Rating: 
Summary: Great? No. But still very good!
Review: While it doesn't live up to Red Dragon or Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal is a very good novel for those of us who like reading about demented serial killers. In fact, one could argue that Hannibal would work better as a stand-alone piece than the third installment behind RD and SOL. Mr. Harris, another commercially successful Mississippi born writer, raised the bar impossibly high with his first two efforts. Anything less than brilliant and starkly terrifying, alas, Hannibal is neither, would be a disappointment. Not only was it merely very good, versus great, real Lector fans, like me, will object to the direction he takes as a highly cultured fugitive after all these years as a psychopathic cannibal. Despite the negative reviews, I enjoyed Hannibal and would recommend it to readers of this genre.
Rating: 
Summary: You either Love it or Hate it
Review: I loved it personally. I think it is great when the ending is always something that isn't expected. I hate it that the movie people gave in and gave the people a more pleasant ending. Heaven forbid we shock the people. After reading this book, I was dissapointed in the movie. I think they made him more human like in this book. This book is not for someone who can't think outside the lines of normal behavior. I am usually a true crime reader so this book didn't shock me because some people are animals. There was one slow part in the book, but other than that, excellent piece of work. Much more details and characters that were left out by the movie. Not for the weak stomachs.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Effort
Review: This was a book I really wanted to read. I thought the Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs were both excellent books. Hannibal however was a major disappointment. So much so that in the future I'll have to cafefully consider investing anymore time with a book written by Harris.I think part of the problem here is that Mr. Harris has come to believe his own press. Throughout the book his own personality is clearly inserted in words given to various characters. His sermonizing against religion and belief in God gets very tiresome. The author comes across as condescending and arrogant. One thing that always bothers me in books is when an author writes about an area I am familiar with in an uneducated manner. It ruins the writer's credibility. Also, I once read a scientist who said that half-baked ideas come from people that read above their comprehension level. In physics, Mr. Harris clearly was reading above his comprehension level. His explanations and musings about the big crunch showed an utter lack of understanding. He showed a total lack of knowledge on why this theory was pursued or it's implications if it were grounded in truth. A "genius" like his character, Hannibal Lecter wouldn't have been so confused. The characters were bleak and almost universally amoral. The ending was ridiculous. The last 60 pages tedious. I started to give the book 2 stars, because he is a good technical writer. The faults are too strong for me to recommend the book to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: A special exception
Review: Normally, I treat the movie-adaptation of a book with extreme prejudice. If the author's work is indeed a peice of art all his own, what right does the director have to completely retool it to his liking (and often to the distaste of many others)? However, I saw Hannibal before I read this book (having caught the Thomas Harris fervor a bit late), and I was a bit shocked to learn that the ending of the movie was completely different from the book's ending. After reading the original ending, I realized why. The ending to Hannibal is left completely unexplained. Yes, Thomas Harris did explain the actions and even left us with an epilogue, but there is no method to this mad ending. *spoiler alert* Clarice completely turns her back on everything she has ever been taught, and runs away without a second thought. The whole time Clarice was sitting across from Lecter, I expected her to actually *think* about what she was doing and rationalize it in her mind. Unless those drugs had a permanent effect on her brain, there is no way I can swallow this disappointing ending. Even if that is the case, it's an uninspired end to a great trilogy. It's been said many times before, but stick to Silence of the Lambs.
Rating:
Summary: Deliciously Demented
Review: While there is little doubt that Harris succumbs to the dark side of commercialism in this third incarnation of Dr. Hannibal Lechter, it is nonetheless a seductive and riveting read. Written by a less accomplished author, the material would be merely disgusting - Harris, however, succeeds in painting an engrossing canvas with his gore, creating images that are repulsive yet strangely irresistable. I found my self not wanting to turn the pages, but unable to put the book down. Part of this is due in part to Harris' imagination in creating horror so unique, so bizarre, and so totally over the top that it cannot be ignored. The imagery of being eaten alive by wild pigs, for example, is so vividly portrayed that the scene continues to haunt nearly a year after I've read the book. This is not a believable story, nor a literary achievement, and it is certainly not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. But if you've got the stomach, and enjoy a well-written work of raw horror, forget the critics and give this demented tale of "Ms. Manners does cannibalism" a ride.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of a good Chianti
Review: I eagerly awaited "Hannibal" for years, having fallen in love with "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lambs." When "Hannibal" fianlly arrived I couldn't wait, and there are parts of the book that flew by for me. However, the whole Italy section drags in the book and is way to long. When Hannibal arrives in America the book takes off again, untill the ending which is severe let down. Mason Veger 1is worthy opponent to Dr. Lector and I wished for more scenes with him and Clarice or Lector... The ending has to be the most stupid ending I have ever read. There is no way the character of Clarice Starling would behave the way she does. I wanted redemption for Clarice and instead got a an FBI agent that falls in love with a serial killer??!! I was so mad at the end, I threw the book across the room...Thank God, they changed the ending for the movie, which I actually enjoyed.
Rating:
Summary: Gross, stupid, and a mistake
Review: Thomas Harris began the Hannibal Lector trilogy interestingly in Red Dragon, then developed it to a nice edge with Silence of the Lambs. This final piece of the tryptich, however, is simply bad all around. I sense Harris had grown barnacles on his earlier fascination with erudite, sophisticated Dr. Lector and simply wanted to play out some rather silly, adolescent fantasies gleaned from 1950s horror comic books. Eating some's brains while they're still alive? Seducing (unconvincingly) Starling the arch FBI agent to the dark side? Eaten by pigs? (Well, okay, that played for laughs very well in the movie Snatch, but it WAS for laughs).
While Harris might have continued to play Lector against the thick-as-brick minions of Law and Order and used him as a clever foil for society's other evils, instead we have an exagerrated, over-the-top caricature of "evil gone astray" like a boogie man from a warped Willy Wonka factory. If this was intended as heavy-handed satire, Mr. Harris needs to take lessons from Gunter Grass, Thomas Berger, and others who have done it much better.
Rating:
Summary: An Elegant Romance
Review: We are slowly drawn toward the inevitable pairing of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter in this elegantly crafted novel by Thomas Harris. The graphic horror and violence that were staples of Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs are here as Hannibal comes out of "retirement" when an Italian police detective figures out who he really is. But as Starling knows he is no match for the doctor. We learn about Hannibal's youth and his sister in this book and more importantly we discover the horor commited upon her by the Germans in WWII which is the catylist for Lecter's actions.
Many found the romance between Clarice and Hannibal in the last few chapters of this book unforgivable and therefore reviewed it poorly. Hannibal uses drugs to induce Clarice to use her "Memory Palace" as he does so she can keep his sister alive there in her mind. He can no longer do so. But eventually she is able to do this without the drugs. When the moment comes in the novel when she gives herself to Hannibal she does so willingly because she wishes to and not because it is forced upon her.
Both the graphic violence and suspense are elegantly written. Harris has completed this trilogy and took it where it had to go. When Clarice sends a note back to her friend saying she is ok (she has been missing) we know that she really is. She has dyed her hair blonde and she and Hannibal are dancing on a terrace in Buenos Aires. Harris has brought us here in such a way that we have forgotten for a moment the society which would be repulsed at this ending.
This is a great read with a lot to reccomend it. The character of Mason Verger who is Lecter's only "survivor" and out for revenge is a perverse and disgusting shell of humanity. We don't want him to catch Lecter. We want Hannibal free so he can come to Clarice's aid as the FBI and her immediate "superior" have deserted her and hung her out to dry. Harris laid the groundwork for the ending of this trilogy in Silence of the Lambs and I suspect a lot of people were shocked because they watched the film first.
This is an elegantly crafted horror story which turns into a romance of two people outside the norm of society. Maybe it was unfilmable this way. We'll never know since Ridley Scott didn't have the guts to try. If you don't confuse the movie with the book and just read this and accept it for the finely crafted novel it is you will enjoy it and see it in a whole new light. This is a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Bon Appetite!
Review: Truely Dr Hannibal Lecter is one of the greatest of all 'villains' (or should that read 'heroes'?). A man of learning, culture, and exquisite taste, who also happens to be a killer who enjoys whetting his palate on sumptuous delicacies culled from parts of his victim's anatomies. Most readers will already be familiar with the character from the film versions of Harris's novels. In Hannibal, Harris draws us deeper into the life of Lecter. No longer incarcerated, it is fascinating to see how the doctor uses his freedom. What is more, we also gain insights into his mental life, his past, and his fixation with 'earnest' FBI Agent Clarice Starling. The plot runs thick and fast. Harris writes intelligently and subtley, creating a (perversly?) captivating web of horror and intrigue. His characterisations are excellent, there is humour, pathos, and mystery. All the great things about this book are absent in the film, which makes you wonder why the film-makers bothered at all. Perhaps the question remains after all: is the ending of the book plausible in terms of Starling's character? I'll reserve judgement until I've read Silence of the Lambs. Either way, the ending will suprise and delight(?) readers who enjoy ambiguities and strange, but not entirely unpleasant, tastes in the mouth.
Rating:
Summary: Great fast read
Review: more graphic than the movie - not for light reading, but a great fast read.
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