Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: Hannibal the Loveable?
Review: I thought this book was rather good. I did learn much about Florence, Italy and many other things. This book produced a person who was more evil than Dr. Lecter. This book makes you cheer for Hannibal and hope he gets out of certain situations. Now, about the ending. The last few chapters had me thinking about love in the air and I guess I was right. I do recommend this book to anyone who loves a good old maniac who is smarter than the world around him.

Rating:
Summary: What a Disappointment!
Review: I have been eagerly awaiting the 'Hannibal' book and boy, was I disappointed! It is not the face paced novel like, 'Red Dragon' and 'Silence of the Lambs'. Instead, Mr Harris gives us a lesson in Italian history and describes with great detail the places that Hannibal has visited. Clarice Starling also is in this novel, having fallen on hard times, her rising star, now fallen. Suspended from the FBI, she is not the first on the scene when we find out who Lecter's identity is. Also, the main villian of this novel is not Lecter, but Mason Verger, a man who is permanently disfigured by Lecter. He now swears revenge on Hannibal, and means to take it by training pigs to eat him from the feet up. The ending of the book is the most unbelievable with Clarice and Hannibal teaming up. I was truly disappointed by the ending. Don't waste your time, re-read 'Lambs' or 'Red Dragon'

Thanks for reading!

**Pandora

Rating:
Summary: Completely unpredictable...
Review: After reading the reviews from the Amazon fans, it seems clear that this book is not unanimous in the way it's rated. But, it certainly draws either extremely positive or extremely negative vibes, whatever way you look at it. I found the book incredibly entertaining, rivetting and difficult to close. Some readers may not have liked this follow up because of the switch in angles Thomas Harris takes...Hannibal and Clarice Starling are no longer the characters we once knew. They've evolved, changed, muted into new personas...after all, if the reader expected to see exactly the same story as Silence of the Lambs, would he want to go out and spend the money on reading something he's already seen before? Thomas Harris has understood the need to develop these cult characters. We take a ride into Hannibal's fantasties, the more positive aspects of his personality, and believe it or not, we feel a little closer to the psychopath once the book has drawn to an end! Clarice is no longer the hero of the story; she's almost relinquished to the supporting role of the book. She spends most of her time soul searching, and ends up finding her way with her enemy, Dr Lecter. Of all of the endings I could expect or dream up, the one Harris concludes on, literally blew my mind away. This is the most unexpected turn of the story anyone could possibly imagine! I don't know whether the movie will manage to recreate so dramatically the colorful scenarios, the intricate web of stories Harris writes in this book, but all movie goers need to read this book first before watching it on the big screen...

Rating:
Summary: *Hannibal* fails everywhere *Lambs* succeeded.
Review: Although *Hannibal* is billed as the third part of a trilogy, the care with which Harris crafted *The Silence of the Lambs* is markedly absent from this book. This story is unmotivated and uninspiring - lacking both the edge and insight of the far superior *Lambs*.

PLOT: The entire sequence in Italy says nothing - or at least nothing that couldn't have been said in some more meaningful way - and the rest of the story is neither new, nor engaging. Perhaps that's the reason Harris seems to spend far more time on graphic violence and sexual scenarios whose presence add nothing other than profanity-laden gore to this book.

THEME: Since Harris uses *Hannibal* to consistently dismantle every moral and social victory won in *Lambs* I can only surmise that the theme ultimately boils down to a made-to-order cliché like: "Eat your co-workers, drink expensive wine and be merry abroad for tomorrow we die."

CHARACTER: Surveying the debris left behind by this disappointing book, it is clear the characters suffer the worst damage. Each takes particularly ugly hits (I've declared Clarice a federal disaster area) but of all the unfortunate character variations, Lecter wins the dubious distinction of being the most ludicrous. His transformation takes him from being a sort of social Scrooge to being St. Nick himself - complete with a satchel of presents for all the good little boys and girls.

*Hannibal* should be scratched off reading lists everywhere and replaced by *Tears of Rage* - another book about an insidious crime, a bungled investigation, and an emerging hero. In *Tears of Rage* John Walsh confronts his readers with a reality far more frightening than Harris could ever create. Walsh's tears of rage will linger long after you lay his book aside.

Rating:
Summary: Hannibal is not up to snuf
Review: I was terribly disappointed in this book after having considered The Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs as two of my favorites. This book was poorly written, including many things more for shock value than for plot value. The characters were poorly developed, with Clarise and Hannibal going in directions that their basic character make-up would never allow. The work changed tenses and styles. One wonders if this wasn't taken out of Mr. Harris's hands and put together by an editorial commitee...that lacked talent.

Rating:
Summary: The worst book that I have ever read
Review: I am writing this review in the hopes that it might prevent someone from wasting any of the valuable moments of their lives with this book. Your time would be better spent rereading Mr. Harris' earlier, and much more enjoyable, efforts. It would have better had he left the subject matter alone than to spoil "The Silence of the Lambs" with this worthless dribble. The only enjoyment that I got out of it was a morbid fascination with how ridiculous the plot would resolve itself and in that I was not disappointed. I laughed my way through the final chapters as the character of Clarice Starling acted in a manner that was totally unexpected, without motivation, and unsupported by what Mr. Harris gave us of her character. That was the ultimate failure of the book. Another failure is the silly plot. Basically we must wade through an implausible, ridiculously elaborate scheme by a victim of Dr. Lecter to enact revenge on him by feeding him to man-hungry pigs. Let me repeat, to feed him to man-hungry pigs. Since Dr. Lecter is now the hero of the book, it was necessary for Mr. Harris to contrive a villain that could eclipse the cannibalistic rage of Hannibal. The absurd character of Mason Verger was designed for this. From his grotesque appearance to his evil intentions he is more comic book than character. There is nothing believable about him and he sits as flatly on the page as if he were sketched in ink and watercolor. Mr. Harris surrounds Verger with the typical stock evil henchmen that only need money to motivate them to set up his elaborate plot for Dr. Lecter. Will Really big pigs eat Dr. Lecter? Will Clarice Starling decide to do her job and pursue the evil Lecter? Will the faceless Verger die and elaborate death of his own? Do we care?

Rating:
Summary: WoW.....
Review: I don't normally read a lot of books but when I did decide to start it was with this book. You always hear from people how the book is sometimes better than the actual movie so I decided to see what some pe were talking about. After reading this book while I was working on nights in a refinery, I can now understand what being scared can do to a person. I highly recommend this book if you want the HEEBEE JEEBEEZZ scared out of you.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling Read
Review: When a friend recommended that I read this book my initial reaction was "no, I don't need this psyco-sicko trash." Well I got a copy and began reading. This is a well-constructed story and I could not put it down. READ IT NOW. Yes, there is descriptive language that is not appropriate for young readers nor the faint-of-heart. But overall this was a great read and I didn't feel that it was any more gross than reading your average Clancy or Wilbur Smith. Try it, it's a good read!

Rating:
Summary: Erratically brilliant
Review: I have to say that this novel definitely made in an impact on me. I am not generally a reader of horror or the macabre but I made an exception in this case because of the tie in with Silence of the Lambs. Because of my lack of experience in this particular genre I am a little leery of making a judgement but I have decided to do so in order to give a certain perspective to this work.

Hannibal is without a doubt one of the most troubling pieces of fiction I have read in the last few years. The actions are bizarre and shocking throughout the novel. This is not a complaint. These are the types of things I would expect in a book of this type. My problem was not with the shock value and or the gore but rather with the character and plot development.

I thought that the pacing of the book was suspect. There is no doubt that Mr. Harris has a wonderful gift of describing with an understated manner the most shocking of events. Unfortunately, it sometimes seemed as if events were manufactured in this novel for not other purpose than to showcase this verbosity.

The characters did not seem to follow along patterns that would be consistent with their development but rather with the predetermined events Mr. Harris had devised for them. A classic example would be the ending in its entirety. Although shocking and in some ways satisfying I found the ending to be disappointing because it did not fit together with the other 90 percent of the book.

I enjoyed reading this novel but could not help but feel a strong editor's hand would have aided it mightily.

Rating:
Summary: Great ending, quick reading
Review: This is a fast-paced crime drama with great characters to cheer for and detest. The book cover reviews classify it in the horror genre. Not true. The ending leaves you with plenty to think about with respect about why Statling makes the choices she made. This is the type of book you can read in one sitting - not wanting to put it down.