Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Okay, I'm not going to give an intelligent analysis of Hannibal. Instead, I will just say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is engrossing! The characters are realistic and Hannibal himself is depicted as human (very different than some stories, where the character is made into a demi-god). And for those who hate predictable books, this book is for you....I would've never guessed the ending!

Rating:
Summary: LECTER IS A PHONY!
Review: What happened to Dr. Hannibal Lecter in this 7 years, better yet, what happened to Thomas Harris in this 10 years. I was expecting a great plot, with at least a few turning points, so I kept reading, never happened. Dont expect a great ending, better said, dont expect an ending. This book is not a thriller, and the suspense is DULL. Like many other people, I WASTED my time on this book.

Rating:
Summary: It Has Some Good Points
Review: If you can accept that Hannibal is different from Harris' previous works, you might enjoy yourself. The style: yes, it's disorienting, but I thought Harris was trying to make the reader experience events in a cold-blooded, de-personalized way. Like our main man. The ending certainly induced a dream-like state in me, and Harris laid a lot of careful groundwork for it. The book is a fantasy. Characters are contrived to behave in certain ways. Seems that most people object to the fact that human nature is not presented in a truthful manner. The book doesn't ring true. I agree with them. Still, if you can enjoy it, Harris does a remarkable job inventing experience and motivations that lead to the inevitable horror show.

I wouldn't say the book had an ending. Though there is no resolution, the conclusion is not illogical if you've already bought Lecter's unlimited capacity for manipulation and brain- washing. After all, he has made people commit suicide just by talking to them. Without drugs.

You may find, as I did, that this book offers a lot of entertainment, horror of the most stylish and stylized kind and delicious surprises. It is wrong to say the book is poorly written, meant only to exploit the popularity of Lambs, or is an indifferent effort. It is crafted with dedication and skill. I just don't think it was well-conceived or ultimately satisfying. Whether he will or not, Harris has a lot more to say about the characters. This book is an introduction for the next story. Can't wait to see what Hopkins does in the Hannibal movie. Jodi could have brought a lot to this film. Too bad.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing !
Review: Well, I kept on reading, trying to convince myself that things will get better. I can't deny that parts of it were nice and thrilling but every thrilling scene in the book was cut short very quickly making me stop and think about what really went on. I was expecting the book to take me on vivid dream and help me construct more detailed scenes in my imagination when it came to the thrilling parts, but it only did so in uninteresting parts explaining things in staggering details that are truly unimportant and uninteresting to the kind of reader who would read such book! Who cares about the rooms in Lectare's mind or whatever that was!!

The ending is a great disappointment. When I finished the book I really got confused about what he meant, accusing myself of not understanding the ending, but when I read the reviews here I discovered that I didn't miss anything! Bottom line is, I'm really disappointed. Every good novel has a rewarding conclusion that emits a joyful sensation into the reader's mind. I was expecting so with this one, but got REALLY DISAPPOINTED!

If you want to read something nice, don't waste your time with this one.

Rating:
Summary: An insult to the reader
Review: I have read all three of Harri's previous books and enjoyed them all. They have good, believable plots with tight character portrayal and are genuinley frightening. Good stuff. Then along came this book Hannibal. What a pathetic waste of time. I got my paperback copy free and even then I feel ripped off. I won't bore you with a plot summary because this book doesn't deserve it. Reading it,I had a gradually increasing suspicion that the author had lost the plot and the final 60 pages or so where the author goes into fantasy land confirmed it. Why Harris has written such a poor novel I will never know. The problems are numerous. They start with poor character portrayal. We never get a clear picture of Clarice Starling (and it gets totally fuzzy at the end). Hannibal becomes a sort of gourmet fairy godfather. Krendler is a cardboard cut out. And so on. It gets worse. Add to that a rather weak plot. Pad it out with long pretentious descriptions of Italian scenery and lots of vague airy fairy analyses of mental processes. Add in some unbelievable plot developments and a totally laughable ending and you've got one major disappointment on your hands. Presumably Harris was trying to impress us all with his "literary style". If so, he failed dismally. Even the explicit gory scenes fail to thrill simply because they are so unreal and so obviously contrived. I would give this pathetic book a single star for keeping me reading to the end. I shouldn't have bothered. How did Stephen King et al give this piece of rubbish such high reviews? Can you ever take a reviewer like King seriously again. My advice is give this loser a miss.

Rating:
Summary: The cover is nice. Does that count for anything?
Review: I came upon the impression that Thomas Harris writes for two crowds: the pop book audience and the artistic literature lovers. Warning: this review contains some SPOILERS, because I am refuting certain things thrown by other reviewers at the book.

1. The first reader - the new book Clearly it is an interesting read. Gothic and gory, this book is certainly a child of the genre of shock horror that I do happen to enjoy once in a while. A reccommended read, but don't look at it for a five star treat. If you need one, go read "Silence".

2. The sequel

I did not expect it to hold as much strength as "Silence of The Lambs", and I don't want it to be SotL 2. Truly, SotL is a masterpiece in its own way, capable of dishing out excellent character chemistry, pop book entertainment, and intensive artistic imagery. Masterpieces don't come all the time. I did, however, expect something a little better than this, after eleven years of wait.

It seems that it is not enough for Harris to remove the style from the predecessors, but also every other hinge with it - except perhaps a little symbolism. I don't mind making it more surreal and symbolic, but the result: the plot is laughable!

On the other hand, Lecter does shine, but not in the form of plain storytelling, but through artistic imagery. We still do not answer the question: What is Hannibal Lecter? Is he a Devil, an angel, a lover or a manipulator?

We have a laughable villian. I don't care if people say that Mason Verger was supposed to be a really really evil villian. The style of creating him does not scare me, as say,.....Voldemort from the Harry Potter books. He is laughable to the point of stupidity. He sounds like Darth Vader with all worthty characterisation thrown away. All other characters - Krendler, Pazzi, even Margot - are trashy. Only Barney shows any good development.

Many will be shocked at the twist, with Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter ending up as hot and passionate lovers (told you thee'd be spoilers). I am among those who are not surprised. I was dissapointed with the events that led to it. The last 100 pages, I agree with a reviewer, are among the best pages I've ever read. And yes, I am among those who like, even admire, Starling for her guts. I believe that to make her a noteworthy female character, you have to show her when she's in utter degradation as well, so degraded that she'd share a cannibal meal with Lecter.

And yes, I believe she was conscious, at least conscious enough to know what she was doing (some of the things she did surprised Lecter, which shows she is not completely under control), even if she was moving about stoned.

But the sudden switch of Starling is horribly shaky - and that's the worst part. Readers should see her process of degradation from cool, smart, no-nonsense into a broken woman, aimless, victimized against her abilities to resist by beaurocrats, then finally what led to her decision to succumb in a sexual relationship with Lecter against all the ethics that she was brought up in. This should have been the main focus of "Hannibal" - the twisted and weird relationship of Clarice and Hannibal, sexual in its intensity yet more complex than that, involving body, mind and soul: a quid pro quo of sorts, a battle and understanding of one whole against another, and at least in this book, how Lecter consumes Starling's faith and goodness.

However, we get treated instead to a gore fest of how Mason Verger bred his pigs. BLarh.

3. The artistic view: My dissapointment in this book as a thriller and overall story led me to find some solace in searching for artistic value. My conclusions: the whole bit about Florence are not mere show-offs by Harris. They carry a strong symbolism, particularly the ones about Dante's Inferno. Certain symbolism, like that of the moth and the crow, are carried in from SotL. The book cover itself is a symbol. I do not wish to elaborate on what I see in them, because that would be too long.

I must say this though: the sexual relationship of Hannibal and Clarice is not a shock nor disrespecting them. If you think so - reread the book and study it carefully. Imho, my conclusions is that Starling and Lecter are merely in a sleeping stage, a dreamworld of sorts, Lecter playing with her happily as he would play with a cub. They are in a dreamworld bliss - amoral and horrifying yet beautifully romantic as well.

When Starling awakens from this stage...well, we can only guess what happens. I hope Harris makes another book, I want to see who kills who first - Starling turning into a monstrosity that will kill Lecter, or if according to Doemling's theory, Lecter kill Starling.

So I say this as bottomline: it's a pretty good artistic work. But high symbolism and artistry doesn't justify a poorly written story with bad focus. It's no masterpiece, but it's better in artistic value than some stuff out there.

Rating:
Summary: Bad on many levels
Review: Nearly everyone has expressed how dissapointed they were in this effort by Thomas Harris, and I would be merely echoing their sentiments if I were to talk about feelings of betrayal and unforgivable (and inexplicable) changes in characters. I think there is a group consensus about the way Mr. Harris chose to close this novel. It seems lazy...

Which brings me to what I am really upset about. Though there is exquisite detail about Florence, animal husbandry, art and many other varied topics, and the pace is fairly quick, and the action exciting - his style of writing leaves a lot to be desired. It is a serious departure from "Silence of the Lambs". What concerns me most is his bizarre shifts in point of view. In one instant, he writes as an omniscient narrator. In the next instant, Harris writes "We see..." as if the reader has entered the novel as a character. This is very distracting. Especially since this happens sporadically, and for no reason. It reads, in these sections (most deal with Lecter), like a screenplay - as if he were leaving a lot of the details up to a director. I can't help but think that this is no accident.

"Hannibal" reads like a first draft. Where was the editor? Was this a lazy effort, written only to rake in the dollars from selling the rights for a screen adaptation? Perhaps Ridley Scott will do a better job than Harris himself. This may be the one case where they change the ending of the book for the movie (which I have heard *is* the case) and the movie benefits from it.

One can only hope, for Sir Anthony's sake. Jodie was smart to stay away. Kudos to her for having taste.

Rating:
Summary: 'Eh
Review: i was in england on an educational tour when i bought this. it was worth buying it because it gave me something to do on the 15 hour flight home. the book itself is alright. the details are nice, but i agree aren't totally necessary. the ending was terrible and made no sense. i commend Jodie Foster on not taking this role, because the movie is going to be terrible, and the ending reeeeeeeally irritated me. even thought the ending is no good, the rest of the book makes it worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but ultimately disappointing...
Review: Three quarters of the book was enjoyable. The interactions among the cast of characters and their single minded pursuit of Hannibal were quite fascinating and believeable. The most disappointing aspect of this book was the unbelievable and extremely disturbing resolution to the story. Surprise endings can be good, but they need to fit the picture drawn within the book. This ultimately missed the mark and jumped to an ending that just didn't seem possible based on what we knew of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Special about this book
Review: This was my first, and last, Hannibal Lecter book. I heard great reviews about the other two books, Silence of the Lambs, and Red Dragon, so I decided to give this book a try. I found nothing special about this book. The only interesting part of this book is learning about the character Dr. Lecter, and his unique ways. Besides that, everything else is average. There are many parts of the book that I mis-understood and found highly dubious, such as the ending. Thomas Harris should've explained and clarified Clarice Starling's actions, but instead he expects the reader to assume the reasons for the events happening.

This book is also dull and tiresome the first 250 pages. It's not as thrilling and page-turning as the critics say. Many of the characters are irrelevant to the main plot, and are only there to build up tension towards the ending (Krendler, Barney, Pazzi). I also found parts of the book predictable, even though the ending was ambiguous.

A reader that has read the two previous books, Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, may enjoy this book more than I did. But if you haven't read either of those books, I don't recommend reading this one either.