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The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo
Lizbreath Salamander is young and beautiful. Her scales have an iridescent sheen, her wings arch proudly, her breath has a tang of sulfur. And on her back a tattoo of a mythical a girl. But when Lizbreath is drawn into a dark conspiracy she will have to rely on more than her beauty and her vicious claws the size of sabres ...A dragon has disappeared, one of a secretive clan. As Lizbreath delves deeper into their history she realises that these dragons will do anything to defend their secrets. Welcome to the world of The Dragon With The Girl Tattoo. A world of gloomy Nordic dragons leading lives uncannily like our own (despite their size, despite the need for extensive fireproofing of home furnishings), a world of money hoarded, a world of darkness and corruption. A world where people are the fantasy.
312 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2011
About the author
Adam Roberts
222 books528 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Adam Roberts (born 1965) is an academic, critic and novelist. He also writes parodies under the pseudonyms of A.R.R.R. Roberts, A3R Roberts and Don Brine. He also blogs at The Valve, a group blog devoted to literature and cultural studies.
He has a degree in English from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD from Cambridge University on Robert Browning and the Classics. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Adam Roberts has been nominated twice for the Arthur C. Clarke Award: in 2001, for his debut novel, Salt, and in 2007, for Gradisil.
Adam Roberts (born 1965) is an academic, critic and novelist. He also writes parodies under the pseudonyms of A.R.R.R. Roberts, A3R Roberts and Don Brine. He also blogs at The Valve, a group blog devoted to literature and cultural studies.
He has a degree in English from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD from Cambridge University on Robert Browning and the Classics. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Adam Roberts has been nominated twice for the Arthur C. Clarke Award: in 2001, for his debut novel, Salt, and in 2007, for Gradisil.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
Want to read
March 13, 2011I hope Adam Roberts doesn't die before he finishes "The Hornet That Kicked the Girl's Nest".
October 3, 2015
You can read this quickly, and it's fun.
It starts out as a straight-up take-off of the Girl With ... but about 3/4 of the way through Roberts uses his SF chops to write a rather different ending.
As soon as Roberts realized that one character could be Lizbeth Salamander, this book must have almost written itself.
There's one rather icky dragon-rape scene, but in sum there's much less nasty stuff than in the original.
There are some groaner puns and a few truly cringeworthy ones.
In the end, the new ending ties the book to some other books you may have read, and that's all I'm going to tell you. If you know anything about opera, that will help.
It starts out as a straight-up take-off of the Girl With ... but about 3/4 of the way through Roberts uses his SF chops to write a rather different ending.
As soon as Roberts realized that one character could be Lizbeth Salamander, this book must have almost written itself.
There's one rather icky dragon-rape scene, but in sum there's much less nasty stuff than in the original.
There are some groaner puns and a few truly cringeworthy ones.
In the end, the new ending ties the book to some other books you may have read, and that's all I'm going to tell you. If you know anything about opera, that will help.
September 22, 2011
A cracking parody. He goes to town on the syntax and some of the characters. Very cleverly done.
March 25, 2013
Surprisingly good, but then i haven't read 'The girl with the Dragon tattoo' so had nothing to compare it too!
July 23, 2019
Blurb: The Spoof that could be the Real thing.
My decision to begin reading this book was predicated on one thing and one thing only: The name and cover-art. And given some of the other books that I've begun reading for similar reasons, I'm glad this book wasn't a disappointment like the others. However, this wonderful spoof on the book that it alludes to in its title is not all humor and laughter.
Adam Roberts does a splendid job of 'dragonizing' everything in the universe. Be it names of buildings, people or hormones. But he hasn't sacrificed the darkness of the original story, nor has he spun the darkness for a comedic effect, and that in my view was prudent. Since at the heart of this spoof is a true mystery. One that is intriguing and gripping despite being a bit predictable. However, for all the positives of the story, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed by the final-third of the book.
A minor criticism that I have to offer against this book is its verbosity in certain areas. Areas where verbosity was neither required as a comedic instrument, nor did it play a big part in progressing the story. It was quite simply verbose. So much so that I found myself skipping through pages of tedious description to arrive at the interpersonal dialogue that pushed the story forward. However, the verbosity can be overlooked when enjoying the humor. And the quality of humor is wonderful. What cannot be overlooked however, is the gross negligence on behalf of the writer when it comes to the protagonist. And that's my major criticism.
The character of Lizbreath Salamander is everything one would come to expect from a book titled, "The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo". She's fierce, she's intelligent, she's eloquent and in the grand-scheme of things she's perhaps the least developed in terms of characterization. To be fair, none of the characters in the book are too developed. In fact, for the most part, I didn't feel the need for character development and was merely content with enjoying the eccentricities and inter-personal banter. With Lizbreath however, I felt she deserved more. Much more. She's a beautiful character and unlike the others that are either spoofs of the characters from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo or spoofs of character-archetypes, Lizbreath holds the same gravitas that Lisbeth did in her story, and that merited a much more respectable treatment.
All in all, its a fun read. It's decently paced and despite it mishandling for its main character it'll still leave you with a smile on your face and the desire for a sequel.
My decision to begin reading this book was predicated on one thing and one thing only: The name and cover-art. And given some of the other books that I've begun reading for similar reasons, I'm glad this book wasn't a disappointment like the others. However, this wonderful spoof on the book that it alludes to in its title is not all humor and laughter.
Adam Roberts does a splendid job of 'dragonizing' everything in the universe. Be it names of buildings, people or hormones. But he hasn't sacrificed the darkness of the original story, nor has he spun the darkness for a comedic effect, and that in my view was prudent. Since at the heart of this spoof is a true mystery. One that is intriguing and gripping despite being a bit predictable. However, for all the positives of the story, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed by the final-third of the book.
A minor criticism that I have to offer against this book is its verbosity in certain areas. Areas where verbosity was neither required as a comedic instrument, nor did it play a big part in progressing the story. It was quite simply verbose. So much so that I found myself skipping through pages of tedious description to arrive at the interpersonal dialogue that pushed the story forward. However, the verbosity can be overlooked when enjoying the humor. And the quality of humor is wonderful. What cannot be overlooked however, is the gross negligence on behalf of the writer when it comes to the protagonist. And that's my major criticism.
The character of Lizbreath Salamander is everything one would come to expect from a book titled, "The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo". She's fierce, she's intelligent, she's eloquent and in the grand-scheme of things she's perhaps the least developed in terms of characterization. To be fair, none of the characters in the book are too developed. In fact, for the most part, I didn't feel the need for character development and was merely content with enjoying the eccentricities and inter-personal banter. With Lizbreath however, I felt she deserved more. Much more. She's a beautiful character and unlike the others that are either spoofs of the characters from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo or spoofs of character-archetypes, Lizbreath holds the same gravitas that Lisbeth did in her story, and that merited a much more respectable treatment.
All in all, its a fun read. It's decently paced and despite it mishandling for its main character it'll still leave you with a smile on your face and the desire for a sequel.
July 27, 2017
I came across this book while searching for Hitchhikers books. This was on the same shelf and caught my eye. It is truly and enjoyable book and deserved its spot on the shelf. Though, it might be insulted to be on a human's shelf. Maybe if the shelf was made of human bones. Yes, that could be appropriate. Though, Hitchhikers wouldn't belong on the shelf, so it'd need its own shelf somewhere far away from the human bone shelf. Like....................................... over there.
August 29, 2011
Like this one!! Quite funny parody! Like the references to the Smaug and Sherlock!! Ben Cumberbatch on the mind anyone!!
December 5, 2012
I side-eyed this book on the library shelf and read the back of some of the author's other books before grabbing it and self-checking it out before anyone noticed. Not the most highbrow of books, clearly.
In the end though, although I got about halfway through, I had to give to give it up for an unusual reason: too much humorous dragon rape. There were some good jokes, such as riffing on the "anti-climactic" nature of the parodied book and a reference to dragons' dirty reading material as "Pernography". By the way, if you didn't laugh at that, there is nothing for you here.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo built up a great deal of trust with me in its depiction of sexual violence. No matter how bad it got, it wasn't glamourised and its perpetrators were always punished. Now that we're redoing it, but with dragons, the same scenes are back. I don't know whether the author felt he had to parody Lizbeth's rape because that was part of the original or if he thought he could make it work as humour or if he intended to make them as creepy as the original and offer a break from the humour or... Well, I don't know. The result was not good, regardless.
Avoid.
In the end though, although I got about halfway through, I had to give to give it up for an unusual reason: too much humorous dragon rape. There were some good jokes, such as riffing on the "anti-climactic" nature of the parodied book and a reference to dragons' dirty reading material as "Pernography". By the way, if you didn't laugh at that, there is nothing for you here.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo built up a great deal of trust with me in its depiction of sexual violence. No matter how bad it got, it wasn't glamourised and its perpetrators were always punished. Now that we're redoing it, but with dragons, the same scenes are back. I don't know whether the author felt he had to parody Lizbeth's rape because that was part of the original or if he thought he could make it work as humour or if he intended to make them as creepy as the original and offer a break from the humour or... Well, I don't know. The result was not good, regardless.
Avoid.
April 15, 2018
Oh tee hee hee - an easy to read, eye-rolling groaner of a parody. Some of the overly-English cutesy language bits were tedious, but in general this was a harmless, fun read.
January 25, 2021
Strongly follows the original books but has clever hits to pop culture and a interesting twist at the end.
May 5, 2024
3.5
Firstly, do not read it if you have not read the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there are more than one direct spoilers.
Weaknesses :
Obviously that it is based off another book, which makes it pastiche
The fantasy plot is slightly clichéd, somewhat weak & just middling
Strengths
Humour. The wordplay is good, the narrator explains some words which is an overkill, & is supposed to be funny, & it is. Also the way Kaal gets stuck on some words.
World-building, or rather, I should say, creature-building. The violation Lizbreath faces, feels real enough to make you squirm in rage.
The realities of a patriarchal oligarchy as opposed to a proper democracy in the base book, Sweden, are taken into account.
The mystery is okay, the attempt to comment on speciesism is okay too.
Overall, I quite enjoyed reading this.
Firstly, do not read it if you have not read the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there are more than one direct spoilers.
Weaknesses :
Obviously that it is based off another book, which makes it pastiche
The fantasy plot is slightly clichéd, somewhat weak & just middling
Strengths
Humour. The wordplay is good, the narrator explains some words which is an overkill, & is supposed to be funny, & it is. Also the way Kaal gets stuck on some words.
World-building, or rather, I should say, creature-building. The violation Lizbreath faces, feels real enough to make you squirm in rage.
The realities of a patriarchal oligarchy as opposed to a proper democracy in the base book, Sweden, are taken into account.
The mystery is okay, the attempt to comment on speciesism is okay too.
Overall, I quite enjoyed reading this.
December 18, 2023
As you can probably tell from the title, this is a parody of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. Set in a world of anthropomorphic dragons, it follows such characters as Lizbreath Salamander and Kaal Brimston as they try to solve the mystery of a rich dragon’s disappearance. It’s an enjoyable mix of fantasy, sci-fi and humour and makes for a fun read even if you haven’t read the book it’s parodying (though in that case you will obviously miss some of the references).
I’m surprised to see a couple of reviews stating this is a children’s book – it absolutely isn’t. It contains some quite complex themes and sexual content, including rape. It definitely isn’t suitable for kids.
I’m surprised to see a couple of reviews stating this is a children’s book – it absolutely isn’t. It contains some quite complex themes and sexual content, including rape. It definitely isn’t suitable for kids.
February 25, 2024
Bizarre species-bending take/parody/imitation/fanfic? of the original book. The changes and/or consistencies from the source material seem sometimes nonsensical and random or intentionally weird. I do not recommend reading this, all the hard to read parts are only made worse in this version.
July 25, 2019
Pretty humorous....
July 2, 2022
Never read the original. But this was hilarious. Loved the way it was written.
December 27, 2023
This was more enjoyable than it had any right to be
July 8, 2017
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - it is really frakking hard to review a parody novel. I can’t wax on about pacing, character development, and literary devices when the book is set up to take the piss out of exactly that. This book is a pisstake to the nth degree, and I bloody love it.
As the name suggestions, this is a parody of the Millennium Saga, but with dragons. Set in Scandragonia, Kaal Brimston is hired to discover what happened to wealthy baby heiress Hellfire Vagner over 300 years ago. Hellfire simply disappeared from the Vagner’s floating island one day, never to be seen again, and her grandfather, Helltrik Vagner, receives a severed dragon’s tongue in the mail on the anniversary of her disappearance each year.
Because Kaal is an outright frakking moron he summons his researcher extraordinaire, Lizbreath Salamander, to help him get to the bottom of the mystery. They find that Hellfire hasn’t been living on a sheep farm in Hostileia all this time, but that she’s actually been in the castle all along, invisible to the naked eye! Oh, and that the castle is actually sitting on a "wyrmhole" linking 4 different dimensions.
If you liked Stephfordy Mayo’s New Moan, you will absolutely love the sense of humour here. No stone is left unturned, with everything ridiculed to the nth degree. The author really plays up Kaal’s stupidity and Lizbreath’s desperate need to stay away from the ~*mainstream*~, and mocks the crappy anticlimactic ending to the first source novel, with an added Lord of the Rings reference.
And just like New Moan, the book actually presented some super interesting mythology underneath all that satire! It presents the idea of four dimensions linked by a wyrmhole: the fire realm, populated by dragons; the water realm, populated by mermaids; the air realm, populated by air creatures; and the earth realm, populated by humans. The air realm is mostly barren with winds having ravaged the land. I can’t remember what happened to the water realm, but dragons probably don’t go there, because water. The fire land is populated by dragons and they’ve eliminated humans from existence. The earth land is the opposite, being populated by humans who have eliminated dragons from existence.
I want a serious novel that explores the mythology presented here! It reminds me of the various worlds in Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci series, where each has gone down such a different path based on a crucial decision someone made once upon a time. In some worlds there and magic and witches, and in some worlds there aren’t. In some worlds the Germans won WWII, and in some worlds they didn’t. I’m a sucker for alternate universe storylines (big fan of Fringe right here <----), so this totally won me over.
Overall: Whether you loved or hated the Millennium trilogy, give this parody a go. I personally loathed the storyline and writing style of the saga, and couldn’t get enough of this novel. It’s not like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters where they kept the boring shite and added a few squid on top; it’s funny right down to its core. Nothing is safe, and everything is hysterical.
As the name suggestions, this is a parody of the Millennium Saga, but with dragons. Set in Scandragonia, Kaal Brimston is hired to discover what happened to wealthy baby heiress Hellfire Vagner over 300 years ago. Hellfire simply disappeared from the Vagner’s floating island one day, never to be seen again, and her grandfather, Helltrik Vagner, receives a severed dragon’s tongue in the mail on the anniversary of her disappearance each year.
Because Kaal is an outright frakking moron he summons his researcher extraordinaire, Lizbreath Salamander, to help him get to the bottom of the mystery. They find that Hellfire hasn’t been living on a sheep farm in Hostileia all this time, but that she’s actually been in the castle all along, invisible to the naked eye! Oh, and that the castle is actually sitting on a "wyrmhole" linking 4 different dimensions.
If you liked Stephfordy Mayo’s New Moan, you will absolutely love the sense of humour here. No stone is left unturned, with everything ridiculed to the nth degree. The author really plays up Kaal’s stupidity and Lizbreath’s desperate need to stay away from the ~*mainstream*~, and mocks the crappy anticlimactic ending to the first source novel, with an added Lord of the Rings reference.
And just like New Moan, the book actually presented some super interesting mythology underneath all that satire! It presents the idea of four dimensions linked by a wyrmhole: the fire realm, populated by dragons; the water realm, populated by mermaids; the air realm, populated by air creatures; and the earth realm, populated by humans. The air realm is mostly barren with winds having ravaged the land. I can’t remember what happened to the water realm, but dragons probably don’t go there, because water. The fire land is populated by dragons and they’ve eliminated humans from existence. The earth land is the opposite, being populated by humans who have eliminated dragons from existence.
I want a serious novel that explores the mythology presented here! It reminds me of the various worlds in Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci series, where each has gone down such a different path based on a crucial decision someone made once upon a time. In some worlds there and magic and witches, and in some worlds there aren’t. In some worlds the Germans won WWII, and in some worlds they didn’t. I’m a sucker for alternate universe storylines (big fan of Fringe right here <----), so this totally won me over.
Overall: Whether you loved or hated the Millennium trilogy, give this parody a go. I personally loathed the storyline and writing style of the saga, and couldn’t get enough of this novel. It’s not like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters where they kept the boring shite and added a few squid on top; it’s funny right down to its core. Nothing is safe, and everything is hysterical.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2011
This is obviously a parody of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Writing a parody is fraught with peril. What you as the author thinks is funny is not necessarily as funny in the mind of others. There is the added problem of how much of the original storyline to retain and how much to depart from, to give the parody its own story-telling legs.
Overall I think Adam Roberts has achieved that balance.
The novel is set in a world that is inhabited by dragons, where humanity is considered by many to be a myth. This is also the world of Kaäl Brimstön, celebrated journalist, although he is actually a fraud, a secret that so far he has been able to keep from everyone, including himself.
This male protagonist is a bumbler, quite unlike Steig Larsson's original male protagonist. Or is this just Roberts's interpretation of the Larsson character?
Lizbreath is a wild, strange dragon, different in attitude to the norm. This character pretty faithfully echoes Larsson's original female protagonist, becoming a good counter-point to the bumbling Brimstön as a straight-man... er straight-woman...straight-dragon?
Initially the story generally follows Larsson's original storyline fairly closely, or as closely as it could in a considerably shorter novel that has dragons as the characters. Eventually the story goes off in its own direction which it had to do in order to have any real legs.
There is some nice comedy throughout although towards the end I was finding it a little repetitious. The ultimate resolution was achieved far too easily for my liking, but hey - this is a light, comedic read, not War & Peace, so get over yourself, Rossco!
While perhaps not to everyone's taste, this novel is a light, overall entertaining read.
Overall I think Adam Roberts has achieved that balance.
The novel is set in a world that is inhabited by dragons, where humanity is considered by many to be a myth. This is also the world of Kaäl Brimstön, celebrated journalist, although he is actually a fraud, a secret that so far he has been able to keep from everyone, including himself.
This male protagonist is a bumbler, quite unlike Steig Larsson's original male protagonist. Or is this just Roberts's interpretation of the Larsson character?
Lizbreath is a wild, strange dragon, different in attitude to the norm. This character pretty faithfully echoes Larsson's original female protagonist, becoming a good counter-point to the bumbling Brimstön as a straight-man... er straight-woman...straight-dragon?
Initially the story generally follows Larsson's original storyline fairly closely, or as closely as it could in a considerably shorter novel that has dragons as the characters. Eventually the story goes off in its own direction which it had to do in order to have any real legs.
There is some nice comedy throughout although towards the end I was finding it a little repetitious. The ultimate resolution was achieved far too easily for my liking, but hey - this is a light, comedic read, not War & Peace, so get over yourself, Rossco!
While perhaps not to everyone's taste, this novel is a light, overall entertaining read.
January 14, 2014
As a parody, the book was somewhat alright. The plot did follow the original closely but had its own twists.
The story was easy enough to follow, but slowly lost energy as the climax in the book was met. When i finally found out that the knot of the problem was being unraveled, the book was nearly over making for a short lived amount of action for this particular novel.
Overall, the book was okay for the time being and fulfilled the void between books
The story was easy enough to follow, but slowly lost energy as the climax in the book was met. When i finally found out that the knot of the problem was being unraveled, the book was nearly over making for a short lived amount of action for this particular novel.
Overall, the book was okay for the time being and fulfilled the void between books
June 9, 2013
This was a fun parody of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not a great book, but fun to read. If you haven't read the original, there is no point in reading this one.
There's not much else to say.
There's not much else to say.
November 3, 2014
This is the first time that I do a review about a book, so here it goes.
I haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but i hope in the future i will. While I was reading this reading I really enjoyed it, it made me want to read the original book. The writing style and how the characters were portrayed were fabulous and fantastic.
Overall, I truly enjoyed the book.
I haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but i hope in the future i will. While I was reading this reading I really enjoyed it, it made me want to read the original book. The writing style and how the characters were portrayed were fabulous and fantastic.
Overall, I truly enjoyed the book.
July 24, 2012
A reasonably amusing parody of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, this book has some quite funny passages. It does a pretty good job of caputring the tone and some of the storylines of the original, without making it a copy. Novelty value will get it read.
December 15, 2011
Have you ever wondered how dragons practically and safely go about orally raping each other? Read this book and find out!
The book reads like the author had an obligation to put a joke in every 300 words, much like a hack radio DJ has an obligation to end each of their segments with a lame joke.
The book reads like the author had an obligation to put a joke in every 300 words, much like a hack radio DJ has an obligation to end each of their segments with a lame joke.
January 27, 2012
Having not read the original, I'm unqualified to say whether it's better. I will say that I enjoyed this book a great deal and I no longer feel compelled to read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" which I've been told is rather meandering and involves a lot of coffee.
August 12, 2013
Did anyone say 'parody'? Truth be told, one can read this book without having read any of Stieg Larsson's books and you will be perfectly able to enjoy this book through and through. A really delightful laugh out loud weekend read.
May 16, 2022
A terrible parody but so well written. Several interesting details make this worth reading a second time. The only book I bought because of the cover and I am so glad I did. It introduced me to Adam Roberts, one of my favourite authors.
March 23, 2015
A parody of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. usually very hard to do, but Adam Roberts managed to pull it off nicely. Exciting and different. I hope for more parody novels by him in the future. This has made me want to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Want to read
January 27, 2011Yes, you read that right. It's a parody of Stieg Larsson's novel.
June 7, 2011
Unable to induce more than a chuckle for me; while the references are present, it fails to humor. Certain portions are evidently "trying too hard".
June 30, 2011
Likeable parody of the mystery series where people are the fantasy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews