Book 4, will it ever be published?
This is a quote from the Swedish TV website, from an investigative show done about Stieg Larsson and how the book income has been divided after his death.
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EN KNAPP MÅNAD före sin död skriver Stieg Larsson ett mejl till vännen John-Henri Holmberg. I mailet står att läsa:
“Kan också meddela att jag är 320 sidor in i Sallander fyra och hoppas vara klar i december. Enligt synposis ska den bli 440 sidor.
Erland Larsson Det skulle jag gissa att det borde betyda att den bara skulle bli 600 sidor eller så. Jag är klar med början och slutet och har bihandlingen i mitten kvar.”
Manuset till boken finns i Stieg Larssons dator, som Eva har hand om.
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Page address: http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=93893&a=1155057
A rough translation is that about a month before his death Stieg Larsson writes an email to his friend John-Henri Holmberg telling him that he has written 320 pages of book 4. He had planned it to be 440 pages long so he expects it to about 600 (not sure, but I think he is making a joke that his planning was inaccurate). Stieg states that he has written the beginning and the end and that what remains is the side events in the middle of the story.
So what does everyone think? Will it be published? Should it be published? If it is published, should it be finished by some other writer or published as it is?
My personal opinion is that I want it to be published and while it would be interesting to see the unfinished works it would probably be better to have someone else finishing the book. From what I’ve read it seems that Stieg did a lot of final re-writing in collaboration with his editors, polishing dialogue and other details, so if the story in itself is not ready from start to finish then probably there is a lot of stuff that needs polishing.
By the way, for the Canadian fans on here I can mention that according to this report on Swedish TV a lot of the fourth book takes place on Banks Island in northern Canada.
http://svtplay.se/v/1372567/rapport/hemlig_uppgorelse_bakom__milleniumbockerna_
Posted by Micael (exiled Swede) in the Swedish speaking part of Finland , 16 February 2009
19 comments on “Book 4, will it ever be published?”
I dunno if it will ever be published, but I really hope so!! I heard the main troubles are with the inheritance, the fight between Eva/EXPO and Stieg’s father/brother…
I’d rather read the finished book, actually, but there must be the sign, the signature of Stieg’s style… it must be his book, not anybody else’s.
Posted by Kristin in Pz ,
The Easter has past.
I am an ateist. But i will be a Godbeliver if God let the resurrection of Stieg Larsson take part in the Easter 2010!
So Stieg can finnished the fourth book at least.
The other way God can creat cofidence and belif is to let Stieg be a kind of “gosthwriter” so that Eva Gabrielsson who was his common-law spouse.
Posted by Salander fan in Sweden ,
I NEED the fourth book!
I’m a Lisbeth addicted…or a Michael addicted (that’s better:P).
I wanna have the number four!
I really arrived in a bad point-.-…I searched on internet Jobsville and the photographer Gill Bated!!!…In dreams I’m a hacker!!! But not a cracker fortunatly:P
Bad bad bad….
Stieg!Contact me in dreams and I’ll write your final masterpiece!!!
Posted by Wyz in Jobsville ,
In my life I never mourn any writer death.But after reading two book in the series I just cant stop thinking about his death.I think it will be very perfect scene in my libary with a shelf containing all 10 proposed book of the series. But it cact be happen now. So if there anything of Stieg Larsson writing that should be published.
From Calcutta with Love…
Posted by Jayanta Saha in Calcutta ,
I think that book should be finished by some other writer best choice would be author who is familiar with Larsson’s work with assistance of people who helped Larsson with his books.
That fourth book deserves to be published, if it has ending. I think that Larsson would have wanted it to be published, but ofcourse I didnt know him so I cant really know what he wanted.
I would love to read more about Lisbeth (I want to know what she decides to do with her moneys and more about hacker nation), but if fourth book has cliffhanger ending and needs another book for final ending then they have to be really careful with those books for them to be as close as possible to that what Larsson wanted them to be. Its easy for fourth book if most of it is already writen beginning and the end are probably hardest parts to get right, but if there is only general guide lines for fifth and fourth ends with cliffhanger then I can understand why they dont want to publish more books. In any case I want to read more books about Lisbeth, but I guess I will have to hope that at least good fanfiction writers would start to write something about Larsson’s books since getting fourth book seems unlikely.
Posted by JS in finland ,
God, life is sooo freaking unfair! After making us fall in love with Salander and Blomkvist, he just dies?!?! No no no, i have 2 noe wot happens next, have 2, have have have have have 2!
His girlfriend better finish the 4th book or else!
Posted by salander fanatic in salanderville ,
i am so annoyed. i REALLY wanna read the 4th bk. i absolutely love lisbeth…..and mikael. but lisbeth is really awesome. it would be soooooo annoying if the 4th never gets published. i really want to know more about lisbeth cause she is a really interesting person with a strange personality. i really wish that i could do maths equations so quickly like her
and i could meet mikael and lisbeth some day. i think that its really wierd how mike calls lisbeth ‘sally’. if i were her….i’d be so annoyed T.T
Posted by huge fan of Stieg Larsson’s books in Australia ,
I hate to tell you all this, but from all reports the reading of a series that was finished by an author other than the original is a bad one. I mean, think about it… if a writer is good, why isn’t he writing his own story?
The third book seems to tie off the plot well enough… I suspect that if we had the fourth book, it’d have started a new plot line and left it unfinished, leaving us feeling the way we would if he’d died after writing the second book.
Part of me wouldn’t mind reading about his plans for future novels, but I suspect such an act would be somewhat masochistic. Be grateful for what we have. Any sequels written by other authors are just going to be disappointing.
Posted by Sib in Melbourne ,
I am am a die hard fan of Stieg’s books and love the Mikel and Lisbeth characters I am looking forward to his his last book. I was on Amazon and they are pre-selling the English version of book “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” which is scheduled for release in May 2010
Posted by kakabweha in Atlanta, GA U.S.A ,
Seems a lot of Larsson readers here in the U.S. don’t realize they can order the “Hornets Nest” from Amazon UK. It cost me about $25 including shipping. There was no way I was going to wait until mid-2010 for the American release. Now I’m waiting for “Man Som Hatar Kvinnor” to show up as a DVD…
Posted by Muttley in Landrum, SC, USA ,
I read that Stieg had written an outline for 10 books… I would love to see an enterprising writer make a screenplay for the remaining 7, using the first 3 1/2 books as a guide… The books were just amazing, but I don’t want to see someone else try to fill his shoes and write (or rewrite) the rest.
Posted by Jesse in Boston, MA, USA ,
I also think that Stieg would have produced a longer serie of milennium-books than the three masterpieces we already know. I am curious if there are scripts of it or ideas.
But ghostwriting these works by another writer? I don’t think so.
Maybe it is better to remember Stieg as the maker of Sally, Micke, Ricky and al the other great characters in the Millienium-triology….
Posted by Doeko Cornelissen in Amstelveen, Netherlands ,
I really want to read that 4th book. please publish it
I love salander. I have a black cat named salander man !! :D::D
Posted by LisbethRules in Turkey ,
Let’s start a petition for publishing the 4th book! I don’t care if it is finished or not, this book was written in order to be published and I just want to read it!
Posted by Toni in Budapest, Hungary ,
I just finished the 3rd book in the trilogy. It’s really tragic that the author passed away so suddenly and so young. It’s deprived the world of seven amazing books, that could have been..
Posted by larssonfan in UK ,
i really want a forth book…. and i have no idea how detailed the 6 others he was planing plans where… filling in the forth book would be great! i really hope they do! i agree it would be harder for the other 6 than it would the forth, but if it was his plan for 10 books why not honor his memory and one of his last wishes?
Posted by juicy couture girl ,
I also just finished the 3rd book and loved all three. I also hope that the fourth book is published. The second movie of the triology comes out July 2nd – so that gives me something to look forward to. I have never had novels affect me so much that there isn’t a day go by that I don’t mention about the movie and/or books. It is so sad that Sieg isn’t here to enjoy all the fame. I also Eva is awarded some monies or compensated. Eva please finish the 4th book for Sieg’s fans and for yourself.
Posted by Grandmother in Los Angeles, USA ,
I’m really quite disappointed that Larsson never finished his fourth book, let alone the other six he had planned. He was by far one of the most amazing writers I have ever come across. He describes perfect strangers in the most detailed ways that its simply astounding. I would have liked to of seen Camilla Salander appear in one of the future books. Other questions like what happens to Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist? What about Miriam Wu? No doubt that he had another plot twist for all these characters.
It would be satisfying for another author to finish the book, but then half the book would be in another style compared to Larsson’s (which by the way is unmatchable).
Posted by in Adelaide ,
I agree with one of the posts above. If there are 6 more outlines, a good possibility would be for screenplays. I thought the Jesse Stone (Robert B. Parker) novels on TV were pretty good – of course they had the entire novels to work with when they shot the TV shows. But with the right cast, the right director, and of course an excellent screenwriter – this may work.
Posted by Mary in Chicago ,