Rating: Summary: hollywood better change the ending Review: enjoyed most of the book (+ 4 stars), until the last 40 pages (- 3 stars). i'll pass the book along, after i rip those pages out. otherwise, forget about it. i heard jodie won't play the part, now i understand why.
Rating: Summary: A genuine page turner Review: I bought this book and two days later was finished. It was so good that it kept me reading all day. The only disapointing thing is the "motive" given for Lecter's behavior...that seemed pretty unnecessary, as was the whole thing with Barney...but even that was written well. Many people hated the ending but I thought it was great. Highly recommended.
Rating: Summary: Another one bites the Dust! Review: Finally the much awaited sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs" was out in paperback..a year after the hardbound version made an apperance on the book shelves...somehow to a very silent audience... Silence of the Fans...me dont understand..? Picked up the paperback as soon as i set my eyes on it...and in fact to get on to it..i hurried through the last few pages (or should i say images..! ) of Micheal Ondaatje's superb "Anils Ghost"..... Well, before i knew it ..i was in Clarice Starling and Dr Hannibal Lecter territory..reliving the almost visual horrors of Silence.... I felt at the end of it..dissappointed ..that the sequel was written for the sake for the sake of capitalizing on the huge wave of Dr Lecter Hannibal which existed after the book and the superbly adapted movie.... Felt cheated by how the author resolved the larice Starling and Dr Lecter relationship...a relationship which had streaks of mentorship...buddyhood and ill-look-over-you in the earlier book ,i was positively disgusted by how they kinda ended up in the end of this "episode" of Harris's "Hannibal" series..! Though there are some very well written passages, with classic twists and turns.....which keep you at the edge of your seat and up late into the night...at the end of the 500 odd pages ..i was left bereft of 2 charcters of popular fiction ..who had intrigued me...teased me...been with me as enigma's long after thier resolutions were attempted by thier creator...but after Hannibal ..i really do not care what happens to the cannibalistic doctor and the sharp FBI agent... Alas thats how a literary bubble bursts i guess! ....
Rating: Summary: The ending is sappy, but still well written Review: I must agree with the other reviews that the ending was a great disappointment. Also I'm wondering why Hannibal turned out to be such a great guy after all. If he can understand Stephen Hawkin I don't understand why he can kill innocent people around and then fly away with the girl of his childhood dreams. The author is undoubtedly a good writer, and much of his research and knowledge are impressive, but for this book I really can't give a 5 star. I will wait for his next one for a masterpiece.
Rating: Summary: Bovine bull. Review: I actually quite enjoyed the book until the ending. Although I admit there were major flaws in it. All the main characters, except Starling, were just way over the top (even Starling changes quicker than Superman in a phone booth at the end). The main characters are all evil. Even poor old Barney is wheeled back in to be a bad guy. The man eating pigs were a bit too much. Surely there must have been better ways to torture a man than feed him to swine. I guess the pigs will be good fodder (pardon the pun) for the special effects people in the movie. Speaking of the movie, I suspect a lot of the book was written with this in mind. Even Lecter's mask miraculously reappears. Couldn't have a sequel without that in it, now could we? Same as a visit to the old cell and up pops one of the old inmates still living there even though the building is condemned (much in the same way as this book should be). Even the end seems to be designed to provide the requisite "twist" of many movie thrillers. I like a twist, but it must be believable. And there must be some hint at some point that it is coming, even though it is not recognisable at the time. As in Sixth Sense.
Rating: Summary: Forever dark.... Review: Thank you Mr. Harris for another pleasant read. Your novels, the intriguing characters, transporting locales, and utterly morbid plotlines, are resplendent in a dark fascination. Oddly, perhaps, Barney posesses me most. Sharing Lecter's dark desire, with the focus and and intesity of a Marine (do I identify?)- astounding. All of the others, yes it was wonderful seeing them outside my memory castle, to become involved with their thoughts once again, to meet the newest persons, and imagine what may be next for them. Many will besmirch Mr. Harris (and Dr. Lecter? ) for such an ending. Dismiss them. The monster will posess you entirely- rest assured that to meet "Il Dotorre" will result in your loss of humanhood. Don't come near the glass...
Rating: Summary: Good Read, but not true to characters Review: As a dedicated Thomas Harris fan, I anxiously awaited the release of Hannibal and ran out and bought it in hardcover the first day. I can't deny that it a supurbly written novel--in all of it's ghastly, gruesome, and suspenseful pages. In the end, though, the book disappointed me because I don't feel that Harris stayed true to the characters of Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. They both behaved in ways that they would never have considered in Silence of the Lambs. The story in and of itself is fabulous (as long as you don't have a weak stomach), but as part of a whole, it was a cop-out with the characters forgetting personal standards for plot convienance.
Rating: Summary: infuriating ending Review: Up to the scene where Dr. Lecter is about to become pig food, Hannibal is a very good read. After that, the book just completely degrades. The ending was so unbelievable that I was actually infuriated that I had invested time in reading the novel up to that point. The change in Starling is so over the top and utterly disappointing that it is almost unbearable. Most notably, we are given a valid explanation as to why she feels compelled to save Dr. Lecter- that she cannot tolerate the idea of ANY creature being tortured to death. However, we are expected to believe a complete turnaround in her character when she is at the dinner with Lecter and their "guest" Kendler, where she sits quiet and composed and actually exchanges witty barbs with the Dr. while their "guest" is slowly tortured. Yes, I realize that there are drugs/hypnosis involved, but in essence, Starling's character has been lobotomized like the unfortunate Kendler. And it just totally ruined the novel for me- the waste of such a great character. I hope they get the movie right....
Rating: Summary: Big Let Down! Review: The only thing positive I can say is that I'm glad I resisted the urge to buy it in hardcover when it first came out. The style seemed to jump all over the place. The characters were a disappointment. I felt very odd indeed to be pulling for Hanibal to get away and disappointed to read that Clarice turned out not to be a strong woman afterall.
Rating: Summary: Totally out of character... Review: This book is slow, the people we know from the previous book are a bit out of character from the previous story, and 1/2 way through the book your still waiting to be unerved! What can you expect when the movie rights are bought before the book was written. Someone's laughing all the way to the bank. Borrow this from someone if you must read it.
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