Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: It'll scare your socks off!
Review: The book Hannibal by Thomas Harris is a terrifying horror story. It is about a cannibal named Dr. Hannibal Lecter who loved taste, like expensive wine, exotic foods and truffles. He was obsessed with it. Hannibal especially loved the taste of human flesh. Hannibal Lecter was from a bad background. His foster parents were also cannibals that had eaten his sister, Malcha. Seven years prior to the story, Hannibal had escaped from a mental hospital in the U.S. He moved to Italy and was discovered by an Italian police officer. Meanwhile in the U.S., the story tells of Clarice Starling, an officer who has tracked Hannibal her whole life, and as a result her career is going down the drain. In a shootout with a drug dealer, many police officers were killed and Clarice was shot. Clarice killed the drug dealer and saved a baby but was criticized because of the lost officers. The story mostly takes place in the US in 1998. When Hannibal was uncovered in Italy he was forced to kill to escape and moves to America. Clarice Starling does everything she can to find him. Similarly Mason Verger, a man who earlier had been crippled by Lecter, spent lots of money to find Hannibal Lecter and is ultimately successful. The book shows how there could be crazy people like this out there in the world and to be careful. I don't believe the author has a purpose in writing the book, but only wanted to show his feelings towards the world we live in. I would definitely recommend this book to people who like a good thrill. I think it is not good for the younger reader, but only for a more mature thrill seeker.

Rating:
Summary: A beautifully crafted portrait of madmen and women
Review: This book is unlike anything anyone could have expected, and that is a wonderful thing. Instead of getting the continuing adventures of Clarice, we get a superbly written tale that exposes the horrors and demons of every main character. Plot does take a back seat to description and metaphysic discussion, but the plot is also the jumping point for all of that, so it ends up carrying the story along. I really loved the way this book was written; I could feel the things Harris was writing about, and could imagine myself in these places. This book is not for the weak at heart, or for those who like everything tied up in a neat package at the end. But, for readers willing to view popular characters in a strange new light, and willing to take a satisfying yet strange journey through Mr. Harris' world, the rewards are great, and this will stick with you long after completion.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely ridiculous
Review: Thomas Harris' sequel to The Silence of the Lambs isn't too bad - until the end, which deserves all the negative reviews it has gotten. Surprise endings are fine, but they must be substantiated. The actions of Clarice Starling certainly are not consistent with her character as given in the previous book, which is why most found the end bewildering. For want of a shocking ending, the author completely sold a wonderful characterout....

Rating:
Summary: A Sell-Out
Review: I only call this a sell-out because Harris got $10 million for it. Even so, the writing is lazy, haphazard, choppy and uneven. We lose Clarice Starling after the prologue as the book focuses on an Italian policeman, and then we're back to Starling after about 300 pages. Very odd. The character of Mason Verger is almost comical. Talk about over-the-top. As a result, not one person in this novel rings true. Other reviewers mentioned this before: evil lesbians, crooked FBI agents, the father-figure colleague...even Hannibal himself seems neutered. Maybe it's old age. He's lost his edge. The wrongest step Harris took was trying to explain Hannibal. It's like the recent "Grinch" movie. Why bother explaining? It just distracts people. He was fine the way he was. It would have been better if it was revealed that Hannibal killed and ate his own sister. But no -- like all truly wicked criminals, he had a bad childhood. Sacrilege. "Memory palace?" Give me a break. I grant it two stars solely for what is left of the character that once was Dr. Lecter, and the memories he invokes.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but disgusting
Review: I haven't read silence of the lambs so I have no basis for comparison. I was entertained by hannibal just I would be curious about looking at a car accident to see if I see anything interesting---but then if you do see something, you wish you didn't. Harris is an incredible writer but the story goes a little overboard. Some of the killings seem like Harris tried to come up with the most disgusting concepts and place it in the story. I am not easily grossed out. I am a doctor by profession an I generally can tolerate gross things but Hannibal had some hardcore parts. Otherwise, the book is interesting. I think the movie will be good. I would not recommend this book to people who are easily grossed out though!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!! Ending weird, but Good!!
Review: When I first started reading Hannibal I read reviews and I talked to friends, all of which said that the book betrayed Clarice Starling's character. I would totally have to disagree. If you read this book carefully you can see why the ending happened the way it happened. I think that it is a rather bizarre ending, but I think that Thomas Harris was very creative with the ending and when I got to it, I wasn't as shocked or surprised as people said I'd be.

I think that Thomas Harris was very bold in writing the ending as he did. I commend him and would recommend this book to anyone who has a strong stomach (It is a bit gory).

Rating:
Summary: Not what you'd expect
Review: It's been seven years since Hannibal Lecter escaped from confinement. In that time Clarice Starling has seen her career go nowhere and now because of a drug-bust gone bad she's in danger of being booted from the FBI. That is, until, she gets a letter from Lecter and her bosses give her a reprieve to help catch the elusive mass-murderer. But reclusive millionare Mason Verger, who Lecter crippled and almost killed, is also searching for Lecter. And Mason Verger has serious plans for revenge and won't let Starling or anyone else stand in his way.

This book was not what I expected. Not to say that it's a bad book, it's not, but somehow it doesn't fit into what you'd expect a sequel to "Silence of the Lambs" to be. The writing is good, but quite different from how Mr. Harris normally writes. By that I mean it's almost Victorian. There is great detail in the descriptions which can go on for pages. He also uses the "Dear Reader" voice at times in which he, as the author, talks directly to the reader which is also very Victorian. And I must admit I was disappointed in the ending. To paraphrase Stephen King's comments on this book it's almost more of a horror novel than a thriller.

I've rated this book at four stars because the writing is very good. However, I think most people will buy this book expecting to get a "Silence of the Lambs - Part Two" and will be disappointed because it is not.

Rating:
Summary: A weak and gory novel
Review: I cannot see how anyone would read Hannibal for the plot, and it was far from engaging and suspenseful. There are certain things you expect when starting to read a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs: Lecter and Starling will meet again; Lecter will kill again; the FBI will try to find him again. So far, Harris delivers, and he does so with a text that proceeds with a fast pace. When an author is capable of doing so with language only, then he or she really is good at writing.

That is not enough, though - not for me, anyway. The plot is more important in a thriller than in other literary genres. Here I was really amazed about the drug thing going wrong at the beginning. The woman in command of the drug factory has got AIDS and so will try to get you in contact with her blood and defecates on you if you try to fight her, and she does not hesitate to use her baby, or any baby, as a shield in a shoot-out - did I get that right? I thought it unlikely, but tried to believe that such people really existed. What really brought my credulity end were Mason and Marion Verger. Mason has abused Marion sexually, the latter of which is a lesbian, and almost a cliché at that, walking around in a riding outfit when we meet her the first time, and the allusion of S/M is in the air. Another implication is that she is a lesbian because Mason has raped her. She nevertheless would like a baby and wants Mason's semen (of all people) and gets it by using a cattle prod. Can you believe that? I can't. Mason himself is beyond all description: he could easily have Lecter killed by other means than in the book - why does it have to be so elaborate? I knew that it was never going to work with those pigs from square one - but again, plot is not the main thing here.

What is left, then, when the plot is more or less predictable, and the characters are nothing but multiply abused victims looking for revenge that is even more perverted than what happened to them, and when the most authentic character is a mysogynist coward whose main hobby is mobbing and deceit, but still gets his brain eaten? Psychological depth? Yes, if disgust is so deep it reaches a psychological level. The ending is such a weak and contrived trip into different spheres beyond anyone's sane understanding that it cannot be grasped or appreciated. And what about revealing Lecter's motivation? Why oh why did Harris have to lift the last curtain? Just because the trilogy has now come to its ending?

And I just cannot see how Clarice Starling can be seen as a feminist icon. She gives in to Hannibal, and the other females are a cliché lesbian and an Italian woman who is only there so her husband, the police captain, can daydream about making love to her, as Italians are likely to do - at least in novels, and so Lecter can sniff her skin and muse about killing or not killing her playfully. This moment of the book is telling: There is so much gore and abuse in the text that Hannibal reads not so much as a novel as a menu card for Dr Lecter.

Rating:
Summary: For Fans of Suspense and Horror .....This One is a Winner
Review: Seven years after Hannibal Lecter escaped police custody in Memphis, he is living in Italy under the guise of a quiet yet elegant scholarly professor. After a drug raid gone bad, Agent Clarice Starling is suspended from the FBI, and the only one of Dr Lector's victims to survive-Mason Verger, is planning the ultimate revenge against him.

This book is written in a very creative prose, but is not for the weak hearted. The violent scenes are described in graphic detail along with various unsavory characters. Harris Thomas's pacing is excellent in that he keeps the reader guessing up until the final chapter. This novel also gives the reader more insight than before into the background of Hannibal Lector and how he came to be.

Like many of those that have reviewed this book, I was disappointed with the ending and how the author chose to treat Clarice Starling's character in the end. But for fans of the suspense and horror genre, this book is still a winner.

Rating:
Summary: Hannibal
Review: Hannibal is the sequel to the hit book The Silence of the Lambs. This long awaited book, by author Thomas Harris, brings back Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lector in another thriller. When we last left off, Lector was on the loose. Now, an ex-victim, Mason Verger, is hunting him down. This sick, twisted man seeks Clarice Starling's expertise to get his revenge against Lector. I felt that this was a well-written book, but did not live up to it's expectations. I thought that his previous books, Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs were better. A surprising ending does make things interesting, but I felt it took away from the story.