I am amazed that this book is so popular but readily acknowledge that I am in a small minority, other people have recommended it and seem to think it a work of considerable merit. The "discoveries" were quite effective and moderately exciting. The novel deals with crude …more extremes instead of subtle characterisation. What characterisation there is seems two dimensional. Dialogue is mechanical and you would hardly be able to tell who was speaking if you took the speeches out of context. Instead the writer relies on clumsy visual clues (tattoos and piercings - radical). The spicier elements of the book manage to be both nasty AND dull. The translator may have a good deal for which to answer and the book badly needed a decisive editor. I realise the book is not a travelogue, but for a beautiful country Larsson was unable to convey an intriguing sense of place. Half a Hollywood screenplay is all it ever was. Conrad, Dickens Woolf and Austen can all rest easy. (less)