Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: With Harris's talent at description and pace, I was looking forward to this sequel. "Hannibal" starts out well, with Starling well rounded out and changed in the seven years that have passed. Somewhere around the middle, the plot starts to falter, and the characters begin to act as if they were in a cartoon rather than a novel. By the end, readers have landed squarely in the Land of the Prepostorous. I could almost sense Harris losing interest in his book as it continued, and the nice, neat ending tied up in a pink bow is almost insulting. It's a shame that two such interesting and stimulating characters as Starling and Lector have been reduced to intellectualized romantic trash novel characters.
Rating: 
Summary: A New American Masterpiece
Review: It's a new American masterpiece by America's greatest living writer. Enough said? We've waited a long time for this one, and "we" are not disappointed. Awesome.
Rating:
Summary: Wondrous story of a man of taste.
Review: Hannibal is splendidly written, absorbing, with scenes knowledgeably set in Florence and within the Beltway area (never to be confused with Florence), and Harris provides a human touch to Dr. Lecter's life. A must-read book, suspenseful and never gratuitous. Best, Justice is truly "served"! This is really not that violent a book; there are a few "public service" killings the reader will enjoy. Bravo, Thomas Harris!
Rating:
Summary: Good - but not as good as American Psycho
Review: Harris's novel is like Silence of the Lambs but worse ... he's guilty of committing the cardinal sin of repeating himself, and making the opportunity of writing a great sequel nothing more than a joke. It's like a movie sequel which has no chance of living up to the original. It doesn't engage with anything more than a post-modernist's masturbatory fixation upon violence without cause or reproach. American Psycho, in all its minimalist glory rips it to pieces (no pun intended). Shame really, once again the hype betrays the product. Mind you, the way things normally go .... the next novel should be infinitely better.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so much a novel, more a terrible mistake...
Review: Tired and obvious biblical allusions (such as references to the Gadarene Swine and of Satan's progress across the earth) follow a contrived and underdeveloped plot to a conclusion of monumentally stupid proportions. With characters thin as pages torn from a placing by the Gideons, Mr Harris attempts to weave some kind of allegory or parable, detailing the genuine horror of our world (and it's history) whilst raiding the coffins of far better writers to achieve his effect. The novel concerns itself with the sadistic machinations of Mason Verger, one of Lecter's horrifically mutilated victims. Verger is a wealthy paedophile who mixes children's tears with his drinks and would like nothing better than to feed Dr Lecter to some pigs (no, I'm not joking, he actually wants to do this). Verger orchestrates an elaborate scheme to recapture the doctor, using the FBI, crooked politicians and, yes, you guessed it, Clarice Starling herself (however unwittingly). This leads to several hundred pages of correctly spelled words, a few minor atrocities, absolutely no tension whatsoever and a dénouement that ranks amongst the most idiotic ever conceived by a writer of supposed merit. Along the way we are treated to a few minor characters from 'Silence of the Lambs' now occupying more substantial roles, while not (it seems) having undergone any form of substantial characterisation in the process. They play like puppets with no independence or purpose of their own, other than to provide Harris with convenient links for his plot. Underpinning the book are several noticeable themes, none of which, unfortunately, achieve more than the other shoddy components that go toward making it up. Here we find Harris bemoaning the superficial and unintelligent blandness of modern society (yawn), attacking the gutter press (yawn, yawn), shaking his fist at the corpse of God (somebody get me some coffee) and turning to the classics for aid and sustenance (help me, I think I've died...). It's all predictable and we've read it all before, most annoyingly in Harris' own books. He simply repeats himself and repeats himself, and it does provoke nausea. It also does nothing to aid the ridiculous and strained conclusion of the novel (no matter how clever Harris may believe himself to be, modelling it, as he does, on Beauty and the Beast as it might be retold by someone of Clive Barker's ilk). At best 'Hannibal' reads like a thinly fleshed-out screenplay, at worst like the notes and structure for a book yet to be written. This is what happens when research into the more obvious themes of Dante, basic FBI procedure and the colour of certain hospital walls attempts to pass itself off as 'depth'. Mr Harris should have stuck to what he knows best - churning out thrillers with modest literary pretensions. As it is he has tried to be far too clever and the results are a shambles, an embarrassment and a sad waste of everybody's time. Still, he got paid a lot for it, which says far more about society than his novel ever could. Avoid this book at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: Put a Quarter in the Juke and Boogy 'till You Puke
Review: I read the first section of "Hannibal." All I can say is, WOW! I came away envious of Harris' writing ability. . .It's not diminished one bit since "Silence." I saw the movie version of "Silence," then read the book. The book was better, which is saying a lot since the movie blew my mind. I hope Hopkins and Foster reunite to do this movie. Sir Anthony Hopkins has said that he's retiring from acting, though. We'll see.
Rating:
Summary: HANNIBAL will not disappoint!
Review: I've waited years for this sequel, and unlike many of our cultural events which get overhyped to the point of nausea(i.e Star Wars), Hannibal came out of nowhere...And it doesnt disappoint (i.e Star Wars). Harris proves again that he is arguably the greatest literary thriller writer of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: I really wanted to like this book in the worst way, but it just was not happening. All the realism that Silence had is thrown out the window in this one. Lecter has become almost like one of the bad guys from the Firday the 13th/Halloween movies. It would be easy to pick the book apart by going in depth about the story line, but don't want to spoil the book for anyone. Face it, no matter how many bad reviews are written, you will still want to read it. If this ever gets made into a movie, count on it being vastly different from the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but Spotty
Review: Like the title of my post implies. Hannibal Lecter is one of the most unforgettable fictional characters I have ever read. However, I found the pace sometimes rather leisurely (I felt like shouting "get on with it!" at several points). Also, I wonder if anyone really edited the book for the author. Sometimes, Harris makes a very confusing reference. I also have counted and counted in the scene at the beginning where a shootout takes place, and I only note four people being shot by a particular character and not five as it is later stated. The ending of the book is pleasingly surreal.
Rating:
Summary: Lecter Goes To Fantasy Land
Review: I fully expected to love this book. Last week, dusted off my copies of "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lamps", read them again - one day each. Watched the movies. Waited anxiously. Received my copy of "Hannibal" in the mail, read for six hours straight, and wished to god I could e-mail Thomas Harris and ask him why he had written this book. Or at least, why he had written it like this. "Hannibal" is to this series as "Star Trek V" is to it's own. Excrement. "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lambs" were novels made riviting by the simple notion of remaining true to life, through hours and hours of research. Reading the first two novels is like taking a course in criminal/behavioral psychology, forensics, and criminology all in one. I felt like I learned something, and was entertained immensely at the same time. The story of Starling, Lecter, and Crawford has moseyed off to another dimension. This book is not rooted in reality. Granted, Hannibal is an "unreal" character - never been one like him in reality. But he resided in the real world, and one could imagine him living, functioning, in our reality. Here...well, I don't want to ruin the plot for anyone willing to read it. I simply couldn't stand it.
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