Deus X Makina

3 STARS

I must agree with a majority of the reviews here and admit that this is a remarkable novel with a lot of drive and vigor, few paragraphs of filler, and a wild read. Larsson is an intelligent writer, and the continuous feel of his story and characters demonstrates a heightened skill level and the translation seems to be transparent, but as I cannot read the novel in its native tongue, I guess I'll never know. It is with a heavy heart that I downgrade my opinion from four stars to three: the book's shortcomings are tough to ignore. I wish there were a three and a half.

First, I'll go ahead and toss in my "ignorant American" commentary and say that the proper nouns in their original Swedish were distracting at times. The author assumed that I knew that this name was feminine or this place was affluent, whereas I had to draw those conclusions in context. My own shortcomings, you shout? Possibly, but I would have thought a more skilled translator to be able to fix those references. Most notably: "gaol" is a prison referenced several times throughout the book, though I have no idea what it meant. At first the term seemed to be interchangeable with "jail" but then I got the impression that it was simply a forced boarding house, or "minimum security" prison, but as it was never explained, I still have no idea.

Second, I will admit that I am a stickler on plot holes and Larsson has very, very few. I did note, however, that Blomkvist and Salander seem to find each other in a very forced way: Frode needs to find a biblical researcher and thinks of the woman who performed a background check? It seemed a little contrived. I also thought Bjurman might make another appearance after his paralyzing thought, "I have to get that video", but he did not rear his ugly face (and tattooed torso!). It lead me to believe that Larsson left that door open but ran out of time to include him back into the story.

Most severe, however, is clearly the denouement. After the climax, things started to drop out of sight quickly. Personally, I didn't understand why Salander didn't want to involve the police, but I guess that's her call. I thought the plot against Wennerström was far more elaborate than it needed to be, and focused a lot on the procedural process of publishing, which I gather is what Larsson really enjoys. The whole thing seemed too long, except for the final few paragraphs, which gloss over the relationship between the two main characters and rather obviously prepare Salander for the sequel.

Where Larsson really lost the fourth star, however, was putting no effort into making Blomkvist a full character. Mikael appeared to be a narrator at times, observing and deducing, but rarely acting. He drudged up a little anger at Frode after the climax, but even that dissolves after a pleasant paycheck. Lisbeth is definitely the highlight of the book and makes it worth reading, but she can't save the sinking ship after it has sprung a leak.

Overall, I recommend reading it and think you'll like it, too. But I can point you to countless titles I think you'd enjoy better.

5 STARS

Somewhere in the first chapter (or maybe the second, if you are convinced that the first chapter is a foreword), it dawns on you: this is not normal. The main character is not dynamic. There is no real, driving conflict. There is no escalation, nor any other conventional literary mechanism used to move the story. That would probably be the best word to describe Vonnegut: anticonventional.

What follows is a masterful tale the likes of which we may never see again. The sublime tones combine with a graceful, immersive imagery and characters that are bare and gaunt while also full of fervor. The themes are beautiful and horrible to watch, but Billy Pilgrim's journey is one you won't be able to avoid. It'll call to you whenever this book is not in your hands. At any given moment, you'll find yourself murmuring to no one in particular, "So it goes."

I am not sure how this novel is assigned to high school literature classes, because the book is so subtle and layered: I would think that teaching this book to teenagers would be like describing Newton's theories to a family of Dachshunds. I guess that's why they (high school English teachers, not the dogs) descend to the level of Ethan Frome, or other such toys, to pass the time. Purely put, Vonngeut doesn't deserve to be put on your bookcase; the proximity to so many inferior works might lead someone to believe that Slaughterhouse-Five is comparable. I'd suggest framing the book and mounting it on your dining room wall, but that might prevent you from reading it again. Which you should. Immediately.

"Don't cry over spilled milk. Unspill it! If you ever wanted to travel back in time to relive your childhood, now you can: by living it through your kid's childhood. Children are tiny versions of you, minus the crushing failure. If you're not going to live your unrealized dreams through your kids, when will you? Fill them with your dashed hopes and shattered dreams; if they succeed, doesn't that mean, in some small way, that you, yourself, succeeded? And if they fail, well, then, your dream was probably impossible in the first place. Though your kid may want to throw his kids at it, just to make sure."

-- Stephen Colbert, I Am America, and So Can You

(To Senator Obama): "Do you think Governor Palin is qualified to be president?"

The Correct Response

"I don't question her qualifications. I question her judgment. I question the judgment of anyone who aspires for the second highest office in the land and, six weeks before the election, hasn't seen it necessary to familiarize herself with the decisions of the United States Supreme Court. I question the judgment of someone who presided over a town whose victims of sexual assault were being forced to pay for the gathering of evidence against their attackers, but did nothing to rectify the injustice. And I absolutely question the judgment of the person who, in response to a lengthy, bipartisan report citing her for a series of ethical violations, says to critics, 'Read the report and you'll see that I didn't do anything unlawful!' Allow me to ask the follow-up question no reporter can seem to get your vice-presidential candidate to answer as she walks away from them, John: isn't acting within the law but outside the bounds of your own government's ethical tenets a poor example to be setting to others? Don't you think that's setting the bar pretty low for the Vice President of the United States?"

1 STAR

I purchased this book for a friend on the basis of some strong reviews I had seen on Amazon, then got around to reading it myself over the last couple weeks. I immediately called and apologized for inflicting it upon him. To think that Butcher continues with these characters over a dozen more books is incomprehensible to me; it literally makes me wonder if they are all this bad. Fortunately, I'll never find out.

I started to get worried in the first chapter: a gumshoe, scorned by the world and late on his rent, gets a call from a distressed woman offering big money? "Ok," I thought, "That's a little campy, but I'm sure the fact he's a wizard will drive this story." Boy, was I wrong. One character after another surfaced, all lacking any original qualities: The hard-nosed lady cop who sticks her neck out for the P.I., her skeptical partner, the well-spoken mob boss, the silent barman, the nosy reporter, and-- get this-- a rich, desperate housewife. Butcher even manages to make Morgan and Bob uninteresting, and that's tough to do.

The plot begs to be made into a short-lived, low production value television series. An action sequence where Dresden is naked and his date is under the influence of a heavy-duty love potion? Oh, how droll. It doesn't take a genius to figure that the two cases he is working that appear totally unrelated are, <gasp>, the same case!

In short, apart from a couple one-liners and some mildly interesting magical interludes, this is the same gumshoe paperback perpetrated by a thousand other authors. If you have seen or read any other escapades of a low-life private investigator, it's probably better than this, and if it actually does happen to be your first escapade into this genre: don't get discouraged. There actually are better incarnations than Butcher's Harry Dresden.