#BooktagsBlogHop with Toi Thomas

Good morning. Today is the start of a new monthly blog hop whose purpose is to share and discuss books--ones you are either reading or writing. All the information about this bloghop can be found at The Toibox of Words. Care to join us? Go here.

I'm supposed to include an excerpt (500 words or less) along with an explanation of why I chose the book (300 words or less). I'm going to cheat and send you here for the excerpt, 'cause I've got a bit more than 300 words to share on this one.

Yesterday I finished The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. This is an unusual book in that the characters created by Stieg Larsson (who sadly died before his Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series was published) became so freaking popular, that they spawned a number of successful films and now this new tale. I haven't seen this phenomenon since publishers continued to use the name V.C. Andrews to pump out incestuous tales for teen girls back in the day.

Is this a good idea? If the new author does a good job, it could be a great thing for the fans. But as a writer, would it bother you if someone else could duplicate your style enough to pull this off? If the author does a bad job, well, then the fans will feel cheated. Then again, if this monkey business is going on it won't matter much to you. You're toast in this scenario.

Okay, I'm digressing. Did I like this book? Yes and no. I thought Lagercrantz did a good job keeping the characters true to Larsson's version of them. The setting is cold, dark, and dreary. The overall plot has plenty of intrigue. Lagercrantz does a good job of weaving together the narrative from a large number of points of view. He's got to juggle swedish journalists, the police, bad guys, and even the United States' National Security Agency gets in the mix. Plus there's an autistic boy who is a savant in both mathematics and drawing who really drives the tale. His interaction with Salander is my favorite part of the story.

So what's the problem? Well, the cover has the words "A Lisbeth Salander Novel" in the top corner. This is the character fans can't let go of, right? So why do we have to wait until page 130 or so before she comes on stage? And she doesn't stick around much. Salander is hardly in the book at all compared to the other characters. 

Worse still, her trademark crazy, out-of-control violence is described second hand by other characters including the grand finale (which wasn't all that grand). 

I've got other nit-picks, but I'll leave it at that. Are you a fan of this trilogy? Have you or will you read the new novel?