Rating: 
Summary: What happened?
Review: I too waited years for this book, and found it to be a terrible let down. The vast majority of the book reads like a travel guide for Florence, and the Characters are very thinly painted. The terse prose of Red Dragon, is no where in sight, the more plot driven Silence of the Lambs style is also out the window, so we are left with a lurid and plodding trip round the world while Mason Verger, the new Villain, tries to out-Villain Lecter. The last 30 pages are some of the worst fiction I have read in a long time. It is just a BIG mess. Also is it only me,Did anyone else notice, but as someone who comes from Lithuania, I know the name "Mischa" (Lecter's sister in the book) is the diminutive form of Michael, NEVER a girl's name..That is "Mascha" a diminutive form of Maria...I laughed out loud...A small point, but tied into a another mess, his family was "noblity" and had an estate that was shelled in the war...Wait...Didn't anyone ever hear of Joe Stalin...The were NO estates and noble families left in the Prebaltik by the war as Stalin Purged them all in the late 1930's starting in 37'...(If they survived the Civil war in the 20's) If you want to go into detail about Florence, get it right about the Prebaltik as well... Don't bother...or just put the book down 30 pages before the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: I expected a great read after Silence of the Lambs but I didn't get it. It was as if another (bad) author ghost wrote this book. The ending of the book is totally implausable. What a disappointment!
Rating: 
Summary: I found it fascinating, curious, revolting...
Review: It is entertaining and original, Lector is fascinating and Starling is perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Hannibal doesn't come close to previous novels.
Review: Much will be made of the gory, sinister nature of Hannibal, the violence and the strange, disturbing ending. What concerns me the most is that in previous efforts Harris made the FBI seem as a capable law enforcement agency. In Hannibal the FBI doesn't appear at all. The agency knows Hannibal is back in the U.S. but little is written about attempts to capture him. Further, the manipulation by bureacrats to ruin Starling's career is hamhanded and ludicrous. In short, there are so many plot flaws and holes in this story that it is unenjoyable. One minor peeve: Harris or his editor should know how to spell sizable (no e) and buses as applies to the vehicles, not busses as a kiss. I waited six years for this book. I hope Mr. Harris will use the next six years to return to the good form demonstrated in Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon.
Rating: 
Summary: The weirdest book ever!!!
Review: This is not a bad thing though because it made the book unique. I can tell you right now if you are expecting a book similar to The Silence of the Lambs, you are in for a huge disappointment. If you are looking for an entertaining book though, you have come to the right place. Lots of people were mad at the ending of this book but I think that the ending made this book even better. Just because the ending was not what people wanted, it does not make it a bad ending. All of that aside, this is a great book that is severly underrated.
Rating:
Summary: Red Dragon To White Elephant-- Why Thomas?
Review: In my life, I have read so many books that another disappointment should not surprise me. Red Dragon/Silence inspired a feeling and fear that in the literary world I had at last found an author with an imagination unknown. I was wrong. Mr. Harris, what you have done! This is not the sequel the world deserved. The characters are either false, uninteresting, or totally alien to your writing. I can only conclude one of two things: either you did not conceive this book, or the Italian government has bought the rights to the screenplay. Still Your Defender
Tony Watterson
Rating:
Summary: ABSOULTE DRIVEL!! Should of waited for the paperback!
Review: What a mess. Read in one plane flight, and have never been more disapointed with a book!! I waited a long time, am a loyal reader.. and for what?? Don't humanize Lector.. he isn't one! Pure garbage.. give us Clarice's thoughts and motivations likes in Silence. She would never have been so naive as to not see what was happening to her career. The ending. Ridiculous. I am very sad that my poor eyes had to read this.
Rating:
Summary: Charming, Piggish, and Disquieting
Review: I did have problems with the ending. I never even had a clue. But now that I think about it, it actually works! As always, the detailed mind scenes made me shiver. Yes, I could see myself as Clarice wanting some more of those DELICIOUS brains!
Rating:
Summary: Romance? Terrifying? I think not.
Review: First, let's get this straight. HANNIBAL is NOT a romance. In a romance, you have a well-defined relationship between the man & woman; they usually have to face troubles in the middle of the story; and then, by the end, they overcome those difficulties and become a couple that will live on in the reality of fiction. But the main key is that you have TWO WILLING PARTNERS in this relationship. That just ain't so in HANNIBAL. So trust me, dear readers, this is NOT in any way, shape, or form a romance. Second, for those of you who stated in your reviews that this book will terrify you, keep you up at night, make sleep difficult, etc., etc.--you must have been reading a different HANNIBAL than I did. To be scared, you must truly care about the characters being terrorized. Who CARES what happened to Pazzi, Carlo, Mason, or Paul? Tearing them apart, torturing them, eating them--NONE of that is terrifying if you don't care about the characters and what happens to them. All Harris succeeded in making me do was cringe. That's it. I definitely won't be losing any sleep over this story. I most certainly won't have nightmares. Third, one other person who read this book told me that he cheated & read the ending w/about 100 pages left in the story. It made this person so MAD that he couldn't finish the story. I had to read HANNIBAL for myself to understand why he felt the way that he did. For those of you who loved those last 100 pages, I must go back to my original mantra--surely you must have read a different HANNIBAL than the one I did. The most ironic review among the readers here is the one who derisively said that Harris must have written this in 11 days (rather than years) and then couldn't figure out a way to *fix* his story, so he just gave it to the publishers earlier this year & demanded that NOT a word be touched/edited. (It shows) Honesty is the best policy; don't throw your money away on the hardback of HANNIBAL. If you feel compelled to read this story, get it from your library, go to a UBS, borrow it from an enemy (a *true* friend won't loan you this), buy it @ 50% off (thus, allowing you to face yourself in the mirror in the morning), or wait for it in paperback. For those of you who loved HANNIBAL and think it's the absolute greatest story, I have to wonder if you read the same HANNIBAL that I did.
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to put it down, but couldn't...
Review: The plot was absurd, the characters (mostly) loathsome, the ending defied logic. And yet... I haven't been as engrossed by a work of fiction since "The Stand" (interesting that King raved about 'Hannibal' in the NY Times). The book moves speedily and twists its way from scene to scene, outrageous and over-the-top. Man-eating pigs and eels? A table-side lobotomy that provides sweetbreads for popular literature's oddest-ever dinner party? A one-eyed paralyzed madman friend of Idi Amin who directs much of what happens? The book is bizarre in the extreme, yet Harris pulls it off, more or less. He writes with elegance and a cool detachment that makes the horror that unfolds all the more visceral, and somewhat more plausible. He's a master of the "telling detail" and sets a scene with descriptive power that rivals that of PD James. Light is shed on the source of Lecter's lunacy, yet it does not diminish his darkly fiendish power. And the extended passage in Florence makes for suspenseful reading, indeed. Still, Newsweek reports that Harris won't let his editor touch a word. Too bad. Reading this almost-magnificent mess convinced me the author needed a disciplined hand to better justify the denouement, and excise the silliness that keeps this good read from being a great book.
| 
