Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[neilmarr]

Just laid hands on the Larsson trilogy, by the way. A couple of thousand pages or more, I think. I'm at fifty-some pages into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and am bored to bloody tears. The writing is awful, the characters are pure cardboard, the research seems so skimpy that disbelief can't be suspended, and there's not the vaguest hint of a story yet. Is it really worth sticking with this turgid stuff? I know a lot of chums here have enjoyed at least GWTDT, so maybe I'm about to give up too soon, but I won't read another page until one of you trusted pals tells me I'll regret it if I don't. From what I've seen so far ... all hype, no substance. Cheers. Neil

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I'm just finishing "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" - it was OK - but the ending's a bit unrealistic and very rushed - with every gimmick/cliche of popular thriller fiction

OK but not thrilling. Have the next 2 in my TBR list - are they better?

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Just laid hands on the Larsson trilogy, by the way. A couple of thousand pages or more, I think. I'm at fifty-some pages into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and am bored to bloody tears. The writing is awful, the characters are pure cardboard, the research seems so skimpy that disbelief can't be suspended, and there's not the vaguest hint of a story yet. Is it really worth sticking with this turgid stuff? I know a lot of chums here have enjoyed at least GWTDT, so maybe I'm about to give up too soon, but I won't read another page until one of you trusted pals tells me I'll regret it if I don't. From what I've seen so far ... all hype, no substance. Cheers. Neil

You two are the first people I hear complaining about these books. Now I'm intrigued... I just checked my local library and it looks like the first book is available, I'll go check

[neilmarr]

Watch it, Florence. To folks like us, there's nothing so precious as rare recreational reading time. You might well be into *wasting* mode here. Let's wait to hear from other friends who've struggled through the trilogy. I'm afraid that, if I'm not hooked by page fifty, I pretty well believe I'm ploughing through crap. Ain't gonna stick with another 2K pages of this infantile first draft-style nonsense unless someone I trust here tells me that I should. Whatever, the crappy writing won't improve. Maybe this is why I'm broke ... I'd have rejected this by now had it come to me as a submission. It's sooooooooooooooooooooo boring! You think, perhaps, it's all about hype? There's even a conspiracy theory now about the author's death. Cheers. Neil

[Ea]

I bought the first book in the trilogy a few weeks ago - maybe I should check it out. I definitely think it's been hyped, that's why I stayed away in the first place.

[NickSpalding]

Mr Marr and myself have had similar experiences with Larsson's work it seems. I lasted until a princely 200 pages before throwing the whole thing over as a bad deal.

I'll struggle to a certain point with a book that's not engaging me, but that was my limit on that one.

[Trebro]

Have not read much because of the move. Working through that Year's Best Sci Fi 15, not bad so far.

Did get my first book from new library and read it in one shot this morning instead of cleaning up, Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow, in which a horror actor is cast to be a stand in for a rather familiar-looking weapon of mass destruction.

It's full of lovely nods to the horror scene of the 1940s, which I loved, but ends a bit too preachy for my taste. Overall, it was a good, if imperfect read that I'd recommend for fans of old horror movies.

[neilmarr]

You're a hero, Nick. I've had enough. The guy writes with all the driving wit of a banking columnist in the pink pages of the Financial Times. He has all the presence of butcher, the appeal of yesterday's bagel, and all the warmth and charm of an unflushed toilet. If you can't catch me in twenty pages, you're running too slow. Fortunately, Larsson's dead and doesn't have to cover his arse. Neil

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Watch it, Florence. To folks like us, there's nothing so precious as rare recreational reading time. You might well be into *wasting* mode here. Let's wait to hear from other friends who've struggled through the trilogy. I'm afraid that, if I'm not hooked by page fifty, I pretty well believe I'm ploughing through crap. Ain't gonna stick with another 2K pages of this infantile first draft-style nonsense unless someone I trust here tells me that I should. Whatever, the crappy writing won't improve. Maybe this is why I'm broke ... I'd have rejected this by now had it come to me as a submission. It's sooooooooooooooooooooo boring! You think, perhaps, it's all about hype? There's even a conspiracy theory now about the author's death. Cheers. Neil

Don't worry, if I feel I'm wasting my time I certainly won't keep reading. I won't be expecting a literary masterpiece, but if I like the characters enough and the writing (or the French translation) isn't too ghastly, I might enjoy it, who knows?

In the last few years, and especially since I got an e-reader, reading has taken the place of cinema and TV for me. I have always read a lot, but I tended to read mainstream "established" literature, and to rely on cinema and TV for more "recreational" entertainment.

But in the last 10 years or so, I have stopped going to the cinema, and more recently almost stopped watching TV. At the same time, I have started reading books that are not so great literature but that I enjoy because they are easy and comfortable to read. And since I have my Opus, I have started to buy or download books I would normally be ashamed to buy in a bookstore

[neilmarr]

Don't you find in this trilogy when you start, though, Florence, that there are no intersting characters, there is no story, there's nothing to encourage you to continue reading? It is tripe. If I'm wrong, let a good editor get to work and hook me in the first chapter or two. Don't have time to trawl the waters. Do remember that you invest only ninety minutes or a couple of hours in a movie -- and they're doing the work -- to read this series will involve FORTY HOURS of your precious recreational reading time. Neil

[poohbear_nc]

Well - I finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" last night - and said "WTF" - pardon my language.

Spoiler:

After grinding on for hundreds of pages, Pippi Longstocking morphs into Jane Bond in the last 20 pages, brings down a global corporation, and loses her boyfriend. The murder mystery is jettisoned. Go back and re-read the first chapter - a great set-up with the flowers & the detective -- that gets forgotten. Our hero publishes a Pulitzer-winning article AND writes a book AND drops his anorexic girlfriend. Huh?

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

You're a hero, Nick. I've had enough. The guy writes ...

The tense you are requiring is "wrote", Neil. Mr. Larsson died a few years ago, I think, from a heart attack. I believe there may be parts of a fourth book left as legacy, though whether they'll be formed into publishable material...

Cheers,
Marc

[pilotbob]

[QUOTE=poohbear_nc;968058]Well - I finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" last night - and said "WTF" - pardon my language.

I didn't read your spolier since I plan to read these books. However, I am most surprised... you are the first person I have come across that didn't think they were great.

BOb

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Ea

I bought the first book in the trilogy a few weeks ago - maybe I should check it out. I definitely think it's been hyped, that's why I stayed away in the first place.

I checked it (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) out from the library, read the first few pages and then picked up something else. I've not been back yet....

I really can't vouch for it either way at this point.....

[neilmarr]

***The tense you are requiring is "wrote", Neil. Mr. Larsson died a few years ago***

Sorry, Monts, in review a writer *writes* no matter how long he has been dead. N

[poohbear_nc]

[QUOTE=pilotbob;968139]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Well - I finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" last night - and said "WTF" - pardon my language.

I didn't read your spolier since I plan to read these books. However, I am most surprised... you are the first person I have come across that didn't think they were great.

BOb

I was surprised myself! I too had read previous glowing reports and picked up all 3. My main problems are (without spoilers):

1. The book opens wonderfully - the set-up in chapter 1 promises a classic noir "unfinished case" scenario.
2. As others pointed out, then the pace slows to an absolute crawl that totally ignores the set-up in Ch. 1.
3. The action accelerates unrealistically in the last chapters, with every conceivable action thriller cliche thrown in.
4. A major character's personality morphs unbelievably in the last chapter into another type of character, and then back into her original character.

So - read it by all means. I'm curious to hear others' reactions. It just didn't ring true for me.