Rating: 
Summary: Horror Story or Gourmet Magazine?
Review: I'm not a big fan of horror stories or movies, but with all the buzz about the movie, I decided to pick up this book. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The book gets close to being scary, but unfortunately it constantly retreats back into a laundry list of upscale clothing, art, food, literature and wine. Reading this book didn't make me scared, it just made me want to buy a new tailor made suit, visit an art museum and go out for a gourmet dinner (or better yet, prepare a gourmet dinner). The only real horror in this book was trying to guess what wine Hannibal would choose for his "gourmet" cannibal meals. Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs were scary, this is just commercial.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved the first two, do NOT read this book.
Review: I devoured both Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs in a matter of days, but after reading this novel, I wish I had just stopped there.This book....this book is not like its predecessors. It is a work that could have been something much more than what it was. Red Dragon and Silence were both very well done, intelligent thrillers with solid plots. Here....the story seemed disjointed. Mason's pursuit of Hannibal takes up the main focus of the plot, but that seems secondary to the subplot between Clarice and Hannibal, which seems secondary to the inner workings of Hannibal's mind....in the end, we're left with a mess that resembles more of a big budget action film (all bang, no bite) than a serious thriller. I would have liked to seen more development with Hannibal. It was fascinating to see inside of his mind, from his memory palace to his memories of his beloved sister Mischa, and I wish Harris had given us more of this, as I felt it helped the reader better understand just what kind of monster Lecter was and how he had become that way. The ending, however, horrified me, but not in the way it was meant to. I was simply incensed at what Harris did with Starling. She was such a strong, powerful character in Silence of the Lambs, and to see her be turned into nothing more than Lecter's puppet....it angered me, and cheapened the character. Unforgiveable, in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend this book to any potential Harris fans. Stick with Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs--they are brilliant works in the genre, and much more satisfying than this latest offering.
Rating:
Summary: Poor effort
Review: While I was reading this, I couldn't help but think that this book was hurried just to give the movie-going public a movie to see and the movie industry a box office winner. There were too many almost cheesy references to The Silence of the Lambs. Did nothing happen of any interest in the lives of the main characters in the seven years between Silence and Hannibal that the author could have described? Did the world forget about Hannibal Lecter in those seven years? Seems pretty hard to believe. The pigs were completely unnecessary to the story. The kidnappers, who were supposed to be the best in the world, were no better than the Three Stooges. It was also difficult to have any sympathy for many of the supporting characters given the fact they were, if not equally evil, then just plain bad people. I gave this book two stars because the book was a page turner. It just seemed as though the author was forced to produce. Unfortunately, he did only for the publishing and movie industry not for the reading public.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but too much
Review: "Too much" does not refer to the gore, as I expected that. What there was too much of was detail. This was basically a good book, and we find out much regarding Hannibal Lecter's origins, motives, and fascination for Clarice Starling. The part of the book in Italy is what drags at times. I think all of the story-lines belong there, but some just move too slowly. Mason, the new villain in this book, might be worse than Hannibal. Perhaps, it is the going back and forth between the Mason story-line and the Italian story-line that makes this book drag. I wonder if separating the two, into two completely different books, would have been a better idea. I won't give away the ending, for those of you who have not yet read (or seen) Hannibal, but it is horrifying (in a quiet way) but sadly inevitable, given how the book starts. Overall, I recommend Hannibal, but don't expect it to be Silence of the Lambs or Red Dragon. Good, but not great. I wish I had the option to give 3.5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: "...I'm giving serious consideration to eating your wife."
Review: Wow. I saw the movie and then read the book... Maybe I did them in the wrong order but hey, what can you do? The movie was great, and the book was 100 times better. What a twist ending! Read it, read it, don't put it down! Have the lambs stopped screaming?
Rating:
Summary: Review for Hannibal
Review: This was a really good book, I read it two or three times. I don't think that little kids should read this but it is a good book for the older people. It is very well written. The athor of Hannibal has a good taste in words, he has also has written many other good books so get out there and get a good taste of reading.
Rating:
Summary: Brain Damage
Review: *sigh* I've read Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, and this is by far the worse of the three. It reminds me of my experience with Micheal Chrichton. I'd read Congo, Sphere, The Andromeda Strain, and Jurrassic Park when I picked up a copy of The Lost World. Not only was the book contrived and poorly written, but Chrichton actually took the pains to contradict his last book (the vision of the T.Rex), causing it all to come across as fluff. Hannibal is in the same gutter: both this and The Lost World are hartily written, money-grubbing commercial sell outs, based upon the success of a film. I never did finish The Lost World. Hannibal I finished. I didn't realize as I was reading it how bad it exactly was. Only in retrospect . . . Hannibal's story is wasted: he simply tries to fit in so as not to be caught. Harris should have explored the possibilities, but he doesn't. The "Mind Palace" attempts to do this, but unltimately seemed silly and pointless. The great dialogue between Hannibal and Starling is gone, replaced with uninteresting characters (Verger and his sister) and manhunting. The man-eating pigs are out of place, meant to be menacing but nearly comical in their oddness. My reaction to the pigs and their trainers are similar to my reaction of the book as a whole: Why??
Rating: 
Summary: The best SILENCE OF THE LAMBS knockoff ever written
Review: How does one reinvent the wheel? How does one create, a la Praxiteles, a character as realistic and engaging as Hannibal without becoming a victim of the audience's expectations? Indeed, how much does the reading public own of a franchise and how much control does the author have a right to exert before betraying widely held expectations? These are questions that will no doubt be debated as long as stories are still published and HANNIBAL will often be brought up as both point and counterpoint during these arguments. In the case of HANNIBAL, the reading public is forced to make a choice: Would they prefer to let the chips fall where they may and be grateful for Thomas Harris's latest (and last, it appears) Lecter novel or do they legitimately have certain proprietary rights? Harris is a pragmatic enough individual, I would guess, to not give a damn what the readers think, as long as they continue buying his books. The story's been told and it is as good as cast in stone. If the reader rightfully expects that Harris's narrative gifts have not been atrophied in the ten-year hiatus since SILENCE, then they will not be disappointed. The Florentine historical asides are welcome and provide a tight elliptical sense of justice that befalls Pazzi. The pacing will not disappoint the reader, either, unless they're accustomed to 60,000 word Mac Bolan slam bang shoot-em-ups. Since Harris is such an immensely talented writer, even the straight action sequences (I'm thinking primarily of the Drumgo bust gone bad) are better written and structured than many written by those who specialize in it. It will also surprise the reader that they will find themselves rooting for the captive Lecter and hoping that Starling will rescue him from the pigs. This is largely because the true villain in HANNIBAL, Mason Verger, is a creation borne of true literary genius. This is a character, a pedophile, who reduces underprivileged children to tears with a few malicious comments then drinks their tears in a martini glass. Such iniquity we cannot picture Dr. Lecter indulging in. If one expects to find answers regarding Hannibal's provenence as a serial killer and cannibal, then, once again, this story will not disappoint. One finds themself completely absorbed in the flashback scenes in which Hannibal Lecter's sister is killed and cannibalized (backstory that's completely ignored in the movie, unfortunately). Far from robbing Lecter of his mystique, this serves to enrich his character. Not providing a logical psychological explanation for Lecter's unique protocol would appear to be a dodge. But if the reader expects that Lecter will continue killing as he did in the good old days, with Starling once again helplessly wondering to where he'd escaped, then the reader will run up against a wall. This is the bone of contention. The now-infamous dinner scene, portrayed with a fair amount of fidelity in the movie, gives us some elegant but cheap laughs and the weirdness only escalates in the closing chapter in Buenos Aires, when Agent Starling's subjugation is complete. One feels that Harris felt himself a victim of his own creations and sought to change them as radically as possible and thereby avoiding the onus of writing another Lecter novel. It was a tragic and anticlimactic end to one of the best female detectives in modern commercial fiction. No wonder Jodi Foster, on this basis alone, wanted nothing to do with the sequel. She, too, as with countless other readers, took a proprietary interest in Agent Starling. HANNIBAL ends with possibly the best closing line in this decade but it is not nearly enough to counter balance what could've been an even better book than SILENCE.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, to say the least.
Review: It's a tribute to Thomas Harris that even his flops are page turners. As far as trashy novels to read on the airplane go, HANNIBAL cuts the mustard and more. When you compare it to the stellar work under Harris' belt in the past, this book shows its threadbare seams. To give Harris the credit he deserves, his instincts for this novel were right. It did require a more artistic treatment than the prior two novels to keep its less terse (but still suspenseful) plot moving. However, Harris' "artistic touches" are almost invariably in badly handled second person, "You are here" type stuff that rings oddly and meshes poorly with the rest of the book. The always-iffy second-person prose is poor enough to mar the book's better features. Unfortunately, even those features aren't up to standard. Too many characters, moments, ideas in HANNIBAL seem unreal and contrived, an oddity from an author that has created terse and terrifying reality in the past. Perhaps the worst example of this misstep is the ill-contrived insight into Dr. Lecter's past. The sinister aura surrounding Dr. Lecter is marred when it becomes clear that he did not spring fully formed from his own head. The connections Harris draws for us are too obvious for Lecter, and slightly illogical as well. Why did this terrible experience encourage Lecter to re-enact it? And, if Harris has described the root cause of Lecter's actions, why does Lecter himself seem to ignore it and replace it with other motives entirely? Many other assertions seem equally hollow, many charcters contrived and flat. Pick up RED DRAGON. Pick up THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. It is then inevitable, I suppose, that you will pick up HANNIBAL. Just try not to hold it against Thomas Harris.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocrity abounds, despite a very valiant effort.
Review: What can I say? Once again, Harris provides us with a very thoughtful, psychological read. It stands up to its own merits, and yet at the same time, it pales in comparison to Harris's prior novels. The problem here is not that the story is not necessarily a "psychological" thriller; it's simply that its main draw, Hannibal Lecter, no longer possesses the air of superiority that he formerly carried. The mystery, the suspense, the sheer genius of Hannibal Lecter disintegrates halfway through the book. In its stead, we're presented with a caricature of Lecter's former self, who now has a purpose to his actions: a purpose which reminds us that despite how intelligent this man may be, he is no different from any of us. We find that this man is delusional, so to speak; "insane." And it feels as though everything that he was meant to be amounts to nothing. It carries rather well with one of the themes of the novel: regardless of who or what you are, you will always be found expendable in one way or another. As usual, it's a pleasure to read the meticulous descriptions of everything that transpires in the story, particularly the politics involved. All of the newly introduced characters are personalized in an excellent fashion, with numerous chapters deviating from the main story simply to add a little more depth and insight as to why these characters may act in a particular way towards Lecter or Starling. But the downside is that at the end of the book, you get the peculiar feeling that Harris spends more time on these people than the two main characters, opting to let the previous books do the characterization for him. It works, but it makes the story lose some of its edge; it also makes the new Lecter somewhat of a contradiction to the old one, though in the end, one could argue that it is either self-restraint or a process of change. As far as the ending is concerned: in a gesture of sheer mockery, Harris strikes us in the face with what I can assuredly describe as the most surreal, farfetched series of events in recent literary fiction. It left a bad taste in my mouth, although I do admit that the last set of paragraphs were done with quite a bit of class. In the end, my recommendation would be to take the novel at face value. Don't come into it with any expectations, and you won't be severely disappointed. Who knows what Harris was trying to do.
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