Hannibal : Movie Tie In

Rating:
Summary: Nothing short of a literary masterpiece...
Review: "Hannibal" is a brilliant piece of writing that cannot simply be classified as a "Thriller". This work is at once spellbinding, horrifying, beautiful, and infinitely cruel. The imagery evoked by Thomas Harris' masterful writing will remain in my memory palace for a very long time. Bravo Mr Harris, your ending was more than I could have hoped for.

Rating:
Summary: Great comic novel "beyond good and evil."
Review: Thomas Harris has the ability to say terrible things and present horrific images with a verbal delivery so "deadpan" and swift (in its economy) that for the reader it is like being raped before we realize any of our buttons have been undone. The author's "neutral" stance on inter-species and human cannabalism, for example, can only be seen as a great comic vision that "this too does not really matter." Harris, the ironist, identifies God (p.256) as the great sadistic ironist whose games of human cruelty pale into insignificance Hannibal's own little predations. This realization comes to Dr. Lecter as a six year old, after seeing the baby teeth of his cannabilized sister in the stinking feces of her anonymous human predators. The final "dining scene," so finely wrought with its elegance and utter sophistication, once again is best understood as comic -- given the incongruity of the highest "cuisine aesthetic" juxtaposed with the gentle feeding on a living human brain. Dr. Lecter's ruthless and powerful seduction of "goodness" (Starling) is greatly aided by the ever-presented documentation that the universe is unbelievably cruel, arbitrary, or at least profoundly uncaring. That the fully trained and brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, knows this (as does the author) is his only redemption. The refined feast of evil presented to us in such an orderly and dispassionate fashion in this novel is the comic cover for the dark, limitless, and terrifying process of entropy that we as readers are allowed to apprehend only from a distance.

Rating:
Summary: Well done.
Review: Harris ties up all sorts of loose ends in this frightening, satisfying, and surprising work. Of course we want to know what went into the making of the demented genius, Hannibal the Cannibal. How could we leave him, and Clarice, without knowing what is to become of them? Therapy for the therapist, release of the true personality, removal of masks both perceived and hidden, true heroism... Harris is excellent at developing characters according to their own inner truths. I wish he would write more ordinary mysteries, however, with tidy little murders in them. Sometimes the "ick" factor gets to me.

Rating:
Summary: Farfetched and disappointing
Review: Perhaps the screen play will be void of the lackluster plots Harris has used in this novel. I must admit that I was a true fan of the Silence of the Lambs piece and was expecting much more with Hannibal. For me, it was not near as appetizing!

Rating:
Summary: tame after red dragon and silence of lambs
Review: liked the pigs thought that was unusually well done. I'm also a writer and wish I was as good at narratve and dialogue as he is. But EXCUSE ME, the ending was ridiculous!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, however deeply, deeply disturbing.
Review: The characters draw you right in. Dr. Lecter becomes our anti-hero evoking abhorrence and sympathy at the same time. On the surface this tale can seem highly improbable but considering all the facts behind Lecter and Starlings lives It becomes all too believeable. I had my doubts about the authors being able to top his last tale of Dr. Lecter or even being able to equal it but I think he has succeded. A very compelling read.

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Harris, you don't disappoint!
Review: It's 1:00 a.m. and I just finished Hannibal. Without a doubt it is absolutely the best book I have ever read in my 20 years of avid crime and thriller reading. I waited for years for this book to come out and every minute was well spent! My only big disappointment is that I can't wake my husband up to put the fire out! Thank you so much for your excellent craft. Sincerely, amateur writer and Avid Fan...

Rating:
Summary: I cant wait for the movie!!!!
Review: As I did not read the first in this series,as most, I saw the movie. But as I read this, I was spellbound, I couldn't put it down! Mr. Harris kept the suspense going, never letting us know what Hannibal would do next. Also, Mr. Harris' knowledge and discription of Hannibals surroundings gave the reader the impression that the reader was not a reader, but a true onlooker to Hannibals maddness. Also, the technique that Mr Harris uses to allow us to "Get in Hannibals Head" was amazing! Of course, the last chapters will shock everyone. (At least I was!!) READERS RECCOMENDATION: Dont read this late at night with only one light on in the house!!

Rating:
Summary: a French Canadian reader
Review: Thomas Harris stayed with his "delicous" and "intriguing" characters all the way to the end. Without letting our appetite "down". Thank you Mr. Harris. If I had to add something of an "untasting" critic, it would just be about Starling's unlucky episodes almost all the way to the end. The women in your novels don't have enough "spice" in their lives... that's all folks.

Rating:
Summary: Wait for the softcover
Review: I know this won't be a popular review but when Hollywood puts this to film, I sure hope they come up with a better ending. Fiction or not, I couldn't buy into Lecter's personna as I did with "Silence...". You get the impression that Harris got writer's block 3/4 of the way through and that the only purpose of the ending was to lend itself to another sequel. Way too wordy at times. Harris inconsistently goes from third to first person narrative. Interesting but disappointing read. Little if any substance to Starling's character. In fact, there were too many characters, several of whom the story could easily have gone without! Perhaps Hannibal Lecter will go the route of Rocky Balboa. Hannibal IV, Hannibal V.....