Rating: 
Summary: Hannibal grabs you, holds you and bites you at the end!
Review: It has been years since a book has really surprised me with its end. I absolutly loved it and reccommend it to Harris and King fans alike. Hannibal is seductive and you hate yourself for loving him in his absolute evil! The one thing I can't see is Jodie Foster doing what Starling does in this excellent book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Major Disappointment
Review: In "Silence of the Lambs," Thomas Harris has Dr. Hannibal Lecter tell Clarice, "The world is a more interesting place with you in it."Mr. Harris would do well to heed his character's advice. In "Hannibal," he removes Clarice from his fictional world in the worst way imaginable - not by allowing her a hero's death, but rather by subverting her until she becomes as depraved as her nemesis. Mr. Harris's world is filled with monsters. That is to be expected by anyone who has read his previous novels or seen the movies that were made from them. But in "Hannibal," unlike the other two novels, there is no heroism, no integrity, no justice. There is simply evil - everywhere, in everyone. And that, more than any monsters Mr. Harris can dream up, makes "Hannibal" a dull and disappointing read.
Rating: 
Summary: A lurid and brilliant ending.
Review: Don't you see? Thomas Harris is talking to you throughout the novel. He wants the ending to be controversial, unsettling and unsatisfactory. History plays tricks. How many of you thought that Lecter's escape at the end of Silence was a little too pat? And the "having an old friend over for dinner" line a little too perfect? He compensates. This book is none of those things. Confusing, sordid, perverse, challenging, pulpish, alienating, wacked-out Grand Guignol.
Rating:
Summary: Major disappointment
Review: I can't believe Harris kept his public waiting eleven years for *this*. The plot was inane, and instead of being gripping I found myself plodding through major portions of it. Lecter and Clarice were caricatures of their fascinating old selves. I'm really sorry I paid for this book and would urge anyone thinking about buying it not to -- if you feel compelled to read it, borrow it from your local library. (I'm sure they'll have *lots* of donated copies!)
Rating:
Summary: A great book with an mind boggoling ending
Review: For those of you who liked the other Hannibal books,you will greatfully enjoy this book. It does happen to appeal to the people who wanted to know more about Lecter. For those who feel Lecter should be left as almost a God like figure might be disappointed with this book. I feel that many people don't enjoy this book because of the truths told about Dr. Lecter because they would rather have him be an unexplainable person. The book was very good and I was always reading more and more because like the other Lecter books once you get started you get wrapped in the great web spun by Harris. All in all I recommend this book to every reader and even if you don't feel you will enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: No Silence
Review: Unlike its predecessor, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal is a horror story straight through. Its intention appears to make the reader recoil in dread rather than to follow the psychological spins and games of Lecter. None of the major characters in the book appear to have a reasonable motivation for their perversities -- rather they seem to be perverse for the sake of perversity and are therefore mostly contemptible. The antihero Lecter also appears to have lost the gamemaster-like quality in Silence, transforming into some Phantomesque alien being capable of superhuman feats without qualification. Some of the descriptions of his actions bear notice, since they are given a precision and refinement simply through the execution of language; however, this in itself is not sufficient to solidify Hannibal. Neither are the lame attempts to create a psychological background from which a monster like Lecter could spring. Simply too much to be believed -- better off left to the imagination...
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, crummy ending
Review: I loved the language used by Harris, which is rich and graphic. The story, as expected, is quite disturbing, and I expressed my horror out loud several times. I wonder how Harris thinks of such evils. I particularly loved the character of Mason Verger, he is even more evil than Lechter, if that's possible. He will make a great movie character. The ending left me disappointed, however. Harris spends most of three novels establishing Lechter's personality and his MO. The air of mystery surrounding him makes him all the more fascinating. The ending of this book is a complete 180 degree turn, and sort of ruins the image for me. It left me confused and cynical. But most of the book was terrific. Prepare to be totally grossed out!
Rating:
Summary: So-So, not as edge-of-your-seat as "Silence of the Lambs"
Review: I finished this book last night, after savoring it over the last week. Unfortunately, it was somewhat predictable and seemed more a vehicle for the gore Lector intimated in Silence. It does give a little of his history to explain his cannibalism but...it's not a satisfying explanation. The end left me disappointed and dismayed. I will say this though, Hannibal is truly "Il Mostro!" I'm glad I read it but wish I had borrowed it from the library rather than having bought it. That's what I would advise other readers to do - if you really like it after reading it, then buy it to keep, but borrow it first.
Rating:
Summary: Psychological horror at its best!
Review: This book is very good. It is a treat for those of you who think with their frontal lobes, not their hindbrain. So, if you were expecting splattergore and shock value you might have been disappointed. However, if you were after something that would show you the true alien nature of Dr. Lecter's thought processes then this is the book for you. The memory palace is a nice touch and Dr. Lecter's raison d'etre helps to flesh out his psychosis whilst still retaining the sense of his alien mindset. The stunning conclusion is even more horrific than Pazzi's demise, or the face slicing scene, for example, in that it shows how easy it is for the beast inside us to come to the fore in our conscious minds with a little ... persuasion. Yes even you could be a psychopath! Now that really makes me shiver! The book follows on well from the first two and retains the aura of mystery and otherworldliness that Harris can evoke so well. However, this time this aura spreads to his other characters. A fitting end to the trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: Too many vampires
Review: Thomas Harris seems to have been reading Anne Rice. Hannibal Lecter has been transformed into Armand, with his small size, small, even teeth, enormous strength, air of attentive stillness and unnaturally acute senses. Even his age. He acts like--and seems to be depicted as--a young man, but he was born in 1938 and this makes him just a little long in the tooth for this sort of stuff. Harris confirms this impression when he states that cannibals are nomadic but vampires are territorial. Hannibal Lecter is territorial. The book, therefore, is in part a fantasy, and presumably this was the author's intent. While entertaining, it doesn't really work. In a fantasy, magic prevails and anything can happen. Most of the other reviewers do not like the ending. I share their opinion. Clarice is (magically) mesmerized by the vampire and comes to share his world. I don't buy it. In addition, the FBI segments are ridiculous. It has become a convention that government bureaucracies are inherently stupid but these people are too stupid for belief. Everybody who is pure in soul (and some who aren't) knows that Paul Krendler is vicious, venal and stupid. It seems more than unlikely that he would have risen as high as he has in any organization resembling a meritocracy. In addition, the way that the organization was willing to throw Starling to the dogs, for reasons that make little sense, was a convenient plot device but a total cop-out. That being said, it's still one of the more entertaining books that I've recently read. Too bad it wasn't better.
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