Rating: 
Summary: Is it good or is it bad? Who knows?
Review: It is almost impossible to judge this book by standards used for other books. By those standards it is a horrible book in which the author betrays his reading audience in a myriad of ways. Many of the reviews by readers in this section reflect just that reality. The first third of the book is overwritten, the second long and irrelevant, and the third - with its unusual ending - a betrayal of the characters we came to love in Silence of the Lambs. In spite of this I found the ending to be highly disturbing and had to ask myself if in fact the author intended to disturb the reader in just this fashion. It stimulates thought that doesn't easily end and that is uncommon in ANY book these days. Buy it but be forewarned the book is not like anything you are expecting.
Rating: 
Summary: A very unique novel one probably needs to read twice
Review: Thomas Harris' venue is the quirky and bizarre. In Black Sunday, he casually describes the details a team of terrorists follow in planning the murder of tens of thousands. In Red Dragon, he draws in Dolarhyde a sympathetic serial killer. In Silence of the Lambs, he describes the hunt for another serial killer, Buffalo Bob, and how the investigation is botched by bureaucratic bungling and gamesmanship that ultimately enables Hannibal Lecter to escape. Now Hannibal is presented, and it is not a formulaic replay of Silence. Hannibal has its own tone and resonance and, I suspect, needs a second reading to be successfully and more completely, uh, digested.
Rating:
Summary: UNLIKELY PLOT, WITH DISAPPOINTING INCONSISTENCIES, BAD END
Review: TO SAY THIS EAGERLY AWAITED SEQUEL IS DISAPPOINTING IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. I FOUND NUMEROUS INCONSISTENCIES WITH THE PLOT (E.G. DATES, SIMULTANEOUS CURRENT EVENTS, LEVEL OF TRAINING FOR STARLING, ETC.) WHICH MADE THE BOOK APPEAR SLOPPY. EVEN MORE OF A PROBLEM IS THE COMPLETELY UNCONVINCING CHANGE IN THE CHARACTERS' PERSONALITIES TO THE POINT WHERE THEY ARE HARDLY RECOGNIZABLE, E.G. STARLING, HANNIBAL, BARNEY. THE LONG DESCRIPTIONS OF FLORENCE ARE PEDANTIC AND BORING. THE ENDING IS SIMPLY RIDICULOUS; IT'S A CHEAP SHORT CUT.
Rating: 
Summary: This cold dish of revenge is truly savory!
Review: Having waited seven years for the continuation of the Starling/Lecter saga, I can say it was well worth the wait. The story is tense and filled with its own brand of dark humor. Hannibal Lecter has found a new home and identity in Italy only to be drawn out by his only surviving victim, Mason Verger. Verger has found the only bait at which Hannibal "The Cannibal" will bite - Clarice Starling. The story satisfies as it takes you further into the minds of Lecter and Starling, uncovering many shocking surprises along the way. I never thought it possible that one could end up pulling for Lecter as he is drawn further into the trap. However, the character of Mason Verger actually accomplishes this feat. If you thought Lecter was the definition of depravity, you "ain't seen nothin' yet"! Some may feel that the story slows in the middle. It's best to give it time because every fact uncovered leads to the climax. And what a climax it is. I will never again think of a formal dinner in the same way. Yes, revenge is truly a dish best served cold - or in Hannibal's case, warmed in a saute pan with browned butter, sherry and caper berries.
Rating:
Summary: A Look Into Hannibal Lecter's Mind
Review: Okay, this book wasn't like the other ones .. not so much detecting and action and thriller moments ... but it was a much more in-depth probe into the minds of the three key players ... Hannibal Lecter, Clarisse Starling, and Hannibal's first victim who survived and seeks revenge. This one gave me nightmares .. the others didn't. Lends a new credibility for 'there but for the grace of God, go I ...'
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: This book started out great and held its momentum all the way through. I thought the Florence scene that everyone seems to detest was, actually, quite good. I liked seeing how someone tried and failed to catch Lecter. It made you appreciate the previous two books more. As for the ending, I took it as a denounment to the entire Lecter trilogy. If it was ment to be that, Harris did an extraordinary job.
Rating:
Summary: A well written yarn with an outstanding ending!
Review: While I may not have enjoyed Hannibal as much as I have enjoyed other Harris novels, I found it to be an entertaining tale that was very well written. Unlike other amateur reviewers here at Amazon, I found the ending incredibly fresh and unpredictable. I applaud Harris' efforts for a surprise ending I never saw coming.
Rating: 
Summary: The ending was terrible.
Review: I enjoyed the book for the first 400 pages or so. Once the ending started, it got very strange and disappointing. It just didn't work or mesh with the rest of the book. I couldn't buy it at all. Although, in hind-sight, the book is pretty absurd in a lot of points.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful. He forgot the basic tenents of storytelling.
Review: Lousy read. Stupid ending. I loved Silence--it had a point, a heroine and a crime to solve, with science used to solve it. Almost everyone in this book was evil, willing to kill people without a thought. When there's that much evil, it grows boring because we, the readers, have no one to root for. There's no suspense unless the character we relate to is in danger. I wanted the pigs to eat Lecter. At least that may have made for interesting reading. I don't buy the "explanation" for Lecter's cannibalism being rooted in losing his little sister to cannibals. Men like Lecter are sociopaths, and if he felt any empathy for a sister, he wouldn't be Lecter! Clarice, the only real "hero," was passive and boring and hardly there. And the ending--what a joke! What, is this supposed to be "romantic"? Right... No wonder neither actor has signed for the movie. I sure don't want to see this. Beyond these glaring problems, I was shocked by the confusing voice and bad grammar, the leaps between present and past tense--in the same paragraph! And the second-person "authorial voice" which intruded with silly lines like, "Now we must leave them at their dinner...." and sounded like an attempt at screenplay direction: "Picture a quiet street in Florence..." I hope Harris didn't spend 3000 days writing this, and I don't believe it (not with the "impeachment proceedings against the President" he refers to.) What a pretentious piece of trash.
Rating:
Summary: ending on a bad note
Review: I have read Harris's RD and SOTL. I expected a good solid story. While Mason is something of a chilling character, and the story is somewhat interesting with the detour to Italy, it collapses from a poor, extremely muddled ending. First and foremost, it simply does not follow from what we know about the characters. Obsessive people do not change so easily, and the cheap psychology in the novel hardly justifies the character change at the end. The ending is not bad because it doesn't end "happily" or with clearcut morals, but because it simply does not follow from what we know. We learn reasons for some characters' horrific behaviors. But when one takes on similar behaviors for no compelling reason, we have writing that smacks of rush and cheap shock value. Somewhat contradictory to the above criticism, new characters are introduced, with their future easily and correctly guessed, much as we know the fate of a red shirt landing party member on Star Trek. :)
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