Rating: 
Summary: Darkly Beautiful
Review: This book has been widely misunderstood. It's an examination of just what *is* evil in an absurd, corrupt world, not a glorification of Lecter. Yes, it's very dark but if you stick with it you will find great, if disturbing, wisdom about human nature at the end.
Rating: 
Summary: pretentious twaddle
Review: Hannibal Lecter is Thomas Harris. Page after page Harris displays his vulgarity. Describing paintings,clothes,food,books and buildings - the lifestyle of the rich and famous. And to crap it all our middle aged 'hero' gets to give the lovely Clarice a good seeing to. Wishful thinking Mr. Harris ? This book should be re-titled 'My Favourite Things' and is not worth stealing.
Rating: 
Summary: To put it nicely: Not up to par.
Review: I greatly enjoyed his previous books and I eagerly anticipated reading "Hannibal." Now all I can say after finishing the book is, "What! " The book had its good moments but there were long periods that lulled me to sleep. I felt that the author betrayed the two great characters of Lecter & Starling with his awful conclusion, and in doing so, betrayed the fans that built his fame. Lecter's macabre mystique and power & Starling's balance of strength and vulnerability? - the authors throws all of this out in this book like used kleenex. I would say it ranked with "Godfather III" in disappointing sequels. If you are a fan of Silence of the Lambs, my advice is: read the first half of Hannibal, then make up your own ending - you couldn't do any worse.
Rating: 
Summary: A let down
Review: I had enjoyed Hannibal Lecter in Red Dragon and especially in "The Silence of the Lambs". I found the new book enjoyable, up to a point, but the conclusion was a complete let down for me (I won't go into details so as not to spoil the suspense for you). The new villains are scary enough, but the new Hannibal Lecter, though ore fully developed seems to be too different from the Hannibal we met in "The Silence of the Lambs".
Rating: 
Summary: controversial ending
Review: Say what you want about the ending. At least it wasn't a"safe" ending, ...Perhaps there is a subtextual meaning tothe dreamy epilogue we just don't get. Or perhaps he is just setting up the next book, in which he Sets Things Right. It's hard to say at this point. Some readers are so emotionally conservative the over-react to an ending they don't know how to deal with and write an exaggeratedly negative review of the entire book, which isn't fair. Hannibal is mostly as thrilling as Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. The stuff in Italy is brilliant, and the set up involving the nemisis is quite compelling. I don't see that much difference in literary style compared to the past Harris novels. I admit the ending is hard to swallow, but maybe it will make more sense when I read it a second time, or when the next book comes out.
Rating:
Summary: controversial ending
Review: Say what you want about the ending. At least it wasn't a "safe" ending, with some high-toned victory by the law over the criminal, as we find in many "thrillers". Perhaps Harris is reacting to the fame and popularity of the movie Hannibal, knows movie audiences really root for Dr. Lecter, and gives them what they want to their own professed disgust. Perhaps there is a subtextual meaning to the dreamy epilogue we just don't get. Or perhaps he is just setting up the next book, in which he Sets Things Right. It's hard to say at this point. Some readers are so emotionally conservative the over-react to an ending they don't know how to deal with and write an exaggeratedly negative review of the entire book, which isn't fair. Hannibal is mostly as thrilling as Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. The stuff in Italy is brilliant, and the set up involving the nemisis is quite compelling. I don't see that much difference in literary style compared to the past Harris novels. I admit the ending is hard to swallow, but maybe it will make more sense when I read it a second time, or when the next book comes out.
Rating:
Summary: Regretted Starting Hannibal
Review: This is one of those books that you can't put down once you've started reading it because you want to know the outcome. Unfortunately, every few pages you will be asking yourself why you are continuing to read this trash? It's a sick book.
Rating:
Summary: Not what you expected, but that's what makes it so good
Review: 'Hannibal' fleshes out the main characters better than any of the other novels. Clarice's true character is finally fully revealed; just like the metamorphosis of Lecter from 'Red Dragon' to 'Silence of the Lambs'. Some people may disagree with Clarice's transformation, but I couldn't image it written better. Lecter himself is also fully realized as you see into his past and possible motives. The only misses by the author would have to be the real villians of the novel, Mason Verger and his cronies. Their exploits dragged an otherwise very impressive book down.
Rating:
Summary: A great disappointment.
Review: From the past 2 books which I have read from Thomas Harris, he has always been able to capture my attention with his immaculate descriptions of characters and a most original and gripping storyline. However, after waiting almost a decade for Hannibal, the disappointment was made worse by the fact that Silence of the Lambs was so incredibly good. The plot was original, as opposed to Hannibal which built on overused psychopathic plots which 'twists' I could guess before I was even near to the actual protrayal in the book. Sadly, the character built up was weak, two-dimensional and was disappointingly unoriginal. The fact that Dr Lector was given a reason for his psychotic behavior did not take away the effect the book would have given to the readers only if the author had woven the facts less obviously into the tale. The flat protrayal of Lector's childhood was disappointing. However, the most appalling of all in the book was the finally "unexpected" ending. How could anyone think of the lame, unbelieveable epilogue provided. It was clearly out of touch with the rest of the book, and in contrary to the characters of both Lector and Starling as described in the Silence. It was such a great disappointment that I would not advise anyone else to read it, and if u have not tried Silence, but have already watched the movie, I would still recommend the book to be read as it was indeed Harris' best.
Rating:
Summary: If you MUST read this book...BORROW IT!
Review: While an author is certainly entitled to write whatever book he/she wishes, one would think that they would feel SOME sort of responsibility to their readers/fans, in addition to remaining true to their fictional creations that have come before. Thomas Harris does neither of these with HANNIBAL. After RED DRAGON and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, one reads HANNIBAL and comes away thinking that someone else must have written this book. This is not the Thomas Harris writing that we have come to love. Gone is the tight, suspenseful writing of the previous two books. There is no suspense and the writing is poor. The writing consists mainly of lines like: "Clarice did THIS..." or "Dr. Lecter likes THAT...". HANNIBAL is all over the place. Too many locations, too many superfilous characters, too much verbiage. More is not always better. Unlike DRAGON and SOTL, which concentrated mainly on the protagonist and one or two other main characters and the suspense built from those interactions, HANNIBAL has a huge cast of supporting players that we're supposed to care about and don't. (Is/was Barney REALLY necessary in this book?) And, is Clarice the protagonist here or is Lecter? This confusion hurts the story, especially since I don't WANT Lecter to be a hero! HANNIBAL is too big, too sprawling. Example: we have a huge middle section that takes place in Florence. An Italian police officer works to have Lecter captured. This whole subplot is not only useless, but the denouement is completely predictable. We KNOW how it's going to end and it doesn't advance the plot at all (except to point out to us just how "cultured" Hannibal Lecter is). Harris' attempts at "thrills" are failures. There ARE NO thrills, there is no suspense. The fate of Starling's nemesis at book's end (at the dinner table) is ludicrous. And Harris couldn't come up with a better (and scarier) agent of revenge than killer PIGS? Lastly, and most importantly, there are the main characters. Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling are completely (pardon the expression) butchered. The young, confident, capable Clarice Starling becomes little more than a mindless zombie by novel's end. And Hannibal Lecter, who we've come to love as a sheer monster, is made to be an almost acceptable human being. His monsterousness is "explained". Hannibal Lecter has become CHIC! It's almost as though Harris had contempt for the success of his characters...or his readers... and Harris said, "I'll show them." And HANNIBAL is the result. Well, Harris showed us. Now I'll show him. I won't be purchasing any further novels from Mr. Harris based on the mess/disappointment that HANNIBAL is.
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