Rating: 
Summary: This book sucks
Review: Where "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lambs" explored the psychology of the serial killer and provided thrilling plots to boot, "Hannibal" takes a different tack. It goes for the gross-out. Calling this a disappointment is an understatement. Believability doesn't even seem to have been a consideration here, and Harris betrays (or causes outright reversals) in the nature of characters he developed solidly in earlier books. I have to wonder what Harris was doing for eleven years. It certainly can't have been working on "Hannibal."
Rating: 
Summary: A fantastic work of art!
Review: Dr. Hannibal Lecter returns with a method behind his madness. In this book we find that as twisted as the good doctor may be there is always someone who can take it to another level. Harris has written a brilliant novel, which despite its gore and brutality allows you to see into the characters personalities. I tip my hat to Thomas Harris, it was worth the wait.
Rating: 
Summary: Depressingly boring, gruesome without substance. DON'T BUY!
Review: This follow up is without the riveting desciption of forensic science and investigation that drive the first two books. Unlike Red Dragon and Silence, Harris includes description after description of gruesome acts without any relevant context and these scenes lack a great deal of tension. The thin psychological forays into Lecter and Starling are without significant revelations and are fairly boring. Harris has obviously been paid well for this effort, but it feels like he wasn't engaged in even a remote way for the story development.My recomendation: Don't buy, don't read and don't bother. After spending the time reading this poorly written book, I felt like re-reading Silence of the Lambs to regain my appreciation of riveting writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Stephen King was right, very good
Review: Stephen King's review was right on the money. This is a fascinating story. It is condensed to some degree, and each character seems to have only one single moment in his or her life that defines his or her personality. Taking time to develop each character more completely would have made this a 1000 page tome. As it stands, a quick read with a good story.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthy successor to "Lambs" Bedevils Expectations
Review: From the gothic police procedural of "The Silence of the Lambs," Thomas Harris progresses to a haunted epicurianism in "Hannibal." The sequel affirms the not-quite-end of the story but suggests that its dual protagonists - the supreme fiend Hannibal Lector and his hunter-protege Clarice Starling - can achieve a very certain closure. Harris blends the formulaic pleasure of his genre -- Clarice has a creepy early meeting with a uniquely asylumned Lecteresque figure, Mason Verger, much as she first met with the bad Doctor in "Lambs" -- with a heightened pulp-lit flourish that evokes Anne Rice at the peak of her vampire chronicling. Indeed, the intervening years since Harris penned "Lambs" and savored its mega-success via wealthy pursuits have deepened his alter-egoing with Lecter. Much of this book digs luxuriantly in the Italian Baedeker, referencing Florentine and Tuscan church architecture, Dante, and going to impressive extremes of oenophilism and connoisseurship in depicting Lecter's superiority in all matters of the senses. That said, one can only wonder at the plot pivots, which go awfully heavy on Verger's swinish revenge obsession. Give Harris credit for researching the feeding habits of wild boar as intensely as he does the frescoes of Florence. And an oddly tender lesbian subplot seasons the stew. At the same time, there's stock villainy in FBI deputy director Paul Krendler, who undermines Starling so viciously that his commeuppance becomes a matter of high reader anticipation (you won't be dissappointment in that Grand Guignol payoff, either). But Lecter's humanization -- via the motivating memory of a beloved sister lost in the war -- takes him down a peg in the annals of ineffable evil, even as it adds depth of character. Ultimatly,"Hannibal" seems wilfully eccentric, and veers into authorial decadence in a way that "Lambs" avoided, tightly rooted as it was in nuts-and-bolts criminology and the power of hard work and brave hearts to battle the deepest darkness. And it is hard to imagine how Hollywood will handle all this -- not that it's too shocking for film, but that Tuscan languor,swine frenzy and an Anne Ricey ending may not play too well. Still, who can denigrate Harris' erudition, the strange inevitability of his denouement, the bouquet and broadening of his reference frames, and his obsessive determination to weave the most arcane details into a tapestry that has no real equal in modern fiction?
Rating:
Summary: This is the best book I have ever read
Review: Thomas Harris spent 10 years to write this book. When you read it you can tell all ten of those years went to good use. The book went so far into detail that instead of forming a picture in your mind it created a world. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is described with such brillance and elegance than any other charachter I have read in a book. The end was the best part of all. I recommend reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Does not even come close to Silence of The Lambs!!
Review: I found this book entertaining but a little hokey. Come on "killer pigs". Lets just say I was more than a little dissapointed by the ending of the book. What happened to our heroine? Silence of the Lambs was edge of your seat reading,this book just could not seem to pick up the same momentum.
Rating:
Summary: Indulgence in cuisine, art, Italian culture...nothing else.
Review: Where to begin? No focus, far too many characters, over-indulgent, dull. Save your money. Another modern-day vampire tale that has been told by lesser authors. Hooray. This is not a worthy follow-up to the two magnificent books that have preceded 'Hannibal' in this trilogy. This was, at best, a disappointment and is far outclassed by 'Silence' and 'Red Dragon'. The completely engrossing nature of those books were the forensics within the FBI, how a madman's psychosis and minutia of evidence was revealed and left him vulnerable to be tracked, and both offered a terrifying climax and conclusion. You will find none of that here. Two-thirds of 'Hannibal' are evidently Harris' travel journal where he reveals all the delicious foods, drink, and art he discovered during his time in Florence, as well as a new-found education on Dante' Inferno. Yes, we know Dr. Lecter is a man of high taste, but after many, many labored references we get the point. Mason Verger is a bore and his plan for Dr. Lecter's undoing is entirely ridiculous. And if Clarice truly is the essential good to Dr. Lecter's evil as was proposed throughout, it is absurd for Harris to have Clarice follow a drug-induced transition to Dr. Lecter's side. Even with a film like Demme's 'Silence' which was a worthy complement to the book, I somewhat regretted seeing it after the read because it compromised the awesome and horrifying visions Harris places in one's mind. With 'Hannibal' I have to hope for a film sequel if only to make some sense visually out of the complete mess that is 'Hannibal'.
Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: My excitement about the release of the sequel to Silence of the Lambs was only matched by my disappointment and amazement at how bad Hannibal (the book, not the character) is! The book's plot meanders all over the globe, characters (who we thought we knew) are inexplicably out-of-character, and the gore is profoundly boring. Don't waste your money on this mess!
Rating:
Summary: I blame South West Airlines
Review: I wanted to read the reviews before I read this book. I REALLY wanted to read the reviews. However, I had a 2 hour wait for my flight at an airport, and I succumbed to buying this book. I will spare you all my thoughts because all of the reviews listed say it all. But I do have to add this; my flight went well, but this book went down in flames.
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