Rating: 
Summary: starts off just okay, then BAM! gets ya in the end
Review: It starts off somewhat slowly; Lecter doesn't even appear in the beginning. The pace picks up when Pazzi tries to catch Lecter, and from then on in I couldn't put the book down. And the ending ... all I can say is Wow. Got to the back cover, placed the book on my couch and literally said, "Holy s***". That's how amazing it was
Rating: 
Summary: Don't do it!
Review: I saw Silence of the Lambs, but I haven't read the previous two Hannibal Lechter novels. Hopefully, the old books were better than this one. Hannibal was a shaky rollercoaster of inconsistent plots, unnecessary graphical content (not the cannibalism - other events) and an ending not worthy of a second-rate comic book.
Rating:
Summary: Lighten up for crying out loud--it's good clean fun
Review: This is the 615th review so I doubt it'll get much exposure, but I felt the need to defend Harris a little here. OK, I'll have to agree that there's a plausibility problem with the final outcome; Starling's character did seem to become a little cartoonish. I did get the feeling that Harris decided to finalize the draft with some haste. He probably had a great deal of pressure on him to finish. Maybe he's playing with us a little because of the incredible hype and anticipation over the release of this novel. Still, I thought the imagery was up to Harris standards, the pacing was great, and I generally had a good time reading it. It wasn't as enjoyable as the first two novels in the trilogy, the characterization not being as strong or as dimensional, but I got over the small disappointment of the not-so-likely ending pretty quickly.
Rating:
Summary: Dr. Lecter: A real american hero in a romantic black comedy
Review: What I found most interesting in this book was its scrambling of our expectations for heros. The italian investigator Pazzi and the Justice department hack Kremmler are the truly evil ones, as justified by their simple self aggrandizing schemes. Lecter, in contrast, ever the individualist, merely seeks self fulfillment through his "taste" for the finer things in life, among which are included Clarice Starling. His never ending quest is simple enjoyment of his private pleasures, which are compatible with, and often require him to rid the world of the rude and the boorish. Privacy and individualism are threatened by government (a corrupt FBI and political system), and big business as given a figurehead with Mason. That said, Starling seemed to me to be the central character of the novel, whose theme is her awakening to and acceptance of the vision of reality as provided by Lecter. Very bizarre, but more funny than sick. "Hannibal" was more interesting than "Silence", but not as thrilling (and both were far better than "Red Dragon"). The disjoint first part in Italy could have been a separate novel. A good read, I'm really curious how they'll do the movie.
Rating:
Summary: what a waste of time
Review: A poorly written story with an unbelivable ending that betrays the integrity of the characters and insults the intellegence of the reader. I now CAN wait for the film to come out. Biggest letdown of the year.
Rating: 
Summary: Thomas Harris, We hardly knew Ye !!!
Review: One of the best novels I've read in many a moon, and I've read them all. Florence and Mason Verger were evoked so vividly in the book that while I was reading, a movie was playing in my head. The readers who gave this book 1 star reviews must be nuts -- RED DRAGON was oatmeal compared to HANNIBAL's rich polenta.
Rating:
Summary: Recipe for disaster
Review: Take the worst books of Anne Rice, Mary Higgins Clark, and Stephen King (that's a lot of books!). Toss them into a word processor and mix at high speed. When the consistency is farly pulpy, fold in Dante's Inferno, any available Florentine travelogue, and Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Blend for ten years. Serve chilled, in an expensive decanter. And now the remedy: Stephen Dobyns' "The Church of Dead Girls", Ian McEwan's "The Comfort of Strangers", Patrick McGrath's "Asylum", or Iris Johansen's "Long After Midnight. Mr.
Rating:
Summary: Big disappointment.
Review: I was terribly disappointed with this book. Was expecting SO much more - Silence of the Lambs was excellent! The story dragged, there was very little 'suspense'. The ending absolutely destroyed the whole 'Hannibal' reading experience. I probably will not purchase another book by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Best served with some fava beans.
Review: An excelllent book with the most in depth and accurate description of foreign surroundings that I have read in a long time.Dr Lecter has long been one of the most intriguing and menacing fictional characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading about.Much criticism has been levelled against the book and in my opinion it is totally unwarranted in that most people when reading have "The Silence of the Lambs" foremost in their minds and while there are similarities Harris in my opinion opts for a slightly different direction supplying us with two monsters who both play heavily in the occurences of the book instead of just the one.It was fascinating to see one of Lecters old victims attempt to rid the earth of the good doctor.Many have said that Lecter is humanised in this book which may,depending on your view of humanity,be true however Lecter performs acts of butchery in this book that would make you check under your bed at night regardless of how long its been since you done it last.In summary Lecter was nothing more that a spectator in the previous novels and as such little was know of his past or much else for that matter.The new book`s title says it all and thus a closer examination of Lecter was inevitable.I cannot understand how Harris can be criticised by some for his portrayal of lecter when in actual fact we learned so little about him until now.
Rating:
Summary: Great book - well worth the years I waited since Silence....
Review: I had been waiting for this book since the furor died down from Silence of The Lambs... and I was not disappointed. This novel was hard to put down, keeping me up late at night and causing me to sleep in a few days from reading so late. I won't give away any key portions, or spoil the ending; but some other reviewers here seem to feel that the ending was awful, or that things didn't turn out to their liking. Well, my thoughts are that the ending is awesome (if this ever hits the big screen, as with many scenes in the movie, I will bet they'll Disneyize it and sanitize it for the frail public). The book drips detail, as is Harris' style, but has a dark shadow cast over it for most of the story - almost like most of the story took place at night even if it didn't. This novel is not as stuff or pretentious as a Tom Clancy novel... prepare to get your hands dirty. Mr. Harris - you can rest now. This is the finest work of fiction I have read in the past several years. You should give workshops to many of your contemporaries and school them in the ways of the world.
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