Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: Big disappointment.
Review: I was terribly disappointed with this book. Was expecting SO much more - Silence of the Lambs was excellent! The story dragged, there was very little 'suspense'. The ending absolutely destroyed the whole 'Hannibal' reading experience. I probably will not purchase another book by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Best served with some fava beans.
Review: An excelllent book with the most in depth and accurate description of foreign surroundings that I have read in a long time.Dr Lecter has long been one of the most intriguing and menacing fictional characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading about.Much criticism has been levelled against the book and in my opinion it is totally unwarranted in that most people when reading have "The Silence of the Lambs" foremost in their minds and while there are similarities Harris in my opinion opts for a slightly different direction supplying us with two monsters who both play heavily in the occurences of the book instead of just the one.It was fascinating to see one of Lecters old victims attempt to rid the earth of the good doctor.Many have said that Lecter is humanised in this book which may,depending on your view of humanity,be true however Lecter performs acts of butchery in this book that would make you check under your bed at night regardless of how long its been since you done it last.In summary Lecter was nothing more that a spectator in the previous novels and as such little was know of his past or much else for that matter.The new book`s title says it all and thus a closer examination of Lecter was inevitable.I cannot understand how Harris can be criticised by some for his portrayal of lecter when in actual fact we learned so little about him until now.

Rating:
Summary: Great book - well worth the years I waited since Silence....
Review: I had been waiting for this book since the furor died down from Silence of The Lambs... and I was not disappointed. This novel was hard to put down, keeping me up late at night and causing me to sleep in a few days from reading so late.

I won't give away any key portions, or spoil the ending; but some other reviewers here seem to feel that the ending was awful, or that things didn't turn out to their liking. Well, my thoughts are that the ending is awesome (if this ever hits the big screen, as with many scenes in the movie, I will bet they'll Disneyize it and sanitize it for the frail public). The book drips detail, as is Harris' style, but has a dark shadow cast over it for most of the story - almost like most of the story took place at night even if it didn't. This novel is not as stuff or pretentious as a Tom Clancy novel... prepare to get your hands dirty.

Mr. Harris - you can rest now. This is the finest work of fiction I have read in the past several years. You should give workshops to many of your contemporaries and school them in the ways of the world.

Rating:
Summary: This book sucks
Review: Where "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lambs" explored the psychology of the serial killer and provided thrilling plots to boot, "Hannibal" takes a different tack. It goes for the gross-out. Calling this a disappointment is an understatement. Believability doesn't even seem to have been a consideration here, and Harris betrays (or causes outright reversals) in the nature of characters he developed solidly in earlier books. I have to wonder what Harris was doing for eleven years. It certainly can't have been working on "Hannibal."

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic work of art!
Review: Dr. Hannibal Lecter returns with a method behind his madness. In this book we find that as twisted as the good doctor may be there is always someone who can take it to another level. Harris has written a brilliant novel, which despite its gore and brutality allows you to see into the characters personalities. I tip my hat to Thomas Harris, it was worth the wait.

Rating:
Summary: Depressingly boring, gruesome without substance. DON'T BUY!
Review: This follow up is without the riveting desciption of forensic science and investigation that drive the first two books. Unlike Red Dragon and Silence, Harris includes description after description of gruesome acts without any relevant context and these scenes lack a great deal of tension. The thin psychological forays into Lecter and Starling are without significant revelations and are fairly boring. Harris has obviously been paid well for this effort, but it feels like he wasn't engaged in even a remote way for the story development.

My recomendation: Don't buy, don't read and don't bother. After spending the time reading this poorly written book, I felt like re-reading Silence of the Lambs to regain my appreciation of riveting writing.

Rating:
Summary: Stephen King was right, very good
Review: Stephen King's review was right on the money. This is a fascinating story. It is condensed to some degree, and each character seems to have only one single moment in his or her life that defines his or her personality. Taking time to develop each character more completely would have made this a 1000 page tome. As it stands, a quick read with a good story.

Rating:
Summary: A Worthy successor to "Lambs" Bedevils Expectations
Review: From the gothic police procedural of "The Silence of the Lambs," Thomas Harris progresses to a haunted epicurianism in "Hannibal." The sequel affirms the not-quite-end of the story but suggests that its dual protagonists - the supreme fiend Hannibal Lector and his hunter-protege Clarice Starling - can achieve a very certain closure. Harris blends the formulaic pleasure of his genre -- Clarice has a creepy early meeting with a uniquely asylumned Lecteresque figure, Mason Verger, much as she first met with the bad Doctor in "Lambs" -- with a heightened pulp-lit flourish that evokes Anne Rice at the peak of her vampire chronicling. Indeed, the intervening years since Harris penned "Lambs" and savored its mega-success via wealthy pursuits have deepened his alter-egoing with Lecter. Much of this book digs luxuriantly in the Italian Baedeker, referencing Florentine and Tuscan church architecture, Dante, and going to impressive extremes of oenophilism and connoisseurship in depicting Lecter's superiority in all matters of the senses. That said, one can only wonder at the plot pivots, which go awfully heavy on Verger's swinish revenge obsession. Give Harris credit for researching the feeding habits of wild boar as intensely as he does the frescoes of Florence. And an oddly tender lesbian subplot seasons the stew. At the same time, there's stock villainy in FBI deputy director Paul Krendler, who undermines Starling so viciously that his commeuppance becomes a matter of high reader anticipation (you won't be dissappointment in that Grand Guignol payoff, either). But Lecter's humanization -- via the motivating memory of a beloved sister lost in the war -- takes him down a peg in the annals of ineffable evil, even as it adds depth of character. Ultimatly,"Hannibal" seems wilfully eccentric, and veers into authorial decadence in a way that "Lambs" avoided, tightly rooted as it was in nuts-and-bolts criminology and the power of hard work and brave hearts to battle the deepest darkness. And it is hard to imagine how Hollywood will handle all this -- not that it's too shocking for film, but that Tuscan languor,swine frenzy and an Anne Ricey ending may not play too well. Still, who can denigrate Harris' erudition, the strange inevitability of his denouement, the bouquet and broadening of his reference frames, and his obsessive determination to weave the most arcane details into a tapestry that has no real equal in modern fiction?

Rating:
Summary: This is the best book I have ever read
Review: Thomas Harris spent 10 years to write this book. When you read it you can tell all ten of those years went to good use. The book went so far into detail that instead of forming a picture in your mind it created a world. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is described with such brillance and elegance than any other charachter I have read in a book. The end was the best part of all. I recommend reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Does not even come close to Silence of The Lambs!!
Review: I found this book entertaining but a little hokey. Come on "killer pigs". Lets just say I was more than a little dissapointed by the ending of the book. What happened to our heroine? Silence of the Lambs was edge of your seat reading,this book just could not seem to pick up the same momentum.