Rating: 
Summary: Excuse me?
Review: Did Harris show the last 20 pages of this thing to anyone before he shipped it off to the printer? Anyone with half a brain (no spoilers, please) would have told him to trash the O Henry ending. After trying to legitimize a fairly decent horror story with page after page of psychobabble, Harris has Starling do what she is psychologically incapable of. It would have made more sense had she suddenly turned into an overweight Polynesian man. Perhaps that will be the plot of the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Harris' Hannibal the Main Course of his 3 Dr. Lecter Dishes
Review: Thomas Harris' Hannibal is simply his finest novel. The 11 years spent in dire anticipation for this novel was well worth the wait. In Hannibal, Harris offers us clues as to what drives the "monster" Hannibal Lecter and to his utter fascination and compassion for Clarice Starling but without losing the mystique, the class and brutality that defines Hannibal Lecter. The book is a fast read, a lot like a screenplay but it has exquisite literary taste, well maybe for the Marquis de Sade :). Seriously though, the book is filled with classic Harris suspense and stark realism. He even offers us delicious (no pun intended) examples of Lecter's taste. The one thing I also really enjoyed about the book is a part where Lecter is in a certain part of the world in hiding but becomes a curator of a museum. The rich cultural history that Harris describes is truly mouth watering. I have heard this mentioned as a sadistic take on Beauty and the Beast and I agree in many ways but to just reduce Hannibal to that cliche is a travesty. Hannibal stands alone and I agree with Stephen King who coined this not a sequel. Hannibal is different of the three books about Lecter. Harris even introduces us to another character, who in many ways is far more scarier than Lecter and at times I found myself in the grip of a moralistic Cartesian Dualism. To Root or Not to Root for Hannibal Lecter. However, I would caution those readers who are faint of heart and weak of stomach that Hannibal might not be the book for you, but to wait for the unfortunate watered down Hollywood version. (I say that in hopes that if Jonathan Demme does direct this to please remain faithful as you did with Lambs). Harris does leave the door slightly ajar for a sequel and one more dose of Lecter would be a just dessert. The ending threw me for a loop and was totally unexpected, which is such a relief in this homogenized, formulaic and utterly predictable entertainment world. To conclude, Hannibal is a great novel and deserves the accolades it is sure to receive. Well done Mr. Harris.
Rating:
Summary: Good story ruined by poor ending
Review: Not even close to the high standard set in "Silence of the Lambs" or "Red Dragon". The ending is so ridiculously unbelievable that it wrecks what is otherwise a good read. I expected a lot more from Thomas Harris.Very disappointing book.
Rating:
Summary: Very quick read, keeps the reader wanting to continue.
Review: Just finished the book and wished I had obtained it while on vacation so I wouldn't have had to put it down so often. This book is well written and moves quickly. No problem with dull or slow places that I noticed. Dr. Lecter is his usual gruesome self and has an equally gruesome enemy. The only thing that I can say that I didn't like was the ending. But that was personal preference in how I was hoping that it would end.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing Development of SOTL Characters
Review: I admit that I sat glued reading Hannibal hoping that Harris's treatment of the characters would revert back to what they were in SOTL. Sadly Harris failed in Hannibal what he accomplished in Red Dragon & SOTL. The 3diminsional characters fleshed out in SOTL become 2 diminsional in Hannibal. Both Hannibal and Clarice deserved better character development that they got here. The "humanizing" of Hannibal and the "dehumanizing" of Starling was incredibly disappointing. The Starling character deserved so much better than what was afforded her, especially at the end. Granted a further sequel is now possible...but I have to admit...I certainly won't look forward to it as much as I looked forward to this sequel. What a pity!
Rating:
Summary: A doorway onto human evil
Review: "No one can run, no one can hide; / Isn't that Lecter there beside you?" (To paraphrase Stephen Sondheim from his work about the man-eating Sweeney Todd.) Oh, how wonderful! There seems to be no middle ground on "Hannibal" -- one either loves him or hates him. Or, rather, loves or hates the book; though I certainly wouldn't mind an evening of dinner and conversation with the erudite Dr. Lecter provided someone ELSE was cooking, and that I had a couple of bodyguards along...just in case...though even that might not be enough, given Dr. Lecter's seemingly endless resources of deadly talent. What Thomas Harris has most certainly not given us is the ordinary, run-of-the-mill horror story, one in which the good guys and bad guys are easily spotted and cheered for. Mr. Harris has reached out and seized us by the jugular (or the sweetbreads, if you prefer). His is a world where good and evil have lost their mythological meanings and often the choices left are only the ones to be made from the lesser of the evils presented to us daily. In other words, his world is the real world in all its Grand Guignol excess. One no longer wonders if Mr. Harris has gone over the deep end when one sees newspaper accounts of parents horribly abusing their children; and one sees actual Grand Guignol when such incidents prompt less public outcry than the abuse of a small dog, something that occurred not long ago in my locale. If on tries to escape from the horrors of the real world in this work of fiction, one instead finds them put under a magnifying glass and brought closer than is comfortable. Perhaps Dr. Lecter is an anomaly, but in many ways Mason Verger is not, a prospect that can only terrify when we realize it. Evil is not often black and white; it is much more likely to be slippery and ambiguous. What I think has disturbed so many of the readers of "Hannibal" is perhaps the most horrifying idea of all -- we have met Dr. Lecter, and he is us. Though I am presently checking the top of my head once an hour to make sure it's still attached...
Rating:
Summary: Don't finish this book
Review: My advice to anyone reading this book is to stop on page 463 and make up your own ending. It could not possibly be worse than the crappy one in the book. The rest of the book was ok, but I grew a little tired of Harris constantly using confusing metaphors over and over. Words that you have never seen together before, but he puts them together 30 times in 100 pages. Because they sound so "off" you notice when he keeps repeating them. Buy a thesaurus for crying out loud!
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: Red Dragon- excellent, SOTL - brilliant, Hannibal - waste of paper What a disappointment. The psychological picture of Lector built up in the previous books has been ruined by this sequel. If I didn't know better I'd say it was written by someone else. It started promisingly but just deteriorated into an extremely unlikely, dissatisfying conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what you expect but should it be?
Review: I'm surprised by most of the reviews. If Harris wrote books that were what everyone expected, why would we bother? I enjoyed finding out why Hannibal is the way he is, since you sort of like him it's nice to know he did have motivation. I admit the ending was a big surprise, but isn't that what we like in a good book? I can't see it being a movie and I don't know if there will be anohter Hannibal book but I did really enjoy this one and I did have to reread the ending. I loved the detail and historical allusions. If you want a straight pulp shocker read someone else. This was evidently the book he wanted to write, Hollywood or no and I did really enjoy reading it even if it was not at all what I expected and maybe because of that.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a slap in the face to the reader.
Review: Unlike the previous books in the series, Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, this story and characters are hateful. Mr. Harris spends more time on sadistic themes than in crafting a good story. Yes,it is well researched in terms of detail in the Arts, History, Architecture, etc., but an encyclopedia would have been a better read. Mr. Harris seems to reveal his feelings about his readers in his description of the crowds attending the Atrocious Torture Instuments exhibit: "But the essence of the worst, the true asafoetida of the human spirit, is not found in the Iron Maiden or the whetted edge; Elemental Ugliness is found in the faces of the crowd." Does Mr. Harris despise the reader for his/her facination with his horror story? It would seem so as he attempts to "slap the clammy flab of our submissive consciousness hard enough to get our attention" by weaving a story that is rank with sadism and devoid of any redeeming goodness. Previously admirable characters such as Crawford and Mapp shrivel and disappear, seeming to have given up the good fight. Anyone can put together a horror story. Not many can put together a horror story that gives us heros. Not only are there no heros, the ending destroys the one light in this sickening morass, Starling. The ending is cheap and unbelievable.
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