Swarm by B. V. Larson

This is a real scifi with aliens, robots, spaceships and laser guns. Time after time it is refreshing to listen to an audiobook without overcomplicated concepts. The story goes around an old concept: aliens attack the Earth to pirate its raw materials. Other aliens send help, so the humanity has a chance to defend itself. But then comes a spin: the help arrives in a form of automated ships, which pick up their command personnel by their own. In the process selecting the suitable candidates they kill the unsuitable ones without hesitation.

After losing his children, it takes time for the hero to come to the conclusion that these ships are not evil, but simply follow an algorithm. Nothing is black and white, as it is the case in real life.

I enjoyed the story, which develops from ships killing people to war with giant robots. And of course, there are nanorobots, which injected into people make them superhuman.

If you want a "shoot the alien robots" type of story, this one will entertain you.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The girl with the dragon tattoo strikes back - with a little help of her friends. This book is the third in the series, and I enjoyed all of them. I'm really sorry that there will be no more books in the Millennium series.

For many people the plot flows slowly. I like fast paced stories myself, but Larsson draws so rich picture of events that I didn't mind the very detailed scenes. Sometimes I was wandering if some particular chain of events was necessary, for example the subplot about the harassment of Erika Berger could be left out. However it added to the whole picture, and I was satisfied that the bad guy got caught.

The characters are very well done. You not often see an anti-social, introvert person as protagonist, but I have ot admit, it worked just fine. Lisbeth Salander is small, but very capable. Her look doesn't say anything about her hacker skills and problem solving abilities. By the way, I was thinking about who is the real protagonist in the Millennium trilogy, and I would say there are two: Salander and Blomkvist. So actually, besides the strange protagonist we also have a hero, who fights for the truth.

In spite of the relatively slow flow, there is a lot of action. The story is compelling, the stakes are high, even the constitutional rights are threatened. There are some really bad guys on the loose within the secret service, who do anything it takes to keep their secret undiscovered: they break into apartments, bug telephones, deceive prosecutors, and they are not afraid of killing people.

Fortunately the good guys outsmart them, and the end gives the satisfaction that the truth wins over the lies.