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Red Dragon Movie tie-In

Red Dragon Movie tie-In

List Price: $49.95
Your Price: $49.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The book that gives us Hannibal Lecter nuf said.
Review: For all the die hard Silence of the Lambs fans out there do yourself a favor, read this book. This book, like Silence of the Lambs, is about the FBI's pursuit of a Serial Killer, but in this one Harris takes more time to develop the two main characters, Will Graham(the FBI agent) and Francis Dollarhyde(the Red Dragon). Lecter plays a small but very important part in the story, he is the one that points out to the reader that Graham is but one step removed from becoming that which he has chased for so long. While this book doesn't have to be read to enjoy and get the full benefit of Silence of the Lambs, do yourself a favor and read it you will not be disapointe

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: If you are looking for a late night page turner, then look no further because, in this book you meet Dr. Hannibal Lector for the first time! That's right, The Silence of The Lambs is a sort of sequel to this book. I don't think this one has gotten anywhere near the credit it deserves. Read this book! It is truly scary. The characters here are well fleshed-out, not the usual hard-drinking-cop-with-three-ex-wives catches-loony-serial-killer. The FBI agent tracking the "Dragon" is a man who realizes that the only reason he has so much success, (He's the guy who caught Dr. Lector) is because he's just one flick of the switch from becoming a serial killer himself. The "Dragon" is a truly tormented soul. Harris has always been able to generate villians you can sympathize with, while you still cheer when they "get it in the end". The history of the killer drags a bit, but you are soon grabbed by the hair and yanked back into the story. Read it, and you'll end up reading it again and again

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Treasure Chest of Violence
Review: The serial killer is a really nice guy, sort of, and a lot less deranged than his upbringing and his surroundings.

Do not read this book if you feel your own morality is so superior to us mortals' that you never enjoy drinking in a complete symphony of insane aggression. One of many unique features of the book is that it is the madly violent thoughts that carries the book's main character through his sad existence.

The good guy and the bad guy share most of their main personality traits; compassion, love, self-sacrificing, and an outspoken attraction to violence. They differ because only one of them has a moral coating over his passions, and only one of them tries to cling to normality, and only one of them is an ugly outcast, loved only by his blind girlfriend.

Fortunately for us feeble-hearted readers, a nice American happy ending has been pasted onto the end of the book with no particular attempt at making the ending likely or by any means interesting.

This book was a rare joy to read, and if you tend to sympathize with people who disrespect of our cozy little normality, you'll love the dragon

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Prepare to enter the broken psyche of a serial killer
Review: An extremely tense and involving horror/thriller that actually brings you into the mind of a serial killer. The story involves one Will Graham an ex-cop who has "retired" because his work was hitting a little too close to home. When a series of murders baffle the F.B.I., the only person who has a prayer to stop the killer is Will. He has less than a month before the killer strikes again... and what ensues is a pulse pounding descent into the mind of the killer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Every bit as good as "Silence" & "Hannibal"
Review: Harris' consistency is really impressive. I didn't expect either "Hannibal" or "Dragon" to be as good as "Silence," but in their own ways they are. If you can, start with "Red Dragon," then read the other two ... but the books also stand alone & can be read out of sequence. There was more of Hannibal Lecter than I expected in "Dragon" (I'd heard he had virtually no role & that's not the case) ... but it turns out Lecter isn't a requirement for a good Harris novel. In this one, both the hero (Will Graham) & the primary villain (Francis Dolarhyde) are extremely well drawn. I like how Harris is willing to blur edges, which is true to life: we see a relatively nice side to Dolarhyde (some humanity shown with a date) & we see not-so-nice sides of Graham (how strongly he identifies with murderers) & this is true to real life, which lacks black & white most of the time & has more gray. Why is Graham good at what he does? Because he can relate to the villains he hunts. ... This is an excellent, thoroughly enjoyable start to a trilogy & it's basically flawless, with the exception of a couple of pages of weak dialog. ... Well worth a read & I guess if I had to rank the three it'd be 1. "Lamb," 2. "Dragon," & 3. "Hannibal," though they're all of a very close & outstanding standard. Worth the money & time.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Predictable
Review: It starts off strongly but it eventually falls into some pretty predictable plot lines for this genre. I don't know if its because Red Dragon has inspired other books or if Harris was pulling from the same sources that the other books pulled from too.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Beginning, Lame Ending
Review: This is the first Thomas Harris fiction I have tackled. I am not much given to novels preferring to devour nonfiction so I was prepared to be bored after a few pages. But I practically postponed bathroom breaks and meals even after the first 20 chapters. No one has made me this eager before. He is very good.

And then came chapter 26. The deliciously "evil" spell is gone. His prose began to creak, laboring under its own turgid stance. There were many irrelevant chapters and page after page the plot was screaming with "predictability". What happened? This is like being shown a pair of delicious legs and you find out it is missing a torso. Did he really write the ending or he hired a ghostwriter to do it? I can't believe this is him writing. But instead of feeling betrayed or angry I felt sad because he is a good writer. He just can't sustain it until the end. But most books I have read (even movies) are like that. They start brilliantly only to stagger disastrously towards the end.

But do not let this observation disappoint you. Given Mr. Harris's ample talents I am willing to give him a second chance. I can't say the same thing for a Dan Brown trash. Once you've read one you will never allow yourself to be tricked again. I know. That is another story. But let that another one be a Thomas Harris story, please. And this time work hard on a really satisfying ending.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great and easy read
Review: As we all know this is the story where the good Dr. Hannibal Lecter makes his first appearance. Even though the book is not about him and he is only a supporting character, he still manages to play a major role.

Now with that cleared up lets move on to the characters. Gram first. He is my favorite agent out of all three Hannibal related books. Next well deal with killer. He was great. I just found him so interesting. I mean there is nothing ground breaking here but the author just makes you hungery to know whats going on in his head. All of the supporting staff are very competent and do not bog the story down.

The story is very, very solid and told exceptionally well. It is also an easy read and should not take all that long to finish. Now out of the three books I would probably have to say that this is my favorite. Not by much. Only by a very very small margin. There is just something special about it.




Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Better than expected.
Review: This novel has reached the state of being one of those "classics" -- but in the serial killer field. I finally got a chance to read it, after thinking nothing could surpass David Wiltse's John Becker series, or the Prey series by John Sandford, nor Just Killing Time by VanArnam, or Marcel Montecino's Crosskiller. Well, now I know why this novel is spoken of so highly. I am haunted by the scene at the tree, by the blind would-be victim, by the inner tourmoil of the main character who is parallel but a bit different from John Becker.
My favorite serial killer novel is still the cross-over novel Skin Game by Max Allan Collins, but I will recommend this Harris book from now on.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MY FIRST INTRODUCTION TO THOMAS HARRIS.
Review: I found and read this book many years ago and haven't left a window in the house uncovered since! Loved it so much that I've bought many copies through the years to give away to others who ask, "Read any good books lately?"


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