Friday to the book store and picked up all 3, so I own them now. Read the 3rd in 24 hours.

The 2nd was the best. The third didn't have the same pace or intensity. But it was still pretty damn good. And it was right...It was really just the second half of the 2nd.

--A

2&3 are one book, split in half.

I enjoyed 2&3 best too

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Yeah, and in that sense, 3 was a good conclusion.

I actually just re-read 2&3 this weekend. Just to see if they were as good a second time round. They were.

--A

[Khazduk]

I've just started these on the recommendation of the GF. Not bad so far, although you can tell they're translated. Kinda sad that he died before any of them were published.

Larsson has some ideosyncrasies (sp?) that are a bit weird - every apartment the main characters live in, seem to be given exact dimensions, and it annoys me a bit that all the characters tend to be referred to by surname. But those are small irks within lots of enjoyment.

I'm guessing those are cultural issues. In countries where space is at a premium, the square meterage of any living space is an important fact in determining how prestigious (or not) an accommodation is.

As for the surnames, I seem to have a vague feeling that it's customary to do so in that culture. (And perhaps in similar ones.)

--A

Being from Sweden, and not the biggest of Larsson fans (although he's born about 150 km from where I live, not too far away from the arctic circle), I'll add this these 2 cents:
- the use of surnames only is for some reason a genre cliché in Swedish criminal fiction. I think some authors (Sjöwall/Wahlöö and others in the post war-generation) believed it would give their stories a realistic "police" feeling for some reason, and it has gone on from there.
- Larsson's obsession with space is more of that same syndrome, I think. He often tries to write stuff like he imagines it would look in a police report, imho.

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Can't think that I've read much else Swedish, but maybe that's why I had the feeling...either way, I can't say it bothered me...maybe because there are (culturally) certain situations here in SA where it's common to use somebodies surname to refer to them, so it didn't seem out of place to me.

--A