Rating: 
Summary: Where's Miggs when you need him?
Review: Run, Jodie!!! Run, Sir Anthony!!! Nay, let not the casting director of "Hannibal" capture you!!!How sad. I loved Red Dragon. I loved Silence of the Lambs. Both were tight, suspenseful, chilling, thrill rides into the world of sociopathic serial killers. Both were difficult to put down, once I started to read. Both had me starting at sounds in the night. Both had me looking over my shoulder, making sure no monsters were sneaking up on me. Hannibal, on the other hand, had me looking at my watch to see if maybe something more interesting was happening somewhere. Anywhere! Mason Verger is a caricature of evil. Hannibal himself suddenly becomes the cannibal with a heart. Well, maybe not. Well, maybe he is. Well, maybe.... Who knows? Who cares? And Clarice -- why, she's just a woman, after all, to be molded by her man into something better. Or is it worse? Or is it just silly? I know why I pre-ordered this book; what I don't know is why I finished it....
Rating: 
Summary: A little light cannibal fare
Review: First off: I think Harris should be commended for taking such a chance with these characters. They are HIS, after all, not yours, and I see this in every form of entertainment: when a creator turns his/her work in a new and different direction, you end up with wildly divergent fan reaction...as witness the other 400-odd reviews printed here. As for my own opinion of the story, I felt it was flimsier than Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. Those books appealed to me more--they were deeper, somehow, psychologically. You really wondered what the hell Graham had gone through to catch Lecter--what it meant to have Lecter in your mind. In Hannibal, it seemed, that everything was spelled out. Maybe I missed something, but I don't think so. That, and the fact that so many passages in this book read more like script treatments or movie scenes, made me feel that this book serves more as a sequel to the movie than the previous novels. Thanks for listening. KK
Rating: 
Summary: For fun: Read this book ALONE at NIGHT!!
Review: A worthy successor to Silence of the Lambs! WARNING: If you don't find Dr. Lecter sympathetic, you probably won't enjoy this book. I loved it! It wasn't quite as gruesome as everyone made it out to be. The ending was really the only way it COULD have ended. I was hoping for it halfway through the book. The changing POV worked really well. Especially when a narrator lets us watch Dr. Lecter,unbeknownst to him, in his most private of moments. The only negative thing I could say is that there wasn't enough of Clarice's point of view after the first few chapters. Thomas Harris has outdone himself!!
Rating: 
Summary: A "bloody" good love story...
Review: Silence of the Lambs was really a love story amid all the gore, and Thomas Harris explores these two "star crossed lovers" in the middle of revenge and trechery. This is not the formulaic sequel that most readers are looking for, or will expect. So, be prepared for some unexpected twists. Even without the familiar mystery of Hannible Lecter, it is a satifiying tale. Right up to the ending that begs for about 250 more pages. I hope Hollywood has the guts to make the movie that is written down here. I found myself compelled to Hannible Lecter in the previous books. No matter what you hear in the papers don't miss this one. Dana McDonald
Rating:
Summary: An incredibly fast read. I "devoured" it in one night.
Review: I had to get up and check the locks on the door atleast 10 times before I could make myself believe I didn't actually hear the clink of a wine glass against another glass and the smacking of lips after just a taste of the main "entree".
Rating:
Summary: No room for dessert: Hannibal is one filling dish.
Review: Aberrant sexuality, torture, mutilation, cannibalism, revenge, emotional trauma... 'Hannibal' serves them all wrapped up in a nice, tidy package of beautiful writing and poetic justice. Clarice Starling is still the brilliant young agent we met long ago. Her ambitions and desires - yes, desires - take the corner on rails when a certain fugitive psychiatrist falls back into her life. When one of her own serves her up like lamb chops to appease the appetites of a hungry media and feed his own ravenous vendetta, the most startling sympathy comes from the transplanted Lecter, now a world away pursuing his scholarly interests and reaffirming that there's really nothing quite like a good truffle. Though Lecter is chilling, the other creatures inhabiting his world make him look like a Romper Room matron. Rich with eels, strangely graceful but carnivorous swine, child molesters, lesbian weightlifters with a need for seed, cops on the take, crooked government agents, porno movie directors, and the Pigmaster, "Hannibal" will make you wonder, "Really...just who IS the villain here?" Don't let the negative reviews fool you, but DO NOT open this book expecting to find a repeat of "Silence of the Lambs" or you will be sorely disappointed. Give "Hannibal" a chance; this book is a piece of art in its own right and deserves an unadulterated view. And who knows? You just might get the urge to stand up and cheer for him - or is it 'them'? - at the end.
Rating:
Summary: cheap sadistic thrills
Review: Here's a quote from the book (p. 127) that says it all: "Now that ceaseless exposure has calloused us to the lewd and the vulgar, it is instructive to see what still seems wicked to us. What still slabs the clammy flab of our submissive consciousness hard enough to get our attention."
Rating:
Summary: One-star reviewers should re-read it
Review: First off, I'll admit this book has some over-the-top elements which will make it hard to film without being "campy" - although Jame Gumb in the "Silence" movie was no less so. I found myself gasping/laughing out loud (in disbelief) at some of the more horrific moments. Like many readers I was a little baffled at first by "Hannibal," and a little stumped/miffed by the ending (re: Clarice's motivations). I read the book in one day's sitting, and when I finally finished I was very disturbed. After dwelling on it for a few days, I re-read the book to see if I had missed something. And I had. "Hannibal" is much more tightly plotted than it initally seems, and there are plenty of clues pointing towards the ending. Not the least of which is the Dr. Doemling character's "explanation" of Lecter. On first read it seems like a joke, but turns out to be exactly what Lecter is up to. And Lecter's childhood reminiscences are not at all meant to explain why he is a murderer, just why he "relates" to Clarice the way he finally does. I am trying not to give away the ending which has polarized everyone, suffice to say the author Thomas Harris has intentionally slapped the faces of everyone (particularly film fans) who have turned his killers (mainly Lecter) into pop culture jokes. Lecter may seem like the hero throughout this book, but Harris pulls the rug out on us with the last chapters and makes him more Evil than we thought we knew (not just a Killer, but a Corrupter of Innocence). Most of Lecter's victims have always seemed unsympathetic ("free-range rude"), but what he does at the end is unforgivable, and that's what many readers can't stand: their cute and cuddly Lecter is NOT the good guy. It's a HORROR novel.
Rating:
Summary: A severe disappointment
Review: Harris developed a complex and psychologically powerful dynamic in the previous two novels. HANNIBAL not only fails to deliver on that promise, but proves to be a crude and distasteful parody of the serial killer genre itself. The book isn't even worth reading for curiosity's sake. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Who's the psycho, Lecter or Harris? ;)
Review: It takes a particularly twisted mind to think up the kind of deeds that abound in Hannibal. But aside from Thomas Harris' own dark mind palace, what meat is inside this tasty little thriller? The eating of human organs is much more predominant here than in either of Lecter's other appearances. The story is certainly more icky, but icky in the most bizarre ways. To be honest, I consider Silence Of The Lambs to be the better book. I think the main power of it was the "close distance" between Lecter and Starling, something along the lines of the relationship between Mulder and Scully, or Pinky and the Brain ;) But that disappears in Hannibal and although it's replaced by a similarly startling scenario I have had SOTL in my head for the last 4 years or so and change doesn't come easy to me. The continuous references to SOTL in this book stand out and kinda got on my nerves after a while, they seemed to me like gratuitous plugs for Harris' earlier book. On the other hand, I guess the two books are very much tied together. I find it quite strange that Lecter's personal obsession wasn't mentioned in earlier books. I realised it was probably invented only for this book, but IIRC (and I probably don't) Mason already knew the details of Lecter's youth. Why didn't he do something with that knowledge long ago? Oh well, he's completely loony too, I guess. :) Definitely the most commentable part of this book is the ending. I think Harris must have been on something when he wrote it. But, now I think about it, his dazed and confusing style was perfectly suitable for the events and the situation... I won't give anything away (you've probably heard the rumours anyway) but Clarice takes a very bizarre path... If SOTL was a favourite book of yours, Hannibal might taint the memory of it a little. But if you liked SOTL that much, I guess you won't be able to stop yourself reading this one. If you haven't read either of them, start with Red Dragon and read them in order. :)
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