Rating: 
Summary: Horrific book
Review: This is one book that is very tough to put down. I read it in three sittings. Not for people who are easily grossed-out; the things described are sometimes very difficult to stand. You will sympathize with Hannibal before the book is through. That is the scariest thing!
Rating: 
Summary: Wait for the paperback version
Review: Character development: Clarice Starling - Good further development up until she ran off on her own. No matter how badly the bureau had treated her, I just didn't buy her blowing it all away, either voluntarily or involuntarily. Jeffison45's review is right on the money. "The perfectionist Lecter couldn't be satisfied with the Stepford Wife version of Clarice Starling we're left with at the end." I definitely wasn't.Lecter - He's not such a bad guy, just terribly misunderstood, looking for a replacement for the only one who ever understood him, Mischa. Yeah, right. How many holocaust victims went through much, much worse and didn't turn out to be sociopaths? Memory palace was cool but a throw away vehicle to showcase Harris's descriptive capabilities. Barney - I think I would've moved a whole lot sooner. Margot - I felt no empathy with her. Sure she was complex, extraordinary, but in the end I didn't care what she did. Part of what made Silence of the Lambs so good was that even the throw away characters meant something to the reader. In Hannibal, they didn't. Mason - Excellent bad guy however a little whiny. What started him off? If he was fabulously rich enough to hire people who would do absolutely anything for him and if he hated life so much then why didn't he just hire someone to kill him as he lay hooked up to his machines? Mason henchmen - I agree with the reader from Chicago, IL: why would anyone want to work for Verger anyway? Jack Crawford - thrown away completely Ardelia Mapp - thrown away completely Italian cop - who cares?!? Plot: I didn't read Red Dragon but I did read Silence of the Lambs. Obviously he wasn't out to create another suspense thriller because there was no suspense. So the question is, what did Harris create? A horror novel about modern monsters, perhaps. The whole isn't greater than the sum of its parts, it's just a bunch of parts woven together with Lecter as the common thread. Believable or not, I did think the ending was cool brains - er - I mean, cool beans... Style: Yup, I had to read till the end in almost one sitting, so Harris still held my attention. But through the Florence scenes, I kept reading because I was still waiting for the good stuff to begin. The exquisite phrases all seemed to belong to someone else, as attributed to at the end. Summary: I believe Mr. Harris may be suffering from the same deficiency as Stephen King: a severe lack of a good editor.
Rating: 
Summary: Thomas Harris gets the last laugh I suppose
Review: This book is, I truly hope, a joke. The pressure from Hollywood must have been tremendous for a sequel to The Silence of The Lambs. However, I'm insulted and quite peeved that Thomas Harris took his frustrutions out on his fans. We're the ones shelling out too much money for a book that was obviously written out of spite. Hollywood will still get their movie, albeit with a different (and most assuredly BETTER) ending. While I share Thomas Harris' feelings about "sequels", I wish that Hollywood would have been the target of his inside joke, and not the fans. Shame on you, Mr. Harris!
Rating:
Summary: If Thomas Harris were here, I would kick him in the...
Review: That's how much I hated this book. The majority of the book paled in comparison to Silence of the Lambs, but the ending was just absurd. It actually made me angry it was so bad. If I thought it would work, I would go to a hypnotist to get all recollection of this book removed from my head. In short, if you loved Silence of the Lambs, for god's sake DON'T READ THIS BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: This is ENTIRELY too silly!
Review: Bleah! I just finished this boook, and from having read some of the many reviews here, I knew it was either going to be terrific or terrible. Well, I must vote for the latter. I give this thing two stars only because it's a fast, easy read, and it does contain some creative bits from an obviously talented author. But, whereas his previous works were genuinely chilling and fear inspiring, this thing was more of a farce and had about as much impact as an old Wile E. Coyote cartoon, in which the principal form of entertainment is seeing all the different ways the coyote (Hannibal's victims) could be creatively done in. The characters are either ridiculous, revolting, or a mixture of both. Some parts were so over the top you half expected John Cleese to wander in and cheerfully announce "This is ENTIRELY too silly!". The bottom line is we don't care about any of the characters, and the plot is simply too outlandish to take seriously enough to be frightening. Lecter might as well wear blue underwear with a big "S" emblazened on his chest, since apparently he can accomplish anything with the merest of effort or hesitation. The Lecter of the previous novels was indeed exceedingly clever, but not so smart as to avoid getting caught in the first place. In short, he had an aura of credibility which made his penetrating evil all the more frightening. Ditto for Clarice, but in this book, the two of them, along with everyone else, become little more than cartoon figures. All I can say is I'm glad I got this from my library (read it over the weekend, dropped it off the next day, having had little desire to go back and savor it again, as one does with any truly worthwhile read) and avoided paying the cover price. It will be interesting to see if it's made into a movie, it's hard to imagine any revision to the screenplay that won't be an improvement over the novel.
Rating:
Summary: BORING
Review: I thought to myself when I first saw the book on the shelf finally a sequel to Silence of the Lambs. I went to the library to put it on hold and was the 75th person waiting for the book. When I did get I only had it for two weeks, well it was two weeks too long. I found it boring from the beginning, middle and to the end. Though I must admit I skipped through most of the book hoping to find it more thrilling and keep on the edge of my seat, but alas. It was like Hannibal never came into the picture until the end. Mason Verger was a pain, Krendell was a nothing and what of Starling, well just that what. She was more interesting in Silence of the Lamb. I'm glad I didn't buy this book. Thomas Harris I enjoyed your first two books, The Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, what a disappoint about the third. Can't wait for the movie, hope it will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating...Revolting...you won't stop thinking about it!!
Review: People will be polarized by this story. Hate it or love it...this story is guaranteed to make you think...maybe disturb your dreams. It goes against the grain for many, and I think that was the intention. If you can read this without stubbornly clinging to your own favorite images of the characters...you're in for one hell of a ride!
Rating:
Summary: Taking thrillers to a new level of degregation
Review: I do enjoy my thrillers. Silence of the Lambs was a fantastic fast paced book with exciting action. This book pushes the sick and macabre to new levels. In an effort to be more grotesque than any other writer, Mr Harris sacrifices everything it takes to make a truly satisfying thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Call Bellvue, we've got an author who's lost it!
Review: Harris has the inimitable ability to fully engage the reader and create a visceral experience that keeps your eyes glued to the pages and has you checking underneath your bed before "attempting" to sleep. In Hannibal, Harris has obviously taken to the crack pipe. My true feeling is that Harris was fed up by the pressure from Hollywood to write a sequel to Silence of the Lambs-- and to get even, he wrote this book. At least I hope that's the reason. If not, call Bellvue, we've got an author who's lost it! I asked myself 150 pages into it "Is this going anywhere?" I should learn to be more specific with my questions because where it went was right down the crapper. In Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, Harris so masterfully creates his characters that we actually feel sympathy for the psychotic Dr. Lechter. In Hannibal, we learn that Harris is the real psycho and our sympathy goes out the door when you consider the price of this hardback monstrosity. The ending itself was so bad, I took out life insurance to get through the last ten pages. I pulled through but it was touch and go there for a while. In spite of the fact that I would never recommend picking up this book, I still can't reveal the details as to why the ending of Hannibal bites so badly... no pun intended. Harris is not a conventional writer so his formula for creating suspense and developing characters is anything but formulaic. Does this book just take a different path? Indeed, a path that leads right off a steep cliff.
Rating:
Summary: Not a very American ending - which is not always bad.
Review: If you remember a movie entitled "Fatal Attraction" starring Glenn Close, you will recall that the ending of that movie had to be changed because the American preview audience hated it. A borderline personality disorder patient, which Glenn Close worked so hard to portray, would have commited suicide, as she did in the original cut. American audience prefered that she attack the guy and get blasted away by a gun. This is the fare that attracts Americans. The original cut was shown in Europe. Hannibal does not end in a way that would satisfy most American readers. If it were to be made into a Hollywood movie it would need a different ending. But this is the only way it could have ended. Or should have. In fact, if it were not for the last section of the book I would have called it just another potboiler. The last section is the best part of the book. The book has faults. I understand that Mr Harris resisted editorial meddling. As a result, the book is full of redundant words and phrases, excess sentences and a point of view that wanders all over the place. The book seriously needs editing. Still, I like the book, as most intelligent readers should as long as they don't expect a shoot'em-up ending. As Dr Lecter would say, all I ask is for you is to keep an open mind.
| 
