Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: Slightly disappointing
Review: This book is known to most readers. I read it (whole thing) after seeing the movie. The book differs in some characters and in the ending, compared to the film. Harris writes quite well and uses an intresting technique to describe the happenings and feelings of the characters. The ending was a put-off for me, because I dont think it is 100% realistic. Starlings character would not do that (If you know what I mean). Still I recommend this book to those intrested in the macabre and chilling...

Rating:
Summary: People look at this book the wrong way..
Review: I see a lot of reviews and people aren't liking it much. I think they are looking at it from the wrong view. Its not about psychological depth anymore, as it was with Silence of the Lambs.

If you read Silence of the Lambs, you'd know that Lecter and Starling are professionally (even personally) intrigued with each other and that Hannibal- merely expands on that relationship past the glass barrier that existed in the Silence of the Lambs. Its not about Starling trying to figure him out & trying to get him to help her anymore, its about the two of them finding their common ground beyond his so-called "dungeon".

Dr. Lecter himself is merely indulging himself in Clarice and she doesn't totally allow it but she merely tolerates it.
Its like some twisted love story...

Also has a different ending than the movie. If you found the movie lacking something meaningful, turn to the book for a good ending. I find both endings satisfying considering the markets the movie was aiming at and the market the book was aiming at.

Rating:
Summary: Just a terrible person and book
Review: Hannibal Lecter is a fascinating character but he surrounds him with very bad writing.

Rating:
Summary: Oh Please, Whatever, Give me a break
Review: Uggh! Thats how I felt reading this book. It's almost as if it wasn't written by the same person. I mean it was so obviously written as a screenplay to be made into a movie. All that was missing was the word "CUT", at the end of each scenes discription.
This book is a disappointment not because it is so blatently written to assit in the movie adaptation, but because it is a sellout of the previous one. The author let us down when we expected so much more, and we deserved it because we know he has it to give (evidence Silence of the Lambs).
Also disappointing is the fact that it goes for cheap gore. Yes I know Hannibal eats his victems, but that is only a part of what makes him frightening. What really makes him scary is his crazy intelligence, his planning, his passion and manipuation, his power over his victems. All of these things were so brilliantly highlighted in Silence of the Lambs, that the reader has no choice but to be let down while reading this.
It's like the author tried to pull a fast one and thought no one would notice. It makes me angry because readers are smarter than that. We know what the author is capable of and we expect their best and no one got it in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Harris's Genious
Review: Thomas Harris novels have taken the American public by storm. I do not agree with some of the other reviewers, that he went too far, or twisted his characters. If you think about it, the reason Starling changed so much at the end was because of her loss in the FBI. The reason Lecter changed so much was because of the fact that he met someone who could stand up to him. He couldn't predict her, and found her fascinating in that sense.

I love this book, more so than I love Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. Like a good bottle of wine, Harris just gets better with age. I hope he doesn't fall into doing another book just so Hollywood can have their ending. He wrote it to close this time, and they twisted it all around so that it was all wrong. I won't ruin it for you if you haven't read the book, but... The movie is all wrong.

I love Thomas Harris's writing, and I don't think he's capable of writing a bad book. And believe me, I've read some horrid books, out of sheer desperation.

If you're considering buying this book, you may want to think about it's sound track- it has some wonderful parts with Hopkins' voice.

Rating:
Summary: My first Harris Novel
Review: Even though I read this book out of order, I was impressed with Harris and his effort. However, he did get a little long winded at times but he compensated with a great tale of suspence and wonderment of what Hannibal the Cannibel would do next.

Rating:
Summary: Hmmm... this is rather slippery of Harris
Review: On one hand I'm DELIGHTED that hypocritical moralists(are there any other kind?),ever careful to be seen as decent individuals, while taking pains to mask their petty evils-jealousy, greed, selifshness(common to all),squeal in outrage of a book so comfterable with man's repressed dark side. On the other hand the book fails because Harris wants to tell a story, and thumb his nose at people who eat up(so to speak)[junk] like World's Bloodiest Car Chases, and even-especially-his books. Had the social commentary been weaved more gracefully through the narritive line, I wouldn't have a problem.
Unfortunately this conflict of goals is never adequately resolved, and we're left with something that reads like the lost first draft of an aborted Fellini movie.
Props for it's irreverent wit, and intelligence, though. Even if it doesn't satisfy the public's moral sense(inadvertantly falling short of Aristotle's principles for story telling as epoused in his Poetics), it manages to be both entertaining, and informative, feeding us fascinating tibits of historical trivia enlightening us even as it slams us for loving it.

Actual rating: 3.5

It's an aquired taste, and definitely not for everyone. Puritans stay away.

Rating:
Summary: Brave, but disappointing
Review: Harris deserves a medal for defiance of conventional writing. He's still the master of shocking fiction...the final scenes of Hannibal may well be the most viscerally stunning fiction ever written, and are likely to retain that honor for some time to come.

Though I hate it when authors "sell out" to formulaic plots when they write sequls, I was disppointed by Harris's treatment of Starling and Lecter in "Hannibal". As so masterfully developed in "Silence", Starling's character, determination and duty are matched only by Lecter's almost superhuman intelligence, charm and dementedly creative sadism. Starling and Lecter struck a deep chord in the American public, yet these characters, and the balance between them, were (in my view) fatally compromised in "Hannibal". By the final pages, Starling's character is practically unrecognizable, and Lecter's role as principal antagonist had long since been usurped by the twisted Mason Verger.

Perhaps this is the only way the story could have played out, given the powerful nature of these characters, but if that is the case, perhaps it is a story better left untold. Sometimes a book or movie is so good, ending with loose ends so tantalizingly untied, that even the thought of a sequel should be treated like drugs...just say no. Silence of the Lambs was such a book, and, for my part, I wish Harris had just said NO to the book deal for Hannibal.

Rating:
Summary: Controversial ending makes an excellent point
Review: I liked this as well as "The Silence of the Lambs," though for different reasons. "Hannibal" is broader in its locations & has a wider range of well-developed characters, including some we've met before (it really is a good idea to read "Silence ..." first & preferably "Red Dragon" before that). "Hannibal" grows from "Silence ..." Not just a repeat of that formula, it develops characters & themes. Beyond the obvious characters, I especially liked the portrayals of Mason Verger & his sister & later Krendler. I love the ending & wish very much that it hadn't been changed for the movie. It really weakened the movie, changing the outcome (& the movies have otherwise been unusually good adaptations). What's great about the ending is that Harris makes a point we might not like at all & might not want to hear but he's brave enough to make it anyway. It's certainly thought-provoking. I believe the reason for our interest in characters such as Dr. Lecter has much to do with what they tell us about ourselves. I'll leave it at that, not to spoil the ending ... which might be annoying but certainly isn't weak. This is well worth a read, even if you've seen the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Hannibal is a thriller for the open minded
Review: I believe that most people are upset with the book, because it does not follow a classic fairytale example. This book breaks new ground and has a very interesting ending (even though it is a little too surreal.) This is the most graphic book I have ever read, and I would not recommend it to the squeamish.