The Girl in the Spider's Web

The fourth book in the “Millennium series” was enjoyable, a good read (if you like the series), and the new (though controversial) author did not disappoint.

The only point that annoyed me about this book was that there was too much time with Mikael Blomkvist being in “woe is me mode” and feeling sorry for himself. I mean, I guess he’s entitled to a midlife crisis but it did not make for particularly compelling reading.

That said, initially I had my doubts that I would enjoy David Lagercrantz taking over for the late Stieg Larsson. While this book was overall somewhat more toned down and perhaps a bit less graphic than some of its predecessors.

I really enjoyed the subject matter having worked in IT myself, living in a world of ever decreasing privacy (where encryption is important), and currently working in the intellectual property field. So a book hovering around the topics of encryption and industrial espionage was a very entertaining read for me.

You probably do not want to read this book unless you’ve read the rest of the Millennium series as you would be missing a lot of important back story and context. Chances are if you have enjoyed the previous Millennium series books this one will not disappoint you, and you have likely already read it.

I’m looking forward to the series continuing and getting even more story, and perhaps (possibly bloody) resolution to the fight between Lisbeth and her sister Camilla.

The Night Circus

This is another of the books suggested by my Great Aunt for me to read as it is outside my normal realm of science fiction.

Erin Morgenstern wrote a very enjoyable story. The details of the story, in terms of the visuals and how the story is told, are very lush, deep, and thick despite the less colorful spectrum of the book being heavily focused in red, grey, white, and black.

Chronological order of events has very little to do with how the story unfolds, the sequence of chapters, or the sections. But while one is jumping through the timeline throughout the book there is an overarching logical flow to the telling of the story.

If I were to compare this book to another I think it is a more adult and toned down Harry Potter, closer to 5, 6, or 7 in tone and darkness but a lot less dramatic on the whole. If you like the Harry Potter series you would probably like this book.

Overall, I would suggest this book to others who like rich fantasy, enchanting, or magical settings. It was a  very good and compelling read.

While I really enjoyed the book overall I was not a big fan of how it concluded.

WARNING: below here there are spoilers!

The conflict is resolved by both the protagonists, Marco and Celia, by removing themselves from the normal plane of existence thereby ending their competition without either having to leave the other behind. The reason this annoys me is that it is the easy, everyone wins, way out.

Earlier in the book Celia discusses how her father removed himself from the normal plane but had trouble manifesting himself in the world because he bound himself to the world as a whole and therefore was not particularly well concentrated anywhere. She theorizes that if someone were to bind themselves to specific objects or locations they might not have the manifestation issue and while being “dead” (or no longer on the normal plane) they would still exist and be able to better interact with the world as more than a mere apparition. This was a neat idea in terms of a resolution to the “game” which drives the plot as it would allow either Marco or Celia to avoid their death (as the normal resolution to the game) and would both be able to be together going forward, though with one as a more ethereal presence than the other.

I like this ending because it is not your typical happy ending, is a loophole to the “game”, and is both happy and sad at the same time. It would have been complex, but then, so is life, and so is the circus, especially how it has been affecting its founders.

Instead the author opted for the “we ‘die’ together” approach. I found this less compelling. It also necessitated a “save the circus!” tangent which felt rushed and forced and put an otherwise interesting character in a very pre-destination-esque role. To me it made a character that was being developed and had good depth into a shallower version of who he was previously presented as having potential to be.