Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: Slow, meandering and self-conscious compared to last one.
Review: I just finished the book and I'll merely give my strongest impressions.

First, the ending actually saved it for me because it unleashed the same level of shock and distress that was much more common in "Silence of the Lambs." It was dark and gothic, where much of the preceding parts of the novel seemed self-indulgent and overlong. The many chapters set in Italy were pedantic and arcane to little or no purpose (certainly no dramatic purpose) and the main Italian character was both overwrought and underdeveloped.

Though it was used to better effect at the book's very end, in general I found the author's direct invitations to the reader(s) jarring and poorly integrated into the typical narrative style of the novel. This conceit was unexpected and unwelcome. "Come with me now as we explore..."

To my mind Harris simply asked weak characters -- Verger and Pazzi-- to carry too much of the book, while deflecting attention from more interesting and familiar characters.

Rating:
Summary: Did Anne Rice Write the Last 6 Chapters?
Review: As Red Dragon is one of my favorite books, I was truly looking forward to this novel. I thought it was acceptable...until the last chapters! Overblown, unbelievable, over the top...it reminds me of My Fair Lady set in hell - ridiculous! It read like bad Anne Rice! One of the things I liked about Red Dragon and Silence was the realism and the gravity with which Harris treated the subject matter. Now Lechter only eats "free range rude" people and Starling is won over with cashmere and emeralds? Ugh...

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste money or time on this book
Review: as Jed Clampet would say.. Pitty-full. Terrible compared to his prior masterworks. Inconsistancies.. Are we to believe that Lecter left a victim alive years ago.. who did not turn him in? (remember that Lecter was caught by the character in Red Dragon. But this book has a character who could have Identified him as the man who tore his face of..but did not? The Ending was so bad.. I gave the book away.

Rating:
Summary: Overly gross, implausable, very disappointing.
Review: After waiting 7 years for the sequel to Silence of the Lambs, I was very disappointed in Hannibal. This story was mostly implausible to me especially the ending. Much of the time I felt that Mr. Harris was gratuitously gross. In my opinion, this book contained none of the subtilty of the first; everything was overdone. I also felt lost in much of the references to Italian culture; one would have to be a student of the classics to comprehend many of the references.

Rating:
Summary: Harris' Fans will Love/Hate this book!
Review: With this novel Thomas Harris completes what only John LeCarre and Martin Cruz Smith had previously accomplished: a modern trilogy of novels in which the protagonists lose even as they win and fail at the moment of their greatest successes. Like LeCarre's George Smiley and Smith's Arkady Renko, Smith's Clarice Starling is a leading character whose inner flaws drive her to success, then cast her down. But unlike Smiley and Renko, who are cast down into heartbreak, HANNIBAL's Starling falls all the way to madness at the climax of this novel.

It is perhaps the clearest sign of Harris' courage as an author that some of his readers will be not just disappointed, but enraged by the end of this novel. Those who fling the book away in anger will have missed several of Harris' almost unsung virtues:

-No author now writing has Harris' gift for invoking all the reader's senses with the written word. It is perhaps ironic that he uses a madman like Hannibal Lecter to do this most effectively.

-No one else (except possibly LeCarre) can expound on subjects ranging from combat tactics to gourmet cooking to art and history without seeming to lecture or to deviate from his story.

-And no living writer can hope to equal Harris' understanding of the Appalachian mindset. His images of mountain people, from Starling's kerchief-bound hair in SILENCE to her use of a black-iron skillet as crystal ball in HANNIBAL are alone worth the price of admission.

It's been reported that both Jonathan Demme and Anthony Hopkins are refusing to participate in adapting HANNIBAL to film. In a sense, they've made the correct decision; this novel may make an awful movie. It is, however, a brilliant concluding stanza to the Hannibal Lecter trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Worst book I have ever read.
Review: This book is not merely a bad book, this book is so bad that it left me angry and wanting my money back. I could almost accept a book that had a disjointed narrative that spends too much time with weird uninteresting characters, a villain that is more disgusting than disturbing, and a silly side trip to Italy which feels like it was thrown into the book to so the author could write off a trip to Italy as a business expense. Those things I could accept. But an utterly illogical ending that betrays everything the Silence of the Lambs was about -- this I can not accept. This book is puke.

Rating:
Summary: Simply AWFUL! I'm a Harris fan, but this book is VERY BAD.
Review: If this book were sweetbreads, I would not serve it with fava beans and a nice chianti, instead, I'd serve it with malt liquor and cheeze whiz. I have read every Harris book multiple times and he is one of my favorite authors, but honest to god, this book reads like a boring travelogue for the most part, builds to a climax which never happens and instead meanders off into an utterly incomprehensible, unexplained, illogical, undeserved ending. If you must read this book, STEAL IT or go to the library. Give your money to charity or flush it down the toilet, but don't encourage this kind of self-indulgent crap. No wonder Jonathan Demme walked off of this project.

Rating:
Summary: Brutal, horrific, and unpredictable. Not a let down
Review: A lot has been posted by many disappointed readers regarding the book (mainly the ending). These people are way off the mark. This book does not play it safe. If you are a fan of this genre, you will absolutely enjoy this book. Chapter 9 of this novel has to be the most hoffifying thing I have ever read. The ending is definitely justified, giving us on of the darkest "happy" endings I think I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

Rating:
Summary: Expected more however did not impress much !
Review: As said expected more in-depth and more exciting, however it is the same thing as the past ( well what do you expect it is a sequel ) but hello ! the reader is more anxious. Till half way down the road the reader is still guessing and gives the impression as the Lecter guy never appears and just keeps on describing Clarice and her life history, and also praises Dr. Lecter as if he is Godfather or what. It is surely made good for a commercial success for the hollywood thing but as far as the book is concerned it is okay, written with the perspective of making a movie ( probably ).

Rating:
Summary: Ugh!
Review: It cannot be overstated what a disappointment this book is! Harris abandons the masterful, nigh-unbearable it-could-really-happen tension of his previous books and just goes off the cartoonish deep end here. The Italy section is very good, but the rest of the book is just preposterous and insulting.