Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I thought this was truely an excellent book. I have to admit, I have not read Red Dragon or Silence of the Lambs (i saw the movie :), but I thought it was very well written. I enjoyed the book very much and as long as you don't have a weak stomach, I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: It took him 10 years to write this?
Review: I was extremely disappointed. I found this book boring and self indulgent with not a single character worth caring about. The ending was laughable. For a book to be truly griping or scary there needs to be an element of truth. This book is so far out that I found myself saying aloud "yeah, right". I hope this is never made into a movie. As written, it is far beneath the talents of Anthony Hopkins and Jody Foster. It reads more like "Scream" or "I know what you did last summer".
Rating: 
Summary: "Hannibal" is a major disappointment
Review: "Hannibal" is a major disappointment. Where "The Silence Of The Lambs" was about suspense and subtlety, Harris' new book is about pushing the boundaries of tastelessness and trying to incorporate as much sadism and cruelty into the plot as he could muster, as though daring the reader to be sickened or not. The credibility of his two main characters gets marred by an ending that is as preposterous as anything I have recently read. And the short, choppy chapters and even choppier language, suggest this was a project exercised exclusively with an eye towards making money and a movie sale. Except the details are so grotesque I would not want to see them enacted, and Harris' ruination of both Lecter and Starling is so appalling, I would not blame Anthony Hopkins or Jodie Foster for turning the film down. To keep afresh the memory of Harris at his most powerful, revisit 'Silence', or, even better,"Red Dragon."
Rating:
Summary: The book we wanted him to write, deep in our darkest heart
Review: I'm not surprised that many people dislike this book. Many people dislike their own darkest desires but this book fufills them. There was a reason that Lecter--especially as portrayed by Antony Hopkins -- became an icon of horror with an erotic overtone. He is the ultimate evil, so perfect he becomes a kind of deity. And his uncharacteristic concern for Clarice resonated as an all too modern demon lover. Harris certainly did not sell out. He read the minds of his audience and he read them a bit more deeply than most people can bear. I hate to say it, but I hope for no more Lecter novels because any more would deprive that creature of the perilous salvation he seems to have found in this one.
Rating:
Summary: A fall off the cliff of sanity into the years best book
Review: This book proves that you are what you read, and if you haven't 'fessed up about the dark places in your own mind after reading Hannibal, then you're deluding yourself. Harris is playing with his readers and loves it, and the ending is perfect--if you are bothered by it, well just look in the mirror, Krendler!In conclusion I just ate it up. "Would I sound like Oliver Twist if I asked for MORE!?"
Rating: 
Summary: Hannibal was great, but lacked fulfilling ending
Review: Thomas Harris has a wondering style of writing and develops his characters with skill throughout Hannibal. I found the book to be riveting and worthwhile reading...until I got to the last 30 pages. I was extremely disappointed with the ending and found it to almost be a cop-out for the author to hand it over to the publisher.
Rating:
Summary: Hannibal: A Love Story?
Review: Hannibal should have been called, Hannibal: A Love Story. In the end, all of the protagonists - Hannibal, Barney, and Margot end up happily ever after in loving romances. Hannibal with Clarice, another protagonist and most unpredictable character. Hannibal, Barney and Margot are all the masculine aggressors. This is most important with Hannibal, who somewhat nakedly "saves" Clarice. I remember the first two books to be better, though this was entertaining and compelling. This one was a bit too cartoonish. It was a bit to much of an adolescent fantasy. One gets the impression that Thomas Harris is hoping for a movie version in order to see Jodi Foster naked.
Rating:
Summary: Starts with a bang, ends with a whimper!
Review: I was very excited about the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs". However, when I received the book and started to read it I became more and more disenchanted. I feel Mr. Harris did a great injustice to the characters of Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. The ending cheapened the entire book for me. I had the feeling Mr. Harris wrote himself into a corner and didn't know where to go from there. I was truly disappointed. By pass this one, and reread "The Silence of the Lambs".
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: So many years after "Silence", maybe I expected too much. But I feel that in "Hannibal", Thomas Harris doesn't stay true to the characters he created. First he kills off John Brigham, then Jack Crawford. Then, as if that weren't enough, Clarice's entire personality gets a remolding. Granted, some mind-altering drugs were involved, but still...the denouement was extremely hard to swallow (pun intended). I found it a cheap, sexually-oriented ploy worthy only of Fred Chilton, not Clarice Starling. We are supposed to LIKE Hannibal now? Like he's just a misunderstood guy with continental tastes, and the rest of us poor plebes couldn't possibly understand? The "gore" that is so hyped is of the variety that just gives me the rolling-eyed, "oh, right!" rather than the creepy, skin-crawly, heart pounding, horrified sensation that the even more violent "Silence" gave me. And Barney seemed a noble character in "Silence", now he's just a con artist and a thief? Tsk! The descriptions of Florence are exquisite, but don't make up for a facile story. Conclusion: a long-anticipated, but terribly disappointing book. Clarice, we thought we knew ye!
Rating:
Summary: Lions & Tigers & Bears Oh my!
Review: If this is the sequel you've been awaiting, then you're going to be thrilled with Hannibal. While Harris has written some good books, this one fails. Starling's relative innocence juxtaposed against Hannibal's evil was one of the attractions of Silence of the Lambs. Hardening her character undermines the new work hugely. The shifts in person, number and tense are annoying, but it is the change in character that makes Hannibal so irksome. This novel should've been a good book and is not. What in the world is Starling going to do in the movie? Surely it'll be different.
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