The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest

“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” is third and final novel in Millennium Trilogy, originally published in Swedish with title “Luftslottet som sprängdes” which means “The Air Castle That Exploded” by Swedish  writer Stieg Larsson.

“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” is first published in Swedish in 2007 and then in English in 2009. This novel is the sequel to the “The Girl Who Played With Fire”.

“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” is third and final book in Millennium Trilogy written by author Stieg Larsson before his sudden death in 2004.

This novel is centered around the character of Lisbeth Salander, who in previous novel “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is accused for three murders and she is on run.

The Girl Who kicked Hornets' Nest

After exposing the Hans-Erik Wennerström in the first novel “The Girl With Dragon Tattoo” Mikael Blomkvist journalist and publisher for Millennium magazine throws himself in the investigation of sex trafficking based on thesis of Dag Svensson and Mia Johansson where he discovers the name “Zala” who is behind all this and no one know who he is and where he lives. In this novel he Mikael throws himself in the investigation to expose violation of Sweden’s constitution by the top secret government agency.

Lisbeth  Salander a covert researcher for Milton security agency and also a black hat computer hacker and she has a Eidetic or photographic memory. In the first novel “The Girl With Dragon Tattoo” she is being hired as the co-research by Mikael Blomkvist to assist him to solve the mystery of Harried Vangers disappearance. In the first novel Mikael and Lisebth both solves the murder mystery. In the second novel “The Girl Who Played With Fire”, after reading the thesis by Dag Svensson and Mia Johansson by hacking Mikael Laptop, she learns the name Zala and thros herself in the investigation to find zala who is accused for many rapes cases and murders, but before finding zala she is acused for three murders. In this novel she exposes violation of Sweden’s constitution by the top secret government agency.

“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” begins with both Lisbeth and Alexander Zalachenko (also known Karl Axel Bodin) being airlifted to Sahlgrenska hospital with bullets in her brain, hip, and shoulder and Zalachenko with axe in his head.  They kept in ICU while Sweden police try to determine what charges should be filed against  Karl Axel Bodin and Salander who is already charged with three murders.

The Section, Secret Police group with in Sapo is trying to save Zalachenko and they also want Lisbeth to be locked away again in mental asylum because they are all afraid that she might expose the mystery behind Zalachenko.

The only way she can give fight to the man who tried to kill her Alexander Zalachenko, and against the government institutions “The Section” which nearly destroyed her life and almost proved that she is mentally ill is with the help of Mikael Blomkvist and Dragan Armansky, director of Milton Security, boss and protector of Lisbeth Salander and with the Help of Hackers Republic.

“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” is a perfect end to the Millennium Trilogy, I highly recommend the Millennium trilogy!

I give it : 5/5.

The Invisible Man

When it comes to Science-Fiction – H.G.Wells is the name you will hear a lot. H.G.Wells is known as the father of science fiction.
He wrote many novels at the end of 19th century like “The Time Machine”, “The War Of The Worlds”, “The Island of Doctor Moreau” and “The Invisible Man”, All these books are still equally popular!

This book is considered as the Masterwork in science-fiction genre, The Invisible Man was originally serialized in Pearson’s Magazine in 1897, and published as a novel the same year.

H.G.Wells writes novels with simplicity, even a guy who doesn’t know ABC of science can understand his novels very well, because Well’s doesn’t dig into the details how things work and all. His novels are always straight forward, I am saying this because I read his novel “The Time Machine” where he explains only how time travel can be achieved not how the time machine works!

The book start in village of Iping in West Sussex, there comes a mysterious stranger to stay at the local inn, The Coach and Horses.

The stranger wears a long black coat, gloves, his face is hidden entirely by bandages, large goggles, and a wide-brimmed hat, the stranger is very aggressive and always demanding to be left alone. The stranger spend most of his time in the room with his set of chemicals and he only comes out at the night. He soon becomes the talk of the village.

After this the story is told by different people who saw this stranger and what they think he is and they share the experience of there encounter with the stranger. Meanwhile a series of mysterious theft occurs in the village in which the victims doesn’t see the thief, they only hear some strange sound like someone is walking down the stairs, opening of door, closing of door but no sight of thief.

The Invisible Man

One day when Innkeepers goes to Strangers room, they see the clothes are scattered all over the floor but the stranger is nowhere to be seen, they see the chemicals bottles scattered all over the room , broken glasses and furniture thrown all over the place. Later in the evening when Mrs. Hall [Owner of the Inn -  The Coach and Horses] confronts the stranger about this, he reveals in front of five to six people that he is the Invisible Man and removes the Bandages from his face and removes all  his clothes and vanishes as thin air.

Then he captures Thomas Marvel with his invisibility and forces him to become his assistant and force him to steal his books from the Inn The Coach and Horses.

The Invisible Man becomes the talk of every village in West Sussex and The news about the Mysteries Invisible Man appears in every news paper. People are so scared that they start to walk in groups and after the evening every house is closed!

The best part of the book is the experience shared by Invisible Man with his friend Dr.Kemp, When he meets him in house badly injured. The Invisible Man tells how he felt difficulty to walk down the stairs because he is not able to see his foots and how he felt difficulty to hold the objects like Cup etc, because he cannot see his palm. How he escaped some road accidents when people unknowingly kicked him to the road because he is invisible. He also explains how he felt difficulty to eat food because the food he eats is visible until it is digested.

The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man reveals the secret of invisibility to Kemp and also his early experiment with invisibility and also he tells why he came to Iping.

This is one of the excellent work by H.G.Wells who first introduced the idea of invisibility inspired by this novels many Hollywood and Bollywood films are made. I recommend this book to all Sci-Fi lovers and also for those who love classics.

I give it : 4/5.

Translation
compilation

A Sparrow

Recently I saw the video on you tube – A Touching story of a father,son and a sparrow !

The Doomsday Key

The Doomsday Key is my first James Rollins Book, I actually wanted to read his books from many days, so I picked this one. Being Dan Browns fan I heard my friends saying that James Rollins also write good historical fictions so wanted to try read his books and I find this one.

So I started reading The Doomsday Key my first James Rollins novel, honestly I am really pleased with what I read. This novel has everything suspense, action, drama, bad guys who want to destroy world, a historical secret buried for thousands of year and search for the key to save the world.

The Doomsday Key is the sixth book in Sigma Force series, Since this is my first book of Sigma Series I was afraid before starting the novel I might not understand or get to know the characters very well, but this did not effect the story line and some characters are very generic you don’t really need to read the first novel to understand the characters.

The Dooms Day Key

If you read Dan Browns “The Davinci Code”, you will probable guess after few pages that this novel has very strong feel of the “The Davinci Code”. Some times I felt that the actions sequences described in the book are lengthy and unnecessary.

At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a bio hazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in the heart of St. Peters Basilica. In Africa, a US Senator’s son is slain within a Red Cross camp in Ghana. These three murders on three continents bear a horrifying tie: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh. The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a global hunt for a powerful group of industrialists who have a stranglehold on the world’s food supply. Aided by two women from his past, Gray flees a trio of high-tech assassins as he pieces together the clues. But saving the world comes at a high price: Pierce must sacrifice one of the women. Yet even that price might not be enough, for as he soon discovers, the only true path to salvation lies with the Doomsday Key.

The center plot of the book is about the mysteries disease which wiped out the whole villages of England and those villages are marked in Doomsday Book as “wasted”. Some believe that the mysteries disease is plagues and study shows that these people died because of hunger with fully belly and some sinister organization wants to cast the same plagues again to control the population of world.  The only thing which can stop the Doomsday is the Doomsday Key.

I really enjoyed the book and I really liked the way Rollins tells ancient legends, but some time I felt the action sequences too boring and even I escaped some action sequences due the repetitions. Even I felt that some of the sub plots in the book are not really required.

Overall a good read and enjoyable though some point you will feel boor but a good weekend read.

I give it 3.5/5.