Rating: 
Summary: review reconsidered
Review: I read the book again and read the reader reviews, and there seems to be great controversy about Clarisse's character. The ending is still disturbing and hard to take, but readers who think Clarisse is a cardboard cutout at the end should reread those chapters again. It throws Lecter's villainy into higher relief, shows Clarisse can still match wits with Lecter, and sets up some very interesting possiblities for a sequel, if there is one. I agree, though, that it will be tough to bring this to the screen.
Rating: 
Summary: A huge disappointment. Harris abandons his characters!
Review: What starts out as a hauntingly eerie flashback to the personal drama of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, ends with the biggest disappointment in literary history. Most of us who came to the wonderfully drawn characters of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter as a result of Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, were expecting more of the psychological thriller from the original story. Instead, Clarice is left out in the cold (for a good 300 pages) while Lecter meanders through a silly, violent scheme by a former patient to capture and slaughter him as an act of revenge. What should have concluded with more of Lecter's attempts to draw Clarice out of her self-imposed nightmares, ends with a silly, drug-induced romance. This book is a nightmare for those of us who expected a psychological thriller in which Clarice Starling, through Hannibal Lecter's continued torments, became the strong heroine she was destined to become in full maturity. Thomas Harris has wasted ten years of his life for this hopeless drivel?
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely suspensful, graphic and disturbing, weak ending.
Review: The book starts off strong and stays suspensful all the way through. There are some graphically disturbing scenes scattered throughout the book, seemingly more vivid than his previous books. The ending seemed not believable and somewhat contrived.
Rating: 
Summary: Madness!
Review: What happend? Good God, I've been waiting in eager anticipation for this book ever since finishing Silence ( which I believed to be better than Red Dragon, although many disagree with me). The book was simply ludicrous. The stuff with the killer wild boars was laughable...as was Lector unscrewing a skull and eating from it. His relationship with Starling didn't feel right either. The set-up in Europe was nice though.
Rating: 
Summary: Harris creates something completely different.
Review: When I bought Hannibal I knew what I was expecting. I knew what I thought I could reasonably expect given the genre and dictates of story. This would be the third part of the Silence of the Lambs/Red Dragon saga. It would be well written and a part of the same tradition. I had always been impressed by Mr. Harris's brilliance but I was not expecting something completely original. What happens in this book with these characters is something I never expected to see in commercial fiction. So I'm at a strange loss-- Did I like the book? Yes. Was it a good book artistically? Yes. Do I recommend the book? Yes-with caution. This is not comfortable fiction of any genre. It's not pushing the edge of the envelope it is outside it. Not for the faint of heart, mind or stomach. It is nothing like you have ever read before and if you are starved as I am for something new and different Hannibal is a welcome treat.
Rating:
Summary: Delicious
Review: Do not let the naysayers put you off this book. This is one to read for yourself. Harris is a wonderful writer, and Lecter has to be one of the finest characters of modern fiction. Given all this richness, its beyond me how people can dismiss the book because the ending does not fit their prejudices.
Rating:
Summary: Huge dissappointment
Review: I remember New Yorkers rushing out to bookstores the week Silence was released. Harris with Red Dragon had completely set the standard for this genre, and we weren't let down. Hannibal reads like it was written in the last few months, and Harris has obviously lost it. Bad storytelling and ludicrous ending, such a letdown.
Rating:
Summary: "Give in to the Dark Side of the Force"
Review: My wife and I pre-ordered HANNIBAL from Amazon in hardcover, something we almost never do. That's how much we wanted to read this. Well, we've read it and we're in agreement--Thomas Harris blew his readership a HUGE raspberry. Short of posting a major spoiler I can't go into detail, but the ending totally contradicts everything we know about Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter. Harris has ruined one of the most perversely fascinating student/mentor relationships in literature--and it's clear that this was a deliberate choice on his part. Clarice Starling's once-promising FBI career has, in the intervening years, gone down the "Mulder track". At the mercy of all-male superiors who despise her for being (a) female, (b) too willing to speak her mind, (c) unwilling to sleep her way to the top, and (d) female, she's reduced to "loan-outs" to BATF and other scut jobs. The portrayal of constant on-the-job sexual harassment is so heavy-handed that it could have been written by Katherine McKinnon & Andrea Dworkin, and Clarice's inability use solving the Buffalo Bill case to secure herself a spot in Behavior Science strains credulity. When Lecter, after a silence of seven years, writes her following a botched BATF-FBI raid, her former mentor Jack Crawford is able to wrangle her a spot on the Behavioral Science team at last. But it turns out that a former Lecter victim with wealth and influence, Mason Verger, is also interested in capturing the doctor--so he can feed him to his specially-bred man-eating hogs(!). Most of the reviews have pointed out that the middle of the book is its best part, and I'd have to concur. Seeing Lecter going about his (legitmate and otherwise) business in Florence and later the U.S. is undeniably fascinating. So is the two-pronged hunt, as Lecter proves an elusive and resourceful adversary. But any goodwill the midsection generates is completely blown by the outrageous ending. For the record, the book's as well-written as any of Harris's previous novels, though more episodic. But ultimately, this is a sour end-of-the-millenium work, and a profound disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Can't put "Hannibal" down! Great anticipated read!
Review: I did not expect what I received! Hannibal is pure entertainment and a "can't put it down book"! Thomas Harris is amazing with his characters and their development! Mason Veger "almost" gave me nightmares! Clarice Starling continues to evolve her humanity - what strength and insight! I can not wait for this to be a movie, and only pray that they keep "to the book"! Plus bring back the "orginal cast"! Mr. Harris may take years to write a book, but I just hope that this senior citizen is alive to enjoy the next one as much as Hannibal! Good work! I would recommend this to anyone who want to sit, have a great adventure, and often shake their head in amazement, with occasional little shudders!
Rating:
Summary: I expected a novel, not the second coming of Jesus--
Review: --and maybe that's why I don't feel at all disappointed by Thomas Harris' long-awaited latest. I found it immensely satisfying-- good, creepy, highly literate fun. Unlike most of my fellow readers here, I thought the ending was perfectly in keeping with what we know about the characters and their relationship. After an 11-year lapse, it's easy for fans to get way too emotionally invested in a sequel. I think that that's what's happened with the reactions to this book, but I don't share that attitude at all. Harris made some fascinating choices here, supplied some grotesque moments on the far edge of believability, and did it all with wonderful, evocative prose (notice the creepy effect he gets by mixing a sudden first-person-plural voice into the normal third-person narration? It's like suddenly finding the narrator standing there behind you). No, I think that this book is an absolute artistic success, and, in response to one reader in particular, eminently filmable.
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