A fantastic conclusion, and I'm glad the story came back into form. This trilogy seemed to suffer from the classic "success syndrome" of most, where the first piece was meant to stand alone, but then had its characters expounded upon in other installments due to popularity.

The second book was all sex and action while providing exposition for why Lisbeth Salander is the way she is, thereby justifying the need for more books and setting up a story arc completely unrelated to the first novel. It completely missed the mark on what made the first book so good: the careful uncovering of a resolution through the methodical work of a journalist and a hacker.

This third installment largely returns to that formula, and though one of the two primary characters spends an unfortunately long amount of time incapacitated, they're eventually brought back into the story and given the room to operate.

I still would've preferred for key plot elements to have been uncovered in the traditional cat & mouse style of most mystery thrillers. Instead, because the reader already knows about "The Section" and its players, we're left waiting for our protagonists to "catch up", knowledge-wise. It takes away from the "Ah-ha!" moments of discovery, similar to what was found within the first novel, and the focus becomes "how the protagonists will overcome the circumstances", instead of being on the questions "what is going on", "why is this happening?", and "will they uncover the truth?".

I think a reader approaching the first novel would be fine in stopping afterward because it has zero ties, aside from characters, to the first. It's also far superior to both of the sequels. That being said, if you've already made it into the second novel you must read the third.